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adriansmithcarslove · 6 years

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Four Reimagined Takes on the Porsche 911 at Pebble Beach

We get it. The shape of the 911 is an icon on par with that of the Coke bottle and Betty Boop. But really? Is there no end to the amount people are prepared to pay to really make one of these shapes their own? There are over a million potential used factory 911s to choose from, and yet the choosy 911 fetishist is presented a choice of myriad manufacturers and tuners prepared to refresh, restomod, or utterly reimagine a 911. Now the factory is even getting in on the action. Here are four options we spotted during Monterey Car Week, plus something different for the 1-percenter who wants Porsche mechanicals without the classic shape.

Mild: Gunther Werks 400R—$525,000 (+donor 993-series 911)

Gunther Werks unveiled its prototype at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering, in 2017, and this year the display included a recently completed car built for a European customer, alongside a complete body shell in naked high-gloss carbon fiber. Gunther receives and disassembles the donor 911—Carrera 2 coupes only, please, no C4s, Turbos, cabrios, or targas. The unibody structure and engine block are retained, but most other functional parts are sold off. Gunther devised a new suspension that “squares” the front and rear track widths and employs three-way adjustable coil-over shocks with separate reservoirs. The new control arms are highly adjustable, as well. The custom bodywork is designed to envelop the wider (295 front/335 rear) rolling stock. The 3.6-liter block gets a 4.0-liter crank from a water-cooled engine, plus new pistons, cylinders, heads, cams, etc. The finished piece revs to 8,000 rpm and produces a relatively tame 420 hp and 330 lb-ft. Compression is 11:1, and the induction and injection systems are custom, controlled by a MoTeC engine-control unit. Gearbox ratios are all custom tailored to the new engine, and a single-mass clutch and a strengthened limited-slip differential are included in the deal. The interior is trimmed in carbon fiber galore (looking as if it employs a carbon monocoque, which it doesn’t), with custom Gunther Werks-produced seats, dash, etc. Gunther Werks promises to build just 25 of these remastered 993s, each in a different color. This one is Chelsea Gray (as indicated on the sill plate).

Wild: Singer DLS—$1,800,000 (+donor 964-series 911)

All of Singer’s 964-era cars are ostensibly bespoke one-offs. For this one, the client requested the ultimate in a lightweight, highly dynamic car, thus launching the Dynamics and Lightweighting Study (DLS). The project involved collaboration with the race-car builders at Williams Advanced Engineering, who helped build what Singer is touting as “the world’s most advanced air-cooled Porsche 911 engine.” Other technical partners like Bosch helped bring other cutting-edge technologies like modern stability control offering driver-selectable levels of assistance. Singer, Williams, and Bosch collaborated closely to ensure that all sensors and required communications networks were integrated into the vehicle from the get-go. The 4.0-liter four-cam 24-valve engine produces 500 hp at 9,000 rpm. The six-speed transaxle is completely bespoke and helps move the engine forward in the car for better weight distribution. On the lightweighting front, the entire body is carbon fiber, and though it looks 964-ish, the entire surface has reportedly been tweaked to optimize for aerodynamics. Curb weight is said to be just over 2,200 pounds. Singer promises to make no more than 75 custom 911s, of which this one marks round about 60. So hurry up and commission your dream 911 soon if you want Singer to do it.

Just Right: Ruf CTR—$750,000

Ruf Automobile GmBH of Pfaffenhausen, Germany, has been tuning, revising, and reimagining Porsches since 1939. One of the most iconic models it produced as a vehicle manufacturer was the CTR (Group C, Turbo Ruf) of 1987, best known as Yellowbird. Last year in Geneva it unveiled an homage CTR, in yellow, that rides on a completely custom aluminum race-bred space-frame chassis and carbon-fiber tub suspended by control arms with pushrod-actuated coil-over shock units at all four corners. The wheelbase is 2.8 inches longer than the original Yellowbird’s. Power comes from a Ruf-designed and -built dry-sump water-cooled 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine inspired by the one in the original Yellowbird. The new engine produces 700 hp and 649 lb-ft. With a curb weight of less than 2,800 pounds, that’s said to be sufficient to hit 60 mph in less than 3.5 seconds on the way to a 223-mph top speed. Ruf plans to build just 30 examples of this 30th-anniversary tribute car, not including the prototype Geneva car. Since Geneva, this prototype has shed its mostly black interior with yellow plaid seat inserts for a much more vibrant yellow leather design that somehow seems much more “California.”

