Any return of the air-cooled flat-six should be hailed.
German carmaker Porsche has rolled up to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in style, with a very special 911 that tugs at our heartstrings and reminds us of days gone by. The 911 Project Gold, as it’s called, is a 993-generation sports car that’s been given a new paintjob, a new engine, and a new lease of life. It’s a beautiful machine and this writer is quite taken, but we’ll try and remain objective for the rest of the article.
The Project Gold took a year and a half to build, with the team at Porsche Classic painstakingly utilising ‘new’ parts, restored parts, and some original bits and bobs from the donor 993 to complete it. The aluminium chassis has been hand-stamped for Project Gold though, and the powertrain has been made bespoke just for this car.
At the rear you’ll find the same twin-turbo flat-six engine, the first for the 911, which produces the same 335kW of power as it did when the original 993-generation came out. It’s all brand-new, but still makes use of the unique air-cooled systems that make the 993 so unforgettable.
The Project Gold is a truly special machine, and Porsche stopped at nothing to ensure that its eventual buyers would be reminded of that constantly. The alloys were first painted gold before painted black, before a laser removes the black layer in rings around the centre cap and the outer rim, creating a very distinctive pinstripe. Further, the unique gold hue used for the exterior finish is unique to the Project Gold and was applied using the ‘cathodic dip’ process that Porsche uses in its modern cars, giving it a deep, rich finish.
And inside, the black-and-gold theme continues. Black leather has been used extensively through the cabin, while touches of gold have been applied to the stitching, the fabric backing in the seat centres, and is even used to form the underlying layer of the headlining. All the instrumentation & even the radio look like they came from an original 993, which we appreciate immensely.
Looks perfect, doesn’t it? One catch though: It’s not road legal.
The Porsche 911 Project Gold will be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s at the Porsche 70th Anniversary Sale, which is coming up on October 27th. With 993 Porsche’s already considered a sought-after classic among enthusiasts and collectors, despite its inability to be driven on the road, you can expect this to fetch a very, very pretty penny.
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