Porsche 911 Classic Club Coupe Is a One-Off Masterpiece Built From a Junker
The car was built for Porsche's oldest and largest owner's club.
In the Porsche 911 fandom, there is no more polarizing generation than the 996, with its "fried-egg" headlights, generally dowdy appearance and, in a first for Porsche, a water-cooled flat-6 engine. It doesn't often get the love that other generations do, but that may change now that Porsche's unveiled its latest one-off creation.
Porsche this week unveiled the 911 Classic Club Coupe, a one-of-one concept built for the Porsche Club of America, the automaker's oldest and largest owner's club. The donor car was assembled in 1998 and was discovered languishing in a dealership lot in Virginia. The car was flown back to Germany, where it was completely disassembled in the first step toward becoming something completely different.
The 996's body was strengthened using both new and original-equipment parts, following inspiration from the hardcore GT3 variant that first went on sale during the 996 generation. The engine was replaced with a 3.6-liter flat-6 from the 996.2 GT3, producing about 375 horsepower. The brakes and manual transmission were swapped over from a GT3 as well.
The Classic Club Coupe's aesthetics are due in large part to the 997-generation Sport Classic. Two racing stripes run from front to back atop Sport Grey Metallic paint, terminating at the back of a vintage-style ducktail spoiler that contains a center brake light. The unique "double-bubble" roof allows taller drivers to fit inside with helmets on, and as 911 purists might expect, the body rolls on a set of 18-inch Fuchs wheels painted in gloss black.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the 911 Classic Club Coupe's body development is that it required a second car. In order to perform high-speed shakedown tests at Porsche's facilities, the automaker built a test car that stood in place of the final product. After the testing concluded, Porsche destroyed the second car, ensuring only one would exist.
The houndstooth part of the leather is woven on the diagonal. From a distance, it looks like cloth.
And then there's the interior. Porsche completely redid the Classic Club Coupe's innards, covering the car's sport seats in fresh leather. Even the houndstooth pattern in the middle of each seat is made from weaving together two different kinds of leather. The tech wasn't left alone, either; now, the infotainment display runs the automaker's PCM infotainment system, which includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
This isn't the first time that the Porsche Classic department has come up with something this impressive. In 2018, the automaker unveiled Project Gold, which took an original shell from a 993-generation 911 and completely reinvigorated it, essentially creating a brand-spankin'-new 993 Turbo.