It’s Saturday night in LA. Paddy is hopefully sleeping by the time I turn the words for this feature in.
This is good. It means that he can’t immediately shout at me [I can, it was 5PM on Sunday before you actually finished this & sent it across - PMcG] for not following the rules of Speedhunters and writing this in an unconventional way, so I’m going to write out a few words and then you can enjoy the photos, and comment about how you hate 996 headlights.
First of all, I’m sorry that this is a little different. I’m British, so we apologise for things that we’re not really sorry about all of the time. This is just that type of situation.
Why am I in a rush to share this feature? Because it’s CSF x Players Select tomorrow morning [yesterday morning - PMcG] and I need to sleep. Yesterday, [Friday] we arrived in Los Angeles and immediately met up with Jason from Rotiform. Mark wanted to get a few photos of the Old & New Porsche that Jason Whipple put together for this year’s SEMA Show, and so it was straight from LAX to Jason’s storage unit to pull the car out.
Never in my life have I seen so many cops on a photoshoot, so this was a short and sweet affair. The kit is the first one to be installed on a car here in the US and all the work was undertaken by Strasse Sport last minute in the run up to SEMA. The bespoke Air Lift Performance suspension by Sadistic Iron Works allows for the car to be street driven and then lowered over the 19-inch Rotiform LHR wheels, measuring 10.5-inches and 12.5-inches wide at the front and rear respectively. Toyo Proxes R888R tyres have been wrapped around the 3-piece wheels and, as you’d expect, the wheel fitment isn’t bad at all.
For some reason, Jason sourced a low mileage 996 in Chicago as the base for this project. His friend Richard Fisher, of Risky Devil [and THE best car reviews on Instagram-PMcG], checked it out before it was shipped to Strasse for the plastic surgery. What does the car look like in person? It’s wild to see these cars driven in real life to be honest. At SEMA there’s so many things to look at that you almost take these cars for granted. Millions of hours have been put into the builds, but it’s difficult to really appreciate the cars because there’s so many.
This is why CSF x Players Select was one of my favourite events of last year. It provides a chance to see all of these wild as heck SEMA builds being street driven, rolling into CSF’s HQ, and you can have a proper look around the cars. We’ll be bringing you more car features and coverage from the event, but in the meantime, what do you think of the Old & New kit on the 996?
I’m glad the 996 headlights are no more and the car is finished in black paint, so it’s a yes from me.
Ben Chandler
Instagram: ben_scenemedia
ben@speedhunters.com
Photos by Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Slant nose yes, wide body no. Over fenders have jumped the sharkwerks
I always thought (even on the original slant nose cars) that they looked odd without the wide body. Would love to see someone do a long tail version, though.
Always thought this when I saw the old&new stuff I really dislike their own rear ends.
Porsche have just done their own though:
Agreed, perhaps a slightly less extreme wide body (at the rear at least) and then just track suspension?
One of the best car photoshoots ever! The sky looks beautiful!
I like not giving a damn, do what makes you happy but I myself also try to not follow the crowd and bring different twists on things. i spend my days looking at vehicles and always seeing how to improve them and tend to see the more sublte details instead of the ones in your face :3
oh i forgot to add that i like this article and this porsche. rad.
I love this kit, I wish there was a way to slap some pop up headlights on it though,
But since I first saw this kit I've been wondering, how is it street legal? Are those LEDs the headlights? Cuz the fog lights are too low to be considered headlights right?
Honest answer: don't drive it at night. Then it's no different than driving a car with no headlights during the day time... the cops really won't care until it gets dark. THEN you better get the car off the street
Read your history on 935's and why the headlights were mounted in the bumper/fender.
Yes, but headlight laws have changed since the 935's were being sold. I do know of some jurisdictions where driving with this kit on will get you a fix it ticket due to headlight height(IANAL YMMV). Also the 935's also had popups in the fenders which would have put the head lights at the right height. I'm really curious to know if those panels on the fenders could be modified to be popups.
Not a single 935 ever in the history of ever had pop up headlights installed by Porsche. The slant nose 930 had pop ups to make them road legal.
935's had bumpers/fenders molded as one because the rules stated that the fenders could be shaped how ever possible as long as the factory headlights fit within the fender. So Porsche put the headlights in the bumper and bonded them to the fender to create an extremely low drag front end within the spirit of the rules.
What's the story with the wheel well pressure vents? They appear to be installed backward or to have no air exits at all.
Maybe it's just me, but they look too far forward to work as vents even if they did have holes. As for the holes not being there, I remember Top Gear reviewing the TVR Sagaris and saying the vents on that car's concept model were closed off because the tire was throwing rocks at the windshield. Just for looks here.
i don't think they are pressure vents at all, they look to be closed off on every car I've seen with the kit on it. I always thought that those were supposed to be pop-up headlight covers.
Yow! That thing is nasty-looking! And I mean that in the BEST possible way! I like it!
Love the pic of him cruising with the full wheel visible. Looks purposeful. But yeah, I'd love to see the shop integrate the new nose with a more traditional-for-996s widebody.
A friend told me you would be the definitive source to ask if a mother was ever made of this 1934 Ford.
http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/11/rolling-bones-poteet-34-coupe/
Thank you.
Brian
So glad you did a feature on this car, Its so beautiful!
headlights look like it came from a 240z nissan.
godlike photos
nice paint on it
now this is an album
I really love this kit, it converts an (almost) modern day porsche into a retro racecar. For my personal taste, it could have more rubber and no air, but otherwise, it´s just perfect!
Not to forget, the pictures are awesome! Very, very good job.
But that G Wagon, though...
We'll bring you a spotlight on this very soon. It's a brilliant machine!
I like 996.2 headlights...
This looks great, though.
Also... "first in the US"? There was a blue 997 with the kit at SEMA two years ago. Was that not an American build?
This is the first 996 wearing the Old n New 996 kit.
What a great looking 996 man! I too have personally not been a big fan of the front end/headlights of the 996 unless a 997 swap was done(previous article on here showed a front end swap a while ago and it looked great!) or something like this- and this is fanfreakintastic!! Love this and it actually makes me want to find a cheap 996 manual just to swap this kit in and paint it a Gulf or Martini livery and use it for track days and AutoX!!!!! Who makes this kit to find out about pricing? I am sure some 996 owners are curious after seeing these awesome pics! Great job on the article SH never disappoints man
Despite the lights, I still dream of owning a 996 Turbo or GT3. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks for sharing your point of view.
If I was to ever own a Porsche, I'd want it to look exactly like that! As a kid in the 80's, three European cars that stood out in my memory as cars my brother and I would consider to be exotic, were slant nose Porsches, BMW M6, and the Mercedes Benz AMG Hammer.
But then again, that's from two Mexican kids rolling around Orange County in our mom's Dodge Colt. The richest guy we knew was our mom's chiropractor Dr. Blau. We showed up one day with his brand new red 1984 M6 staring at us from his parking space. We were bouncing out of our seats to get out as my mom pulled up.
Because of that impression, that is now my dream car for my daughter's first car. Every time I show her one, she squishes up her face. I still have time to impress her with one...she's only 8.
I actually like the kit, partly because I've seen it in a video and it seems to be pretty well put together.
Unfortunately the front end "slant nose" kit has no paperwork for Germany, and can't get it with the headlights that low.
Not giving a damn? More like giving a damn about those fixing those ugly 996 headlights.