911 Turbo

Make
Porsche
Segment
Coupe

Since the birth of the Porsche 911, it has been tuned and modified. However, it wasn't until the mid-1970s and the launch of the 911 Turbo that people realized how far Porsche's platform could really go. The 930-platform 911 was a car that earned the nickname "Widowmaker" because it could be such a handful for the uninitiated.

Porsche has built many extreme 911s, including the legendary 911 GT1 Strasse Version homologation models. But, if you want to get hardcore-crazy with a 911, you look to the tuners of the world. There are not many tuners taking 911s to the extreme because playing with Porsche 911s is expensive, but we have a list of favorites.

9ff GT9

9ff is a tuning house based in Dortmund, Germany, since 2001 and is renowned for building insanely fast Porsches. The GT9 is its halo model supercar that 9ff describes as being "loosely based" on the 911. Loosely, but specifically the Porsche 997 generation 911 GT3. The significant change in the chassis 9ff makes is by mounting the engine in the middle as opposed to rear.

The tuner then goes nuts to turn the GT9 into an entirely different beast, from the height-adjustable racing suspension to the new transmission and, of course, the engine. The 3.6-liter six-cylinder boxer engine is rebuilt to make 750 horsepower in base form and over 1,100 hp when specified. There's no automatic transmission option, so a six-speed box lays down the power via a 9FF limited-slip differential.

RWB Rotana

Akira Nakai is a legend, and his RWB (Rauh-Welt Begriff) builds are often polarizing, particularly concerning his outrageous bodywork. Nakai-san's Rotana build surfaced in 2013 as his personal race car. The insanity starts with custom 14-inch wide Work Meister wheels and ends with a Front Row built 3.6-liter 964-generation engine with a GReddy turbocharger making 575hp with the torque packed into the midrange. Rotana also has a Nakai-san widebody conversion and carbon fiber roof as well asthat mega rear wing sitting above the exposed turbochargers.

RUF CTR

In 1987, the German tuning house RUF decided the Porsche 911 should be a supercar and built the CTR. Also known as the CTR Yellowbird, it started as a stock 911 Carrera 3.2, went through an extreme weight-loss program, the 3.2-liter flat-six engine was bored out to 3.4 liters, and twin turbochargers were added. RUF integrated a roll cage for safety and as part of stiffening the chassis, then built a beefed-up five-speed transmission to handle the Yellowbird's 469 hp and 408 lb-ft of torque. Those power figures were RUF's most conservative estimate and, mixed with its 2,600 lb weight, gave the car a power-to-weight ratio similar to modern Porsches.

It became an enthusiast legend for two reasons. First, its 3.7-second zero to 60 mph time and 7.8-second zero to 100 mph times were incredible in the 1980s. Second, a video was released of test driver Stefan Roser taking the car around the Nurburgring in spectacular fashion. There is now a modern RUF CTR Anniversary model that follows in the original's footsteps with a carbon fiber chassis and 710 hp.

Gunther Werks 400R

If you have half a million dollars on a Porsche 911 that will devastate supercars on the track and leave everyone with a vague interest in cars drooling as it passes by on the street; well, read on. The Gunther Werks 400R is based on the 993-generation 911 but has been broken down and reconstructed to become a hardcore driving thing of beauty. Rennsport reworks the engine to scream its way to 7,800 rpm and make 431 hp and 312 lb-ft of torque on the way. That doesn't sound like much if you're a numbers racer from behind a screen. However, it only weighs 2,700 pounds (100 pounds more than the original RUF Yellowbird) and is engineered in the USA to demanding specs to grip the road and thrill the driver.

Russell Built Fabrication Baja 911

The past couple of years have seen a trend of 911 safari car builds. The Russell Built Fabrication Baja 911 started that trend when it set the automotive internet on fire in 2019. It makes a lot of sense for the man behind the insane desert-pounding Porsche build. T.J. Russell has made a career out of building high-end 911s, and he's a useful off-road wheelman. The concept behind the car is "What if Porsche carried on off-road racing into the 1990s?" And the answer is a dramatically stretched and widened 964-generation 911 with 12 inches and 13.5 inches of suspension travel front and back, respectively. Each body panel is a custom composite piece, and a 3.8-liter Rothsport Racing engine powers the Baja 911. Inside, it's fully specced out for racing, including switches and dials to set the diffs and AWD-bias manually.

Bisimoto 930

We've got two favorite builds by Bisimoto. They are the bananas 1,000-horsepower 2014 Honda Odyssey minivan and the IROC-inspired 1975 Porsche 930 with a water-cooled 3.4-liter flat-six. What's incredible about the Porsche build is that Bisi Ezerioha's tuning company extracted 500 hp from the ancient water-cooled six for cruising. However, at certain speeds, it can lay down a staggering 850 hp. That's due to its sequential injection system and trick control unit boosting the 57-mm billet turbochargers to a whopping 18 psi when everything is at full song. To handle the power, the Bisimoto 930 has the six-speed manual from a 997, and the brakes from a 2004 Carrera.

Porsche DP 935 RUF

According to legend, the DP 935 RUF was commissioned with DP Motorsports by a Porsche engineer for a Car And Driver article in the 1980s. He chose DP Motorsports as it was run by Ekkehard Zimmermann, who was known for designing and supplying body panels to motorsport teams in Europe, and his association with the Kremer Brothers. It starts to make sense when you realize the Kremer brothers were behind the Le Mans-winning 935 K3, and the DP 935 RUF is essentially a roadgoing version of the race car. The RUF part of the name comes from the engine, the German tuning company that blueprinted the 3.4-liter flat-six to make a (conservatively estimated) 390 hp and give it a top speed of 183.3 mph. No expense was spared on the rest of the build, either. Car And Driver said, "we measured 0.84 g of stick, the best we've ever seen on a roadgoing Porsche."

As for why a Porsche engineer would commission a custom Porsche build like that for a publication to write an article about? Who knows, but it sounds suspicious like someone found a tax loophole when spending a ton of cash.

Bisimoto Porsche 935 K3V

The Bisimoto 930 mentioned above is over ten years old and properly old-school. Currently, pun intended, Bisi Ezerioha is embracing the future and enraging comments sections with the Porsche 935 K3V. The 935 is a revered 911-based racer Porsche built from 1976 to 1981 with an 845 hp twin-turbocharged flat-six engine. If you haven't worked it out already, the 935 K3V is an electric-powered 911. It's based on a 1984 911 chassis and uses racing parts and the original molds by Kremer for the bodywork. Powering the 2,700-pound car is a three-phase electric motor fueled by a 32 kWh battery to make 636 hp and all the torque and uses a 76 kW re-gen braking system. The 935 K3V is no joke, and the Blackmore Designs' pink and grey livery hits the spot with a balance of retro and modern design.