Lanzante is best known for being the mad wrenches committed to turning McLaren F1 and P1 GTR race cars into road-legal vehicles. Now the British firm is treading into sacred Porsche ground by preparing a modified 930-generation 911 with Formula 1 power.
Revealed during Porsche's recent Rennsport Reunion, Lanzante has created a test mule for its crazy build.
The plan is to create a total of 11 cars (plus the mule), with each powered by an original Tag Turbo engine. That would be the engine developed by Porsche and used by McLaren for its Formula 1 efforts during the 1980s. Lanzante has already secured permission from McLaren to pursue the project, which means 11 wealthy Porsche fans are about to add some insanely cool cars to their collections.
Each vehicle will be modified to accept the twin-turbocharged V-6. Additionally, a pair of plaques mounted in the engine bay will display information on which drivers used the engine, how they performed, and where they raced. On the test mule, for example, the plaques show that engine No. 034 was built for use with a car mostly driven by Niki Lauda. Alain Prost also had a go in a car with this engine. Lauda managed to secure a first place finish with 034 during the 1984 British Grand Prix.
Lanzante 930 Porsche 911 powered by Tag Turbo Formula 1 engine
According to Road & Track, these engines could produce around 750 horsepower when set up for a race. That's a ton of go for a car like the 930 Porsche 911. With their standard turbocharged flat-6 engines in the rear, a Porsche turbo from this era saw between 256 and 330 horsepower, depending on its model year. Now that figure could be more than doubled, and that's both thrilling and terrifying.
Since Lanzante is the one handling the build, it's mostly thrilling. A Tag Turbo engine likely weighs quite a bit less than the 3.0-liter or 3.3-liter unit that originally came with the Porsche. The race engines offer up just 1.5-liters of displacement. They're also wickedly powerful, rev to the sky, and create beautiful noise.
We have no clue what a Lanzante Porsche 930 will cost. It's safe to assume, however, that the final asking price will be as shocking as the prodigious performance of these perfectly modified Porsches.