The Factory Spoiler: Project Gold—(Up for auction on Sept 27)

Perhaps not to be outdone by everybody remastering old 911s, Porsche Classic has undertaken a 1.5-year project to reimagine the 993-generation Porsche Turbo as a way of celebrating the brand’s upcoming anniversary—70 years of Porsche sports cars. An original 993 body shell was completely stripped and treated to a full factory repaint, including all rust-prevention steps, in Golden Yellow Metallic, from the 2018 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series. The interior is finished in black with Golden Yellow details. Power comes from a brand-new 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine developing 450 hp, giving it authentic 993-generation Turbo S performance. To get your hands on this one-off factory special (which cannot be licensed for road use, by the way), you’ll have to bid for it in an auction of 70 special Porsches that will be conducted by RM Sotheby’s at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta on October 27, 2018. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Ferry Porsche Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to education, social issues, and youth development established earlier this year to mark the “70 years of Porsche sports cars” celebrations.

The Ruf Non-11: W Motors Fenyr SuperSport—$1,600,000

If you’re among the many who view all 911s and the various offerings that ape the classic 911 look as a bit too “common” (more than 1 million served!), you can hide your Porsche-esque underpinnings beneath completely unique supercar bodywork featuring rear-hinged suicide doors. W Motors hails from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and has been in business since 2012. Its latest creation is this Fenyr SuperSport, with an exotic interior and exterior underpinned by a 100-percent Ruf chassis and powertrain. The chassis is similar to that of the abovementioned CTR, but the powertrain is a mid-rear-mounted Ruf-developed 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six tuned to produce 800 hp and 722 lb-ft. That prodigious twist gets routed through a Ruf-Porsche-spec seven-speed twin-clutch PDK transaxle, and is said to enable a 0–60 blast of 2.8 seconds and a 245-mph top speed. Ruf delivers the rolling chassis to a facility in Milan where the bodywork is installed and trimmed. Surely it’s easier to talk yourself into an unknown Middle Eastern car brand knowing that a well-established German brand has handled all the mechanical bits, right?

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jonathanbelloblog · 6 years

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First Drive: Gunther Werks 400R

Nostalgia is one hell of a drug, a slippery sentiment that can coax mortgage-sized sums of cash into otherwise obsolete sports cars, transforming them into novel combinations of old-school architecture and new-world engineering.

The latest in a relatively recent string of high-dollar Porsche 911 conversions comes from a seemingly unlikely source: Vorsteiner, a Southern California firm known for trick aftermarket carbon-fiber body panels and wheels.

Breaking bread with Vorsteiner founder Peter Nam at a small cafe near the foot of Angeles Crest Highway introduces me to one of the most extreme strains of driving enthusiast on the planet. One key point of reference: Nam’s opinions on the time BMW lost the plot. “I was a BMW M-car freak,” he says, “but I fell out of love when the E92 [M3] came around because it became a cruiser, not a motorsports [based] car. It became too accessible to a broad group of people.” We feel your pain, Peter.

Front track lends the 400R a meatier stance than the 993’s narrow-nosed platform.

That type of thinking led Nam to create Gunther Werks, whose mission is to build analog, driver-focused sports cars that are no less earnestly executed than something that springs from the minds of Porsche’s monomaniacal mad scientists in Zuffenhausen. Nam’s first creation, the 400R, tips a hat to Porsche’s GT3 RS limited edition motorsports-inspired 911s. Porsche’s first factory GT3 RS model was a Europe-only 996-based variant introduced in 2003. The sub-3,000-pound vehicle claimed radically reworked handling capabilities and race-spec hardware—most crucially, repositioned front suspension uprights that enabled improved suspension geometry.

