German Car Zone

Hmm, the title is very convincing

Swiss tuner creates an 846bhp 911 Turbo with Bugatti Veyron-rivalling performance

It’s a 911. But not as we know it. Standard 911 Turbos don’t come out of the factory with carbon-Kevlar bodywork. They aren’t born with a secondary safety cage, two injectors per cylinder and titanium conrods either. Above all, Weissach doesn’t equip them with the firepower to see off a Veyron.

Sportec does, however. Let’s deal with the Veyron-spanking claim first. When we figured the Bugatti in issue 134, 60-160mph took 11.1sec. It’s a weird increment to look at, I know, but when we asked if we could find out for ourselves just how fast the SPR1M actually is, Sportec agreed with the proviso that we go easy on the car for the first couple of gearchanges. So, the result? On the same stretch of concrete at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground the SPR1M completed the same 100mph jump in 10.3sec, so, yeah, it’s very much made of the right stuff.

The pursuit of speed and speed alone is not the Sportec’s sole aim, though. Instead think of it as the ultimate 911 Turbo, the sort of bespoke creation that recently retired Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking might have hoped to receive as a leaving gift – but probably didn’t.

Deliver a standard 911 Turbo to the small Swiss outfit and they’ll go at it like a shoal of piranhas, stripping it back to a skeleton. All that’s left of the engine is the block (which retains the 3.6-litre displacement) and crank, while bodywork, wheels, suspension, brakes and gearbox are all junked (although the four-wheel-drive system is retained). Then the eight-month, £500,000 transformation begins. A roll-cage increases body rigidity by a massive 30 per cent, a second ECU runs the extra injectors, and the steering pump is moved to the front to allow more space for an entirely new split-intake system. Meanwhile, the gearbox from the GT2 is fitted, as are front brake discs of secret origin (Ferrari perhaps?) and suspension recast in lighter materials (the Bilstein dampers still talk to Porsche’s PASM active damping system). Impressively, the majority of the changes, including the carbon bodywork that accounts for the lion’s share of a considerable weight saving, are designed, engineered and built in-house by Sportec’s 19 employees. They’re a talented bunch.

The gains – and losses – are remarkable. The standard Turbo revs to 6800rpm, weighs 1585kg and develops 472bhp; this one can hit 8400rpm, weighs 1450kg and puts out 846bhp. A quick prod of the calculator reveals the Sportec almost doubles the standard Turbo’s power-to-weight ratio. At 593bhp per ton it’s also 72bhp per ton up on the Veyron.

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