- Lanzante to unveil three enhanced versions of its F1-powered 911 Turbo creations at Goodwood Festival of Speed.
- Revised TAG engines now make 617 hp instead of 503 hp, and can spin to 10,250 rpm.
- Three cars commemorate McLaren’s back-to-back F1 championships in the 1980s; first car celebrates 1985’s championship title.
Lanzante’s TAG Turbo 911 was already one of our favorite restomods, but now the firm famous for making the McLaren F1 GTR road legal has made the V6 powered Porsche even lighter and faster.
Called the TAG Championship, and limited to just three examples, each one commemorating one of McLaren’s three F1 Championship victories during the 1980s, the new cars will be unveiled at next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Related: Lanzante’s Latest Porsche 930 TAG Turbo Was Built For An Ex-F1 Driver
Slung out beyond the rear axle line of each car is a real Porsche-developed V6 from the 1980s with genuine Formula 1 pedigree. The engine in the red and white display car, Championship ’85, which is painted to match Alain Prost’s 1985 helmet, powered race cars in the ’84, ’85, and ’86 seasons, claiming two podiums for Prost during his Championship-winning 1985 season.
As with the previous TAG Turbo V6s, the latest trio have been detuned from their F1 days, but this time Cosworth has built some of the power back in, boosting output from 503 hp (510 PS) to 617 hp (625 PS), and raising the rev limit from 9,000 rpm to a dizzying 10,250 rpm.
Power flows to the rear wheels through a modified six-speed manual transmission originally fitted to a 993-generation 911, with tweaked gear ratios designed to ensure the Championship cars can hit a genuine 200 mph (322 km/h).
Weight-saving measures include swapping the stock hood, doors, roof bumpers, and fenders for equivalents made from what Lanzante describes as F1-grade carbon fiber, fitting a full carbon braking system and carbon Recaro buckets, and junking unnecessary electrical gizmos like the mirror motors.
That helps bring the mass down to just 2,030 lbs (920 kg), even though Lanzante has added a roll cage and lightweight air conditioning system, meaning it weighs less than a Mazda MX-5 and isn’t much more than half as heavy as a modern Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet. The price will certainly be heavier, though. Lanzante hasn’t revealed the exact cost, but given that the first run of TAG Turbos cost $1.5 m, it’s going to make a new Turbo S seem as affordable as that Miata.
