The vast majority of custom Porsche builds remain faithful to the original car in style and drivetrain components. A celebrated Porsche build might have the power cranked, be lowered, widened, the styling smoothed out, or other subtle aesthetic modifications, but it will rarely stray too far from the original. Those are the ones that are celebrated the most, as there is a certain amount of snobbery in the Porsche community. Most of the cars below are considered heretical by many, but some are just so cool even the most hardened Porsche originalists heart could be melted. We'll let you decide which are which. These are some of the weirdest and most wonderful Porsche builds we've seen.

Porsche 356 "The Kreuzer"

Known as The Kreuzer (German for 'cruiser'), this one-off gem is from the legendary Porsche collector, John Dixon. Dixon was well known for his eclectic Porsche collection housed in a space called the Taj Ma Garaj. He built this car to show of his own personal style, and raided his parts pins of rare and useful items to complete it. The Kreuzer is based around a 1958 Speedster and powered by its Carrera 1.5-liter four-cylinder air-cooled boxer engine. If you look carefully, you can see the build quality is Porsche factory level.

Bertone 1965 Porsche 911

One of the most unique Porsche 911 models on the planet is the one you see in the pictures below. In 1965, the Porsche 911 Targa hadn't been created yet, but a California Porsche dealer called John von Neuman wanted an open-topped 911. He was able to talk Porsche into selling him a bare Porsche 911 chassis and commissioned Nuccio Bertone to design the bodywork to create his own open-top Porsche 911. It was shown at the Geneva motor show in 1966 to gauge interest from possible buyers. There were none, though, so this remains the only one in existence.

Oil Stain Design Half11

Oil Stain Labs has been into this project for over a year now, and claims it's currently in the prototyping stage. According to Nikita Bridan, the man behind the weird-looking race car, it's an alternate-universe concept asking: What would the 911 look like if Porsche had concentrated on it for racing and never created the 917?

The 911 half, or front half, of the car is a chassis Bridan purchased for a couple of hundred dollars, while the back is all Formula 1 style, complete with a massive wing. Assuming the Half11 makes it to the road or track, it's sure to upset the Porsche 911 cultists, but we think it looks crazy cool, and the mid-engine placement might even make it a better sports car.

M’s Machine Works Cayman

Take a 3.8-liter engine from a Porsche 997 911 Cup car, the front end of 997 GT3, the aero from a GT500, and put it all on a Porsche Cayman, and you have the essential ingredients for this piece of road-legal insanity. This crazy Cayman is Japanese motorsport engineer Takayuki Mizumoto's out-of-hours project, and the list of ingredients goes on and on. There's a welded-in roll cage, a carbon steering wheels, polycarbonate side, door, and rear windows, fiber-reinforced plastic hood, deck lid and doors, custom suspension, a racing slip-diff, and Volk racing center-lock wheels. It just might be the craziest Cayman on the road or track.

Kelly-Moss Road and Race  Safari Overlander 911

Over the past few years, there has been a resurgence of popularity in building Safari 911's, inspired by the rally-spec originals. This one comes from Kelly-Moss Road and Race in Virginia and is one of the most comprehensive Safari builds we've seen. Just looking at it, you can see the front and rear fenders have been lengthened and widened to fit the oversized BF Goodrich tires. Inside, a custom-fabricated cage has been extended into the front chassis for extra rigidity, and the roof rack is part of that structure. The Eibach springs and Exe-Tc adjustable twin-tube gravel dampers allow 11 inches of travel up front and 10 inches at the rear, while a modified 3.4-liter flat-six provides 340 hp to the rear wheels via a strengthened 915 manual gearbox. And that's just the start of the build sheet.

Danny Humphreys Outlaw Porsche 928

Danny Humphreys has owned his Porsche for 20 years now and calls it the world's quickest Porsche 928. We don't doubt it, as the drag racing 928 is powered by a stroked 8.7-liter big-block Chevy V8, completed by a Whipple supercharger providing 28 pounds of boost. He drives it on the street on pump gas, but, at the track, he's laid down a 4.84-second time at 150 mph on the 1/8th mile run. However, he aims to break the drag racing 928 into the six-second bracket at over 200 mph on the quarter-mile. Humphreys gets a lot of hate for bastardizing a classic 928, but we say it's his car, and he can make it go as fast as he damn well pleases.

Sofus “Fuzzy” Hansen's Porsche 928 S4

Not a lot is known about this bizarre creation, and it's a bit of a head-scratcher. From what we can gather, Sofus "Fuzzy" Hansen is a customizer from the Faroe Islands. The car is a highly customized 928 S4 that incorporates the front end of, what looks like, a Peugeot 407. The rear bumper, however, is from a Toyota Avensis, and there are plenty of custom parts in there, including fiberglass side skirts and the shapes in the door. The Porsche 5.0-liter V8 is stock at 316 hp, due to rules and regulations in The Faroe Islands.

Porsche 911 Turbo Rinspeed R69 Body kit

Frank Rinderknecht, the founder of the Swiss tuning house Rinspeed, loved the 930 generation Porsche 911 Turbo, but thought it was a little too German. So, he decided to add some Italian styling and ended up with this... whatever you want to call it. It was sold as a kit, the Rinspeed R69, and Rinderknecht owned one himself. Which meant he thought it was pretty cool. Clearly inspired by the Ferrari Testarossa, we're not sure if this should be called the Porscherossa, the Testaporsche, or just an abomination.

Porsche Boxster Shooting Brake

If you've been waiting for a shooting brake, here it is. The Porsche Boxster Shooting Brake is the brainchild of a Dutch automotive engineering instructor. He reached out to composite bodywork specialists Van Thull Development to help his students design and re-engineer the car, and the result is spectacular. The university project is based on the 718 Boxster, but parts from other Porsche models were used, and the rear door from a Peugeot hatchback.

Michael Lightbourn 1969 Baja Porsche 911

Michael "The West Texas Scout" Lightbourn gained his nickname from his innate ability to track down rare cars assumed to be lost. This project was funded by Arc Audio to be used as a SEMA showcase in 2017, but, unlike most SEMA cars, it's the real deal underneath. Lightbourn cut no corners in building a thoroughbred desert racer. It starts in the back with a desert racing favorite engine; the tried and tested air-cooled 2.3-liter Volkswagen flat-four. The suspension features single Exit shock absorbers for each front wheel and two Exit units for each rear corner. A full roll cage, side intrusion bars, and twin racing bucket seats, and a flat-bottomed steering wheel bring it to racing specs inside. The headlights aren't used, and it isn't road-legal, so forward lighting is provided by an LED light bar.