Tag Archives: Porsche

News

Manthey Gives the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT the GT3 RS Treatment

The first time Porsche handed its Nürburgring whisperers at Manthey the keys to an EV, the result wasn’t subtle. It was inevitable.

Meet the new Manthey Kit for the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package—a track-focused retrofit that transforms Porsche’s already absurd electric super sedan into something that sounds suspiciously like a GT3 RS with a battery pack. And because this is Manthey we’re talking about, the upgrades aren’t cosmetic theater. They’re stopwatch weapons.

The headline figure says everything you need to know: a 6:55.533 lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. That’s not just fast for an EV executive car—it’s violently fast. With Porsche development driver Lars Kern behind the wheel, the Manthey-equipped Taycan shaved more than 12 seconds off the standard Turbo GT Weissach’s previous record and dropped over nine seconds from the category benchmark. On a track where single seconds can consume engineering departments whole, twelve is an eternity.

What’s perhaps most impressive is how the Manthey treatment follows the same philosophy that made the company’s 911 GT kits legendary: grip first, ego second.

The standard Taycan Turbo GT already feels like it’s rewriting physics in real time, but the Manthey car attacks corners with an entirely different level of composure. Aerodynamics are the centerpiece. A new rear wing with larger end plates, revised front diffuser, aggressive rear diffuser fins, underbody air deflectors, and carbon aerodiscs on the rear wheels combine to produce more than triple the downforce of the standard car.

At 124 mph, total downforce jumps from 95 kilograms to 310. Flat out at 193 mph, the car reportedly generates roughly 740 kilograms of aerodynamic load. That’s enough to make the Taycan look less like a supersedan and more like a low-flying prototype racer.

And unlike so many modern aero packages, this one isn’t designed for Instagram parking-lot credibility. Kern says the difference is immediately noticeable through the Nordschleife’s terrifying high-speed sections, particularly under braking and direction changes. Between Lauda-Links and Bergwerk, he carried 14 km/h more speed than during the previous record run. Fourteen. On the Nürburgring, that’s the kind of number that gets your attention very quickly.

Manthey and Porsche didn’t stop with airflow. For the first time, the kit also tweaks the Taycan’s powertrain. Revised software for the high-voltage battery, control unit, and pulse inverters increases discharge current from 1,100 to 1,300 amps, pushing output to 600 kW and bumping Launch Control torque to 1,270 Nm.

Then there’s Attack Mode, which now delivers an extra 130 kW for ten seconds. In practical terms, the Taycan temporarily erupts to 730 kW—roughly 979 horsepower in freedom units. That’s enough thrust to make most hypercars feel like they accidentally left the parking brake engaged.

The chassis upgrades sound equally obsessive. The forged 21-inch Manthey wheels are larger yet lighter than the stock setup, helped by titanium wheel bolts that trim unsprung mass even further. Optional Pirelli P ZERO Trofeo RS tires are significantly wider than standard, while recalibrated Porsche Active Ride suspension, rear steering, and all-wheel-drive systems sharpen turn-in and stability.

Even the brakes got serious attention, with larger discs and upgraded pads engineered to repeatedly arrest nearly 5,000 pounds of electric fury without waving the white flag halfway through a hot lap.

Visually, the Manthey kit avoids the trap of turning the Taycan into a cosplay race car. Yes, there’s exposed carbon fiber everywhere—wheel-arch vents, side skirts, aero extensions, the towering rear wing—but everything appears functional, deliberate, and engineered with the same ruthless logic as the lap time itself.

That may be the most fascinating thing about this Taycan. It represents a philosophical shift for Porsche’s EV future. Until now, electric performance cars have largely relied on brute-force acceleration to impress. The Manthey Taycan proves there’s another path: one built around aerodynamic efficiency, chassis precision, thermal consistency, and repeatable track performance.

In other words, it’s behaving exactly like a Porsche.

And maybe that’s the real breakthrough here. The Manthey kit doesn’t simply make the Taycan Turbo GT faster. It gives Porsche’s electric flagship something far more valuable in enthusiast circles: credibility earned one terrifyingly quick lap at a time.

Source: Porsche

Restomod

This Twin-Turbo Porsche 964 Restomod Packs Supercar Punch

Few names in the Porsche restomod universe carry the mythic weight of Singer Vehicle Design. But from a discreet workshop in Friedrichshafen, Germany, another outfit is building a compelling argument that the air-cooled 911 aftermarket has room for more than one king.

Meet the PR964, a carbon-bodied, twin-turbocharged reinterpretation of the Porsche 964 from Pogea Racing and its boutique heritage division, Pogea.classics. And while Singer leans heavily into California-cool nostalgia, the Germans approach the same formula with the precision—and occasional excess—of a high-end engineering exercise.

At its core, the PR964 starts life as a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 from the 964 generation, though “starts life” might be generous considering how little of the original car survives untouched. Pogea strips the donor chassis to its final bolt before rebuilding it with reinforced structure, modern corrosion protection, and a level of finish likely superior to what rolled out of Stuttgart in the early 1990s.

Then comes the transformation.

The redesigned body panels are handcrafted entirely from carbon fiber, giving the 964 a sharper, more muscular stance without turning it into caricature. The widened rear decklid borrows visual cues from the original 930 Turbo and even the legendary Porsche 959, creating a silhouette that feels familiar until you notice how tightly everything has been modernized.

