SEMA is mostly bro trucks and sad sack automaker cash-ins, but there are still some genuinely wonderful things that come to Vegas. For instance: this water-cooled Porsche 997 kitted out to look like a legendary slant-nose from the 911’s air-cooled days.
For those of you not familiar, the slant nose design goes back to Porsche’s 1970s glory years, when they figured out they could stretch the rules of international sports car racing to chop their headlights off their 911 for better aero. It shouldn’t really have been allowed, but Porsche was canny enough to make it work and won just about everything was was to win with their chop-front GT cars.
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The race style trickled down to the street, with Porsche building a few slant-nose cars itself and the ‘80s aftermarket filling in the rest.
Genuine slant noses are crazy expensive and a high point for a certain a e s t h e t i c for cocaine-era Porsche people.
So now here’s a kit to turn a more modern car into a slant nose lookalike. Old & New Japan is the company selling the kit, and Kei Miura of Rocket Bunny fame is the person ho did the design work. The full kit, widebody and all, runs ¥1,550,000, which converts to about $14,800 USD.
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Is this a lot of money to spend just so you can look like you fell out of a future where everyone smokes Space Cigs and shoots eyeball amphetamines while they run the Mulsanne Straight? Maybe! But what price can you really put on fantasy?
As for the full specs on this particular car, here’s what it’s running, per SEMA’s press release:
“Old meets New” with this 2008 Porsche® 997 designed by Kei Miura which boasts a full repaint in Sea Blue. The car has Motorsport Cup mirrors and ‘Cup’ quarter glass, along with a carbon fiber roof. Its full custom interior includes an AIMSPORT GT350 steering wheel, a CAE shifter, Techno Craft carbon fiber bucket seats, and a full cage constructed by GMG. An Air Lift Performance Suspension provides the stance which complements the 19″ Rotiform LSR wheels. For maximum grip, this car has 265/30ZR19 and 305/30ZR19 Toyo® Proxes® R888R™ tires.
You can tell it’s a press release by how many trademark symbols there are in that. Whatever. The car at least has some track-tuned go to match the show.
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All in all, it makes sense that Miura would be the one responsible for the design; his Rocket Bunny work is rooted in ‘70s widebody look, a style that these Porsche slant noses helped define.
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