It’s the most interesting 911 restoration project we’ve come across in a very long time. Paolo Iacometti shares the ‘river to road’ story behind his quite unbelievable Projekt Limoncella

Written by Wilhelm Lutjeharms

Photography by Paolo Iacometti

If there’s a single story that’s grabbed the attention of 993 enthusiasts these past few years, it’s undoubtedly the Instagram account Limoncellaprojekt. The person behind the account is Paolo Iacometti. Based in Italy, he’s done something quite extraordinary: he’s saved a 993 which was under water, in a river, for four-and-a-half years. Let that sink in – pun intended – for a moment…

During our interview, it’s evident that Iacometti is a true enthusiast and doesn’t crave any personal attention. Still, it’s fascinating to learn more about the Porsche enthusiast and his mindset for tackling such a monumental project, even with the full assistance and experience of a workshop.

Iacometti eagerly shares with Total 911 his upbringing and how his love for cars and especially Porsche’s 911 came about. However, he digs much deeper than your general enthusiast. Iacometti zooms in on the 993 and soon admits that to him the 993 RSR is the pinnacle of Porsche’s 911 air-cooled development. Yet if you think he wanted to build a 993 RSR tribute, you’d be wrong. His 993 did take some cues from the Cup and RSR, but the story of this car runs in a number of directions and the end result, and the dream that’s still being chased, takes a different direction to that of an RSR tribute.

Iacometti was already driving his father’s Polar silver 993, but he didn’t want to butcher the car to make it suitable for track. Every time he took part in an event with the 993 he thoroughly enjoyed it and wondered how he could improve it. Then fate intervened when the sunken 993 crossed his path.

“In 2018 I saw pictures of a 993 Carrera being taken out of the river on Facebook. It was the year when I thought regularly about stripping out my own 993 Carrera and turning it into some kind of trackfocused car. But then I reflected for a split-second and realised I couldn’t do this to a pristine and caredfor 993. I have too much respect for it. It was my father’s car, with a full service history.