Underneath that retro-futuristic skin sits a trio of powertrain options, all derived from Porsche’s air-cooled 3.6-liter M64 flat-six. Purists can choose a naturally aspirated version with improved throttle response and a thoroughly refreshed internals package. But restraint clearly wasn’t the primary goal here.

Step up to the single-turbo setup and output jumps from the original 250 horsepower to roughly 400 hp. And for buyers who think subtlety is overrated, Pogea offers a 4.0-liter twin-turbo configuration producing more than 500 horsepower and over 600 Nm of torque, all routed to all four wheels through a manual gearbox.

In other words, this thing likely accelerates with the kind of violence the original 964 engineers never intended.

The hardware supporting those numbers is equally serious. Every PR964 receives adjustable KW Clubsport suspension, revised stabilizers, and a massive carbon-ceramic brake package featuring 400-mm front discs paired with aluminum-titanium calipers. The original 964 already felt compact and communicative by modern standards; with less weight and substantially more power, the Pogea creation sounds like it operates somewhere between vintage sports car and barely civilized race machine.

Inside, Pogea avoids the temptation to over-style the cabin. Leather, Alcantara, and exposed carbon fiber dominate the interior, while deeply bolstered Recaro seats and a classic Momo Prototipo steering wheel deliver the expected restomod visual cues. There’s even a subwoofer mounted behind the seats—a reminder that despite the obsessive engineering, this is still intended to be driven, loudly and often.

Like Singer, Pogea.classics insists no two builds are identical. Buyers can personalize nearly every surface, material, and finish, including the multilayer matte-gray paint developed with Glasurit. That level of customization—and the labor-intensive process behind it—means pricing lands firmly in the territory occupied by exotic supercars and limited-production hypercars.

Which is precisely the point.

The PR964 isn’t merely a restored Porsche. It’s a statement aimed directly at the established hierarchy of the restomod world: proof that Germany has no intention of letting California monopolize the art of reinventing the air-cooled 911.

Source: Pogea.classics

News

Porsche Exits Bugatti Rimac

In the rarefied air where nine-figure hypercars are less transportation and more philosophy, tectonic shifts don’t happen with tire smoke or Nürburgring lap times. They happen in boardrooms. And this week, one of the biggest just did.

Porsche AG is stepping away from the very empire it helped build, agreeing to sell its stakes in both Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group to a consortium led by HOF Capital. It’s the kind of move that sounds clinical on paper—equity stakes, regulatory approvals, confidential terms—but underneath it hums with the same intensity as a quad-turbocharged W-16.

To understand the magnitude, rewind to 2021. That’s when Porsche and Rimac joined forces to create Bugatti Rimac, a joint venture designed to shepherd one of the most storied names in automotive history into an electrified future. Porsche held 45 percent, Rimac the controlling 55, while also enjoying a 20.6-percent slice of Rimac Group itself. It was a carefully calibrated alliance: Stuttgart’s legacy and engineering rigor paired with the raw, electrified audacity of Mate Rimac.

Now, Porsche is cashing out entirely.

The buyers? Not a legacy automaker, but a financial syndicate—HOF Capital at the helm, backed by BlueFive Capital and a slate of institutional investors spanning the U.S. and Europe. Once the ink dries and regulators give their blessing—expected before the end of 2026—Rimac Group will tighten its grip on Bugatti Rimac, while HOF Capital steps in as a major shareholder alongside Rimac himself.

If that sounds like a changing of the guard, that’s because it is.

Porsche CEO Michael Leiters frames the decision as focus: a return to core business, a strategic narrowing of scope in an industry increasingly defined by costly transitions. It’s a pragmatic exit, but also a telling one. Porsche didn’t just invest in Rimac—it legitimized it, helping transform a Croatian startup into a bona fide Tier-1 technology player.

And yet, the student is now very much the master.

For Mate Rimac, this is less an ending than an acceleration. With fewer cooks in the kitchen and fresh capital at his back, the path clears for a more singular vision—one that doesn’t have to reconcile the competing priorities of a legacy OEM shareholder. His statement reads like a founder finally handed the keys to his own creation, ready to push harder and move faster.

The wildcard, of course, is the new money. Investment firms aren’t known for sentimental attachment, but both HOF Capital and BlueFive Capital are striking a tone that leans more Pebble Beach than private equity. They speak of heritage, craftsmanship, and legacy—language that suggests Bugatti’s future won’t be reduced to quarterly returns and spreadsheet efficiencies.

Still, the balancing act will be delicate. Bugatti isn’t just another brand; it’s an altar to excess, a rolling expression of engineering maximalism. Keeping that spirit alive while scaling Rimac’s technology ambitions is the kind of challenge that doesn’t come with a blueprint.

But if there’s anyone suited to the task, it’s the guy who once turned an electrified BMW E30 into a global calling card.

The broader takeaway? The hypercar world is evolving—not just in what powers the cars, but in who powers the companies behind them. As Porsche retreats to its core and financial players move in, the lines between passion project and portfolio asset blur a little more.

And somewhere in Croatia, the future of Bugatti is being rewritten—not with a signature exhaust note, but with the quiet, relentless whir of electric ambition.

Source: Bugatti