Lanzante’s TAG Turbo 911 was already one of our favorite restomods, but now the firm famous for making the McLaren F1 GTR road legal has made the V6 powered Porsche even lighter and faster. Called the TAG Championship, and limited to just three examples, each one commemorating one of McLaren’s three F1 Championship victories during the 1980s, the new cars will be unveiled at next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Slung out beyond the rear axle line of
each car is a real Porsche-developed V6 from the 1980s with genuine Formula 1
pedigree. The engine in the red and white display car, Championship ’85, which
is painted to match Alain Prost’s 1985 helmet, powered race cars in the ’84,
’85, and ’86 seasons, claiming two podiums for Prost during his
Championship-winning 1985 season.
As with the previous TAG Turbo V6s, the
latest trio have been detuned from their F1 days, but this time Cosworth has
built some of the power back in, boosting output from 503 hp to 617 hp, and raising the rev limit from 9,000 rpm to a dizzying 10,250 rpm. Power
flows to the rear wheels through a modified six-speed manual transmission
originally fitted to a 993-generation 911, with tweaked gear ratios designed to
ensure the Championship cars can hit a genuine 322 km/h.
Weight-saving measures include swapping
the stock hood, doors, roof bumpers, and fenders for equivalents made from what
Lanzante describes as F1-grade carbon fiber, fitting a full carbon braking
system and carbon Recaro buckets, and junking unnecessary electrical gizmos
like the mirror motors. That helps bring
the mass down to just 920 kg, even though Lanzante has added a roll
cage and lightweight air conditioning system, meaning it weighs less than a
Mazda MX-5 and isn’t much more than half as heavy as a modern Porsche 911 Turbo
S Cabriolet. The price will certainly be heavier, though. Lanzante hasn’t
revealed the exact cost, but given that the first run of TAG Turbos cost US$ 1.5
m, it’s going to make a new Turbo S seem as affordable as that Miata.
