An enthusiast wondered what would happen if a 997 Turbo S road car was developed into a race car with the technical knowledge of Porsche South Africa. This car is the result…

Written by Wilhelm Lutjeharms Photography by Peet Mocke

Look back through the Porsche 911’s racing history and you’ll be sure to find a commendable mixture of both naturally aspirated and turbocharged cars which have propelled the manufacturer to success in competition.

With atmospheric RSRs flying the flag for Porsche through the 1960s and early 1970s, by the late 1970s and 1980s it was forced induction that allowed Porsche to dominate its rivals. By the 1990s and the creation of the Porsche Cup (which was later rebranded to Supercup), Weissach created a specially built Cup car for its flagship one-make series. These were race cars of the road-going Carrera (and then GT3) Rennsport equivalent of the time, and have always been naturally aspirated.

At first glance the race car in our pictures looks to be a Cup car of the 997 era… fitted with a GT3 R rear wing, if you want to be specific. However, eagle-eyed readers will pick up that this racer is not all it seems. First of all, it started life as a bog-standard 997 Turbo S road car, and secondly, and more significantly, it will leave any 997 Cup car in its dust – on any race circuit. The owner eagerly shares the history of the car with me as we meet up in a specialist Porsche workshop next to Kyalami Raceway, South Africa’s most significant racing complex.

He is not the car’s first owner, but its second. The first owner had the vision to build a race car based on the 997 Turbo S. The result is that the car was completely stripped to the bare chassis and the race car, although not as you see it here, was the result. However, it was eventually sold, and its new custodian was intrigued by this car, but clearly wanted to take it to a whole new level. Chatting all things Porsche with the owner, I can understand why. He has owned basically every performance Porsche over the past couple of decades – so I sense the challenge to build a unique, high-performance Porsche was the logical next step and a project that he would want to get involved in.
From the very first step of this project, until today, Porsche South Africa has been involved. Let us not forget that Porsche South Africa’s owner and CEO is amateur racer Toby Venter, who has been involved in the racing scene for a number of decades.