Aftermarket upfit - page 36

The Porsche 912 was the original ’affordable Porsche’, - where customers essentially got a 911 with the economical engine from the Porsche 356 SC. It was one of the first models to open the door to Porsche ownership to a wider range of customers. The 912 quickly garnered a cult following within the Porsche community, proving that you do not need crazy power to have a fun driving experience. Now a restomod firm from Budapest, Hungary KAMManufaktur is reintroducing the 912l in a modern avatar and calling it the 912c, where the ’c’ stands for carbon fiber, a go-to material of choice for shedding weight while not compromising rigidity and this one has a lot, as you’re about to find out.

The Speedster is one of the purest forms of the 911 and the nameplate actually dates back to the early ‘50s when Porsche sold the likes of the 550 and 356 Speedsters. While the Speedster body style is all about open-top motoring, it does have a few stand-out elements that set it apart from Cabriolets and Targa models. The Speedster is known for its stripped-down design and lightweight body, often featuring a smaller windshield, no rear seats, a distinctive double-hump on the rear deck lid, and a tonneau cover instead of a full roof.

For many, the 997-generation 911 is the last old-school Porsche. Essentially, an evolution of the controversial 996, the 997 (eventually) fixed all of the 996’s problems while exploiting the chassis to its full potential. It is the 997 generation that spawned some of the most iconic Porsche 911 variants. While the example featured here is one of the more mainstream versions of the rear-engine sports car, it has been tastefully modified. Now I know that adding forced induction to a naturally aspirated Carrera is not that uncommon, and many owners are opting for it, especially with tuners like RUF offering specially developed kits that enhance performance.

Only one car can give you the feel of a Porsche 911 and that’s a 911. Altering any aspect of this iconic sports car can dramatically change the driving experience, but that hasn’t stopped people from taking out the boxer engine and replacing it with something that at first glance, doesn’t belong there. The rear-engine Porsche sports car is considered one of the most refined and usable high-performance cars, that you can daily-drive. At least, in most of its iterations. Despite much praise, however, the 911 is not a perfect car, and certain generations are known to suffer from a few major issues.

Many consider the Porsche 911 to be the ultimate sports car, fit for daily use. While this may be a bit of a stretch when talking about the track-focused GT3 RS, the rear-engine sports car generally remains an aspirational model. In fact, despite the 991 being the first 911 to feature electric steering instead of a hydraulic unit (a feature many purists despise), it is still considered the last truly compact 911. For this reason, those who have driven a 992 GT3 RS after the previous iteration go back to the older model. One person, however, has done something that no one has ever done. Instead of buying a 991 GT3 RS, a guy over in England, decided to build one himself. Normally, Tesla-swapping a 991 GT3 RS would send purists into a spiraling rage, but there is a good reason why this particular car has received the electric powertrain. What you’re looking at here is actually a replica of a 991 GT3 RS, but more surprising is what the car started out as.

I’m a fan of the Type 997, and outside of the current 992, it remains one of the best generations of the Porsche 911. Where the tech-laden 992 is ridiculously fast and a bit too clinical, the 997 hits the sweet spot between modern and analog. The 997, in general, is widely regarded by Porsche people as a comeback, as it fixed several drawbacks like poor reliability and a better interior of the infamous fried-egg 996.

People just love doing stuff on the Porsche 911 platform. It seems every day, a new, reimagined version of the rear-engine sports car pops up, and nine times out of 10, they’re mostly good. The 911 lineup is the most versatile of any sports car ever produced, and there is a variant for every need. With the platform being as versatile as it is, you would think Porsche themselves would be giving you the craziest iterations of the 911, but no. Another neat example of a heavily modified 911 comes from a California-based Russel Built Fabrication. The company started out in the 2000s, by maintaining movie prop cars, but eventually evolved into a fully-fledged custom shop. Russel Built Fab’s latest and most ambitious project is the Porsche 911 Baja, which takes an already-capable platform and gives it the ability to jump over sand dunes at seriously impressive speeds. While this is not the company’s first off-road 911 build, it is, by far, the most extreme that I have ever seen. Here’s what makes it tick.

TECHART is one of those tuning houses that have cemented a reputation for high-quality performance parts. Since 1987, the company has done wonders for mostly (but not only) Porsche sports cars. Eventually, TECHART expanded its work to models like the Cayenne and Panamera, but what the outfit does with the 911 is something else. Back in 2021, the German tuner introduced the GT Street R - a 992 Turbo S with more power and crazy aero. At the same time, TECHART introduced Flyweight - its new performance brand for personalization. Think Porshe’s Sonderwunsch, but from TECHART.

When it comes to reimagining and modifying Porsche cars, there is no shortage of great names that specialize in the art of making the German company’s performance models even more capable than they already are. Such treatment is not limited only to the Porsche 911 and 718 models though. The German company, Friedrich Performance Manufaktur (FPM) offers performance-enhancing treatment for all Porsche models, and one of its latest kits is dedicated to making the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT faster than the latest, most powerful 911 we have. Of course, the 992.2 update is about to bring even more radical variants of the iconic, rear-engine sports car, but the Friedrich Performance package for the Cayenne GT gives it a 36-percent bump in power with a bit of extra torque. As you may expect, the numbers are impressive, but even more surprising is how little it takes to unleash that extra power from the Porsche SUV.

If you’ve ever wondered how a classic car would fare around one of the most iconic racetracks in the world, driving instructor and local Nürburgring dweller/ YouTuber, Misha Charoudin gave us an answer, through a video he shot in what started life as a 1972 Porsche 911 T/S. There is no shortage of reimagined, restored, or resto-modded classic Porsches these days, but this one seems to be ticking all the right boxes. You wouldn’t be able to tell at first glance, but the car has been tastefully done up. I suppose that’s the proper way to know if a car has been modified properly when it looks bone stock. Under the hood lies the most pleasant of surprises, thanks to which the classic 911 now packs substantially more power. The engine is also much larger than the original 2.3-liter Carrera S mill. In a way, this is the Porsche 911 equivalent of a muscle car, and this particular example started life as a race car, according to the owner.

Porsche has a long history of rallying, and its lineage includes models like the iconic Porsche 953 – the original 911 Dakar. For the 992 generation, the German automaker decided to have another crack at the 911 Dakar formula. The rally-inspired 992 was produced in just 2,500 examples, and they are all sold out. That said, these 992 Dakar models started popping up on the auction sites for more than twice the original, $222,000 asking price. Most examples seen on classic.com cost north of $350k. But thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives to the Porsche 911 Dakar. It seems every other day we are getting an off-road version of the Porsche 911 from some company. Let’s suppose you are looking for something more affordable or closer to the original, 953 Dakar. In that case, there are a few companies out there, making fully-functional Porsche 911s that can easily tackle rough terrain while still being refined enough for daily use.

For many, the Porsche 911 is the ultimate sports car. Refined and versatile enough (in most of its variants) to be used on a daily basis, but also quick enough to put most exotic cars to shame. Every generation of the 911 gets its fair share of special editions. For the 992 generation, Porsche decided to bring back the Dakar monicker, originally used on the 1984 Porsche 953. That said, with only 2,500 examples of the modern-day Porsche 911 Dakar made, only the quickest and most resourceful of Porsche enthusiasts would have had the chance to get behind the wheel of the special 911 off-roader.