How to build an F1-engined 911
Wheels Australia Magazine|September 2024
LANZANTE'S TAKE ON THE PORSCHE 911 IS UNIQUE BUT ITS CREATION WAS MORE A HAPPY ACCIDENT
CHARLIE MARTIN
How to build an F1-engined 911

PORSCHE 911 RESTOMODS have become something of a cliche, with new firms popping up almost weekly with the promise of analogue thrills and retro-modern looks.

But Lanzante - the British firm known for maintaining many of the world's McLaren F1s, as well as making some of the world's most iconic race cars road legal - has produced one with a genuine difference.

Rather than upgrade the contemporary flat six, as is par for the course, Lanzante opted to retrofit a 911 with a genuine Formula 1 V6 from McLaren's back catalogue.

Developed by Porsche and wearing TAG branding after the team's contemporary sponsor, Techniques d'Avant Garde, the turbocharged 1.5-litre powerplant is rumoured to have put out more than 745kW (1000bhp) in qualifying trim.

It thrust McLaren to three consecutive drivers' championships between 1984 and 1986- at which point it was succeeded by the legendary Honda unit that delivered Ayrton Senna three titles.

Retrofitting such a potent engine into a classic is a tantalising proposition but, as Dean Lanzante told us at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it was never the original plan.

He simply wanted to purchase McLaren's original TAG test mule, a 930-generation Porsche 911 Turbo, from the firm's racing arm. Team boss Zak Brown politely declined the request, but Lanzante was undeterred.

"They had a load of engines. These engines had stood since the '80s, but they were all crated up," he says.

Sensing an opportunity, he began to assemble a business case for building a small run of road cars referencing that original mule. Cosworth was chosen to modify the engines for reliability and tractability on the road, but the costs quickly began to mount.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2024-Ausgabe von Wheels Australia Magazine.

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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2024-Ausgabe von Wheels Australia Magazine.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

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