The Gunther Werks 400R takes that approach to the mat by starting with an air-cooled 993 donor car (in the case of our test subject, a base 1995 911 Carrera), stripping it down to the bare chassis, and altering its fundamental architecture in order to create something significantly lighter, more powerful, and with better handling. The front suspension mounts are repositioned outward, creating a perfectly square, 63-inch front and rear track. The square setup is the golden mean of chassis geometry, shared by everything from Porsche’s Carrera GT and 918 Spyder to Ferrari’s LaFerrari. Gunther Werks installs custom-built KW Clubsport coil-overs, along with solid bushings, revised drop links, and 993 Cup anti-roll bars by Eibach. Chassis and suspension engineer Cary Eisenlohr says the shock and anti-roll-bar tuning was the least labor-intensive part of the process; once the geometry was revised, most of the work focused on perfecting the balance between grip and road feel, which involved fine-tuning the roll center and managing bump steer.

Keen eyes will spot a 964-era steering wheel and a 993 RS-sourced shifter covered in Alcantara.

The process of modifying the donor car includes the luxury of starting from scratch, which means addenda such as sunroofs (which came on all U.S.-bound 993 Carreras) can be deleted, saving weight (45 pounds in the case of the sunroof). A 3-D-printed aluminum headlamp housing offers a distinctive look and is shielded by a layer of glass baked by a veteran concept car builder; although they’re thoroughly bespoke, the units retain their original bucket mounts so they can be removed and serviced at Porsche dealerships. The same clay modeler responsible for a certain German supercar of the early 2000s shaped the revised nose, while a modeler with experience at Audi and Aston Martin formed the fenders. The rear spoiler shares its distinctive profile with that of the 997.2 GT3 RS and uses three intakes to create a ram air effect.

The chassis is rose-jointed, seam-welded, and media-blasted before getting draped in a pre-preg carbon-fiber skin, which is aerodynamically shaped using computational flow dynamics. The only remaining original body panels are the steel doors (retained for crash protection), the door handles, and the mirrors. The extreme makeover results in a lower, wider, and considerably more purposeful package that weighs in at a mere 2,670 pounds—quite a slim down from the stock car, which tips the scales at slightly less than 3,200 pounds. The 400R’s curb weight is capable of dipping below 2,600 pounds by replacing the heavy undercoating with a special primer and paint, and by incorporating optional lighter seats, carbon-fiber doors, and carbon-fiber dash panels.

Gunther Werks ships the 993’s 3.6-liter flat-six engine to Rothsport Racing for a similarly comprehensive reworking, during which it grows in displacement to 4.0 liters. Everything from con rods and pistons to valvetrain and exhaust are altered, even down to minutiae such as enlarged fan blades, which are curved for a slightly more mechanical sound. Temperature management is also aided by adding a second oil cooler and positioning both to better capitalize on airflow. The car receives a MoTeC engine management system and a carbon-fiber plenum from U.K.-based Eventuri, whose geometry is designed to create a venturi effect producing a 6-horsepower gain.

Incremental additional power gains are also realized from the introduction of an electric steering pump and HVAC unit, which no longer sap energy from the engine. The A/C hardware is relocated to the front of the car, enabling shorter plumbing and better weight distribution. By the time the Oregon-based firm is done with the engine, only the 993’s notoriously stout block remains, which allows the owner to retain the powerplant’s original serial number. The reworked mill produces 419 horsepower and 315 lb-ft of torque, working with a rebuilt six-speed manual gearbox with shortened first through fifth gears; sixth remains an overdrive gear. Another staggering point of reference: With 313.9 horsepower per ton, the 400R is, pound for pound, mightier than a 959 (253.7 hp/ton).

