Lanzante to offer F1-engined Porsche 911s
Cosworth is working on the TAG-Porsche turbo engines, which were originally used in McLaren's racers
You know how nobody ever said the 930 Porsche 911 Turbo was lacking in boost? Well, Lanzante is now building a 930 with possibly the boostiest engine ever produced: an F1 turbo motor from the mid-80s. Because it turns out that the 1.5 V6 TAG-Porsche engine PH saw in Cosworth’s engine room a couple of weeks ago is in fact headed to one of 11 customer 930s, each set to trade their original flat-sixes for the former McLaren single-seater motor, which – to remind our adolescent readers – hails from an era when cars could produce over 1,000hp in qualifying trim. These particular ones were used by Alain Prost and Niki Lauda.
Of course, the road-going F1-engined 930 model, which has been confirmed for production by Lanzante, will be detuned for reliability. But even a 750-800hp expected output sounds mental. Let us not forget that the original 930 Turbo was a handful in its factory-spec 330hp form. Ramp the boost up to F1 levels (can you believe they reportedly had more than five bar of boost before restrictions were implemented?) and you might think the original car’s tendency for snap oversteer would be multiplied tenfold. Mad.
But we’re very glad it’s happening. And that Lanzante is handling the project. If there’s a firm expert enough to make the most bonkers iteration of F1 engine work in an already bonkers road car, it’s Petersfield-based Lanzante. This company’s recent work includes the P1 LM, a road-going version of McLaren’s track-only P1 GTR. But it’s world renowned status comes from years of motorsport success, including that famous win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the original McLaren F1 GTR. So it knows how to make cars that drive and handle properly.
A demonstration of what’s to come was shown at the recent Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca, where the first F1-engined 930 displayed how Lanzante packaged the 1.5-litre V6 unit and its extensive cooling hardware under the whale tail spoiler-wearing engine cover. But no further details were released. More info is due out soon, however, so watch this space…
Sure they were a cheap bulk buy for Lanzante
Really looking forward to seeing how this goes, but to be honest, given the low production volumes (vapourware at this precise moment), I don't really give this much more than a passing glance of curiosity.
It would be good if these somehow made it into real production volumes though, and weren't subject to the vagaries of OPC pricing / mates rates.
Really looking forward to seeing how this goes, but to be honest, given the low production volumes (vapourware at this precise moment), I don't really give this much more than a passing glance of curiosity.
It would be good if these somehow made it into real production volumes though, and weren't subject to the vagaries of OPC pricing / mates rates.
The TAG engined 911 is part of the collection of heritage assets owned by the F1 team and has been displayed before at the MTC.
I wonder if this explains the odd entry in the most recent accounts of McLaren Racing Limited (the F1 team).
Note 21 to the accounts on related party transactions discloses that in 2017 McLaren purchased £1,251,000 of goods or services from Cosworth Limited.
There is no explanation of why Cosworth was considered a related party but as no McLaren Group company owns a stake in Cosworth I can only assume that either one of the shareholders of McLaren owns some of Cosworth or there is a common Director.
Not sure why even, but seems that there's a fair few of this era of engines knocking around if you know where to look.
Sounds nuts tho'... Laaaaaaaaaaaaag... Boooooooooost!
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