Shifting the Envelope with Hot Rod 911s

I’ve just finished a feature for Total 911 magazine on a good friend of mine in the USA who has a very nice three-car 911 collection. Needless to say, he’s an R Gruppe member, so one of his cars is an early 911, tuned for an exciting drive, but with standard looks up top. It’s the Sports Purpose way.

One of the points my friend made in the interview for this feature is that most people are now building homage cars, following factory looks from the good old days: RS, RSR, ST, 911R and all the variations in between. What he feels is missing is the next big thing in modified classic Porsche, in a similar way to the US hot rodders who customise cars like the Ford Model As, and the evolution of their styles from year to year. Where, he asks, are the new ideas? Where are the looks that push the envelope, without costing buyers hundreds of thousands of dollars like the Singer Porsche (above)? It’s a good question and not so easy to answer.

As solid base cars get harder to find, the 911 scene is becoming more myopic. Either the shells are snapped up to build new race and rally cars, or builders of hot rod street cars look to protect their investment by keeping the daring-ness of their creations to a minimum. They attempt to exercise their creativity while all the time keeping one eye on what recreated RSRs and STs are fetching in open sale. As STs are worth much more money with homologated fixtures and fittings and the chance of FIA paperwork, hot rod builders shy away from putting anything in place that would interfere with the FIA approval for the finished product.

I can see the point of the approach, but it means that we have very little real creativity in the street car movement. The projects that emerge all seem to conform to a standard ‘type’ and reduce to being much of a muchness.

As prices rise for good street cars, and builders stick to standard formulas, it becomes somehow easier to cut into cars that already have official FIA paperwork and are past this hurdle to ultimate hot rod value, as, once the competition paperwork is all approved and the results have started to accumulate, the marketability of the race-proven chassis is guaranteed. So it is that rally cars continue to inspire the modifications I want to make to my own car, such as roof pod ventilation intakes. I need some Dutch courage for this one…

Rather interestingly, given the conversation, I have a feature to do next week on an SC that’s been customised with a Boxster interior: everything including the dash.While I haven’t yet seen pictures of the car, I don’t doubt that it will be a thought-provoking experience.

As for my US friend, he is currently teamed up with a European buddy, building something on a ’77 Turbo shell that he promises will be radical, incorporating hot rod influences and shades of modern Porsche. A Singer for the working man, if you like. I’ll keep you up to date with how the project is progressing, if and when I get past the top secret security cordon…

2 Comments

  • Jeroen914| October 30, 2010 at 5:13 pm

    More creativity in hotrodded Porsches… Music to my ears, so bring it on!

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