The 400R’s cabin is a sparse and stripped-down yet finely finished space that trades the 993’s factory-installed plastic and vinyl bits for top-stitched Alcantara. The deleted rear seats are also replaced with matte-finished sheets of the lightweight stuff, as is the front trunk area. Sidle into the fixed Cobra carbon-fiber bucket driver’s seat, and dead ahead is the familiar, centrally positioned Porsche tachometer (though this VDO gauge is finished in red and indicates a 7,800-rpm redline). The 4.0-liter powerplant fires up with the same Le Mans-inspired left-hand key ritual, though the center console houses a red button that can open an exhaust valve for a throatier sound and switches the MoTeC engine management system to extract 30 more horsepower.

Any 911 owner will find a spatial and ergonomic familiarity behind the wheel of the 400R; everything is in its right place. Once in motion, though, the heightened level of performance dynamics belies the simplicity of the original car’s ’90s-era platform. Acceleration is eye-opening: Release the clutch, and the 4.0-liter pulls reasonably strongly at low rpm, climbing with a newfound vigor from 4,000 rpm onward that crescendos with a rousing, screaming 7,800-rpm finish. Those mid- to upper ranges are the engine’s sweet spot, where it unfurls a flow of horsepower and tractor-beams the car forward. Down low, it will happily burble along at a couple thousand revolutions, pulling strongly enough to escalate your speed without being startling or abrupt. But drop a gear or two into the 4,000-plus-rpm range, and the engine rouses with a more urgent punch, delivering an addictive blast of acceleration that squeezes you into your seat and assaults the cabin with intake and exhaust howl.

On a personal note, I upgraded the wheels, tires, shocks, control arms, and drop links of my ’97 993 in search of a more rear-biased feel, but I found that the staggered front/rear track width still exhibits a natural tendency toward understeer. When I take my first corner in the 400R, the response is almost unrecognizable: The front end carves and turns like no mildly modified 993 could. Riding on 245 front and 315 rear Michelin Sport Cup rubber wrapped around 18-inch wheels, the 400R delivers tremendous lateral grip but also responds to steering input with fluid turn-in, offering excellent feedback through its thick, leather-wrapped steering wheel. Some understeer becomes apparent during higher-speed, on-throttle corner entries, which Eisenlohr says was a choice to help keep drivers from encountering a snap oversteer situation. As a safety mechanism, it provides a progressive indication of where the rear tires are starting to slip in tiny increments, reassuring feedback on Angeles Crest Highway, as most of its 66 miles includes steep cliffside drops. Six-piston front and four-piston rear Brembo brakes with ABS offer outstanding stopping power that’s easy to modulate.

Starting at $525,000 (not including the donor car) with only 25 examples available, the 400R begs the inevitable comparison to Singer Vehicle Design’s similarly priced long-nose creations. Although the two boutiques focus on different eras of air-cooled 911s, they also do so with varying levels of fidelity to the original design. Both offer heightened performance, though Gunther Werks departs from the orthodox canon of Porsche styling with its more overt swollen-fendered twist. With the 400R’s order book nearly full, Nam says he is already working on another series that will be “taken to a completely different level.” The tease is enough to spawn wild thoughts among Porschephiles. Nostalgia, it seems, never sleeps.

Gunther Werks 400R Specifications

ON SALE Available by special order PRICE $525,000 + donor 993 ENGINE 4.0L DOHC 24-valve flat-6/419 hp @ 7,800 rpm, 315 lb-ft @ 6,500 rpm TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual LAYOUT 2-door, 2-passenger, rear-engine, RWD coupe EPA MILEAGE N/A L x W x H 167.7 x 75.25 x 48.25 in WHEELBASE 89.45 in WEIGHT 2,670 lb 0-60 MPH 3.6 sec (est) TOP SPEED N/A

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jesusvasser · 6 years

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First Drive: Gunther Werks 400R

Front track lends the 400R a meatier stance than the 993’s narrow-nosed platform.

Keen eyes will spot a 964-era steering wheel and a 993 RS-sourced shifter covered in Alcantara.

Gunther Werks 400R Specifications

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eddiejpoplar · 6 years

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First Drive: Gunther Werks 400R

Front track lends the 400R a meatier stance than the 993’s narrow-nosed platform.

Keen eyes will spot a 964-era steering wheel and a 993 RS-sourced shifter covered in Alcantara.

Gunther Werks 400R Specifications

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robertvasquez763 · 7 years

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Gunther Werks 400R Answers the Question: What If Porsche Built a 993 GT3 RS?

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Porsche first offered the 911 in hard-core GT3 RS guise in the first-generation water-cooled model, designated 996. Gunther Werks apparently wondered what a GT3 RS built off the 911 generation immediately before the 996—you know, the 993, the last air-cooled 911—would be like. After seeing their answer, the 400R, we’re thinking there really should have been a 993 GT3 RS.

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Gunther Werks had 400R serial number 00 on display at the 2017 SEMA show, noting that it plans to build another 25 for customers. Here’s what those lucky few will get, after either providing a 993 Carrera 2 of their own or paying GW to find one to start with (and paying at least $525,000 for the finished product):

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The car is stripped down to its steel body shell and its engine removed. Gunther Werks then squares up the track width front and rear to mitigate what it describes as the 993’s signature understeer, using stock front-suspension mounting locations 1.2 inches outboard of the factory setting used by Porsche race teams. It then crafts new carbon-fiber fenders, primary bodywork, bumpers, hood, rear decklid and spoiler, and roof panel around the wider platform. The doors remain steel, as they incorporate the stock side-impact beams.

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Beyond the lightweight bodywork, Gunther Works goes to town on the 911’s air-cooled flat-six and transmission—again inspired by Porsche’s modern-day GT3 RS treatment. Only the crankcase is retained, as the engine gains all-new heads, Mahle pistons, a water-cooled 4.0-liter flat-six’s crankshaft, Camillo rods, and a GT3 oil pump. To cut horsepower losses to the stock accessory drives powering the hydraulic power-steering pump and the air-conditioning compressor, those two drives are yanked from the engine bay; GW switches both pumps to electric units and relocates them to the front of the car. The result is extra displacement (a full 4.0 liters, just like today’s car), a 7800-rpm redline, and, in the car’s custom-tuned Sport mode, 431 horsepower and 315 lb-ft of torque. A Quiet mode lops 30 horsepower from that figure and switches the borrowed 997-generation GT3 RS’s dual-mode exhaust to its more muffled setting.

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Other enhancements include an additional oil cooler, a carbon-fiber intake plenum modeled after a later water-cooled GT3 RS unit, and new gear ratios for the six-speed manual transmission. Due to the extra power, Gunther Werks actually raises the first-gear ratio and tightens up the remaining five forward gear ratios; sixth gear is slightly shorter than stock, falling between the stock car’s fifth and sixth. Performance, as you might expect, is said to be as breathtaking as the car’s sound. At only 2670 pounds, the 400R has an insane power-to-weight ratio. There are also several modern touches, among them a front-axle lift feature for clearing steep driveways, the aforementioned Sport mode—which didn’t exist on the original 993—and newer suspension components.

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Williams Engineering Creates 500-HP Air-Cooled Porsche Flat-Six for Singer

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Singer Vehicle Design’s Porsche 911s at the Detroit Auto Show

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Driven: Singer Vehicle Design’s Reimagined Porsche 911

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The car on display at SEMA is, overall, incredible, skipping the pretty-thing pretense of Singer’s intricately detailed restomod 911s for a focus on balls-out performance inspired by a car that never existed. This car, based on a 1995 Porsche 911, is for GW’s own development and fun time. Only 25 more will be built to individual customers’ specifications. If you have half a million dollars and a spare 993 sitting around, this seems like a great way to combine the two.

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masoncarr2244 · 6 months

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