Tag Archives: Porsche

Time Travel in Light Yellow: Porsche 911 S/T, Then and Now

Some stories in the automotive world refuse to die. They sit dormant, buried in barns or archives, waiting for the right hands to bring them back to life. The Porsche 911 S/T is one of those stories—two generations, five decades apart, now reunited under one roof in the same shade of Light Yellow, paint code 117.

The Lost Racer

The year was 1972, and a Porsche 911 2.5 S/T stormed to a GT class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, wearing starting number 41. It was lean, loud, and purpose-built for endurance racing. But glory is fleeting. By the mid-1970s, the same car—once a champion—was last seen at a race in Riverdale, California, piloted by Don Lindley. After changing hands a few times, the trail went cold.

What resurfaced decades later in a barn near San Francisco was devastating: a twisted shell of rust and bad repaint jobs, a far cry from its Le Mans-winning prime. How the car went from victory lane to near oblivion remains a mystery.

The resurrection began in 2013, when a Swiss collector tracked down the carcass and shipped it to Stuttgart. The Porsche Classic experts in Zuffenhausen disassembled the remains piece by piece. They rebuilt the body using original gauges and drawings, fabricating missing parts from scratch. More than 1,000 hours of craftsmanship went into realigning and restoring the body alone. After two and a half painstaking years, the car emerged in 2016 exactly as it had in 1972: Light Yellow paint, race decals, and the number 41. This was no tribute car. It was the real thing, reborn.

The Modern Echo

Fast-forward to 2024, and the S/T badge has returned, but this time on a road-going special edition celebrating Porsche’s 60 years of the 911. Lightweight, manual-only, and powered by a 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six screaming to 9,000 rpm, the new S/T is a purist’s dream.

The Swiss collector who owns the original wanted more than just a showroom piece—he wanted continuity. Enter Porsche Sonderwunsch, the in-house program for bespoke builds. The mission: recreate the 1972 Le Mans winner’s spirit in a modern package.

That meant one thing above all else: paint it Light Yellow, code 117. This wasn’t easy. The pale shade hasn’t been part of Porsche’s palette for decades, and applying it evenly over the new car’s carbon components required a level of craftsmanship more akin to restoration than production. Yet, like its ancestor, the car emerged flawless.

Finished with forged magnesium wheels in Darksilver, black brake calipers, and a stripped-back black interior, the 2024 911 S/T is the perfect bookend to the restored racer sitting beside it in the garage.

Past Meets Future

Together, the pair tells a story few marques could script. On one side, a legend reclaimed from rust and neglect, saved by Porsche Classic’s obsessive attention to detail. On the other, a modern interpretation that proves Porsche hasn’t forgotten its roots, even as it builds cars with 9,000-rpm engines and carbon fiber panels.

Both cars are survivors in their own way. One cheated death to live again. The other refuses to let driving purity die in an era dominated by electrification. And both stand united in Light Yellow—code 117—a shade that now represents not just color, but continuity.

Source: Porsche

Indecent 020: A Modern-Day Porsche Slantnose Before Porsche Gets to It

It looks like Porsche may be preparing a modern homage to the legendary 911 Slantnose, but the aftermarket world is moving faster. A boutique builder called Indecent is about to beat Stuttgart to the punch with its own radical reimagining—the Indecent 020—set to debut before the end of the year.

For the uninitiated, Indecent isn’t just another tuner slapping wings on a 911. The company has carved out a reputation for heavily customized widebody packages for the 997 and 991 generations, with a particular flair for outlandish aerodynamics. The 020, however, promises to be something altogether bolder: a full-on reinterpretation of Porsche’s most controversial icon, the 1980s 911 Slantnose.

At first glance, the donor car is clearly a 997, but the transformation is so extensive that you’ll need a double take. The front fascia ditches traditional 911 styling in favor of a new hood carved with aggressive intakes, complemented by flared side vents and round LED headlights positioned where yawning intakes usually sit. The effect is both retro and futuristic, tipping its hat to the past while fully embracing modern aerodynamics.

The bodywork doesn’t stop at the nose. Indecent widens the front and rear fenders dramatically, adds bespoke side skirts, bolts on forged wheels, and tops it all off with a towering swan-neck carbon-fiber wing that would look at home on a GT3 R race car.

But the 020 is more than a showpiece. Underneath its reshaped skin lies a supercharged flat-six pumping out north of 600 horsepower. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a seven-speed manual transmission, making this build not just a tribute car but a driver’s weapon. Carbon-ceramic brakes, Ohlins suspension, and lightweight rolling stock round out a spec sheet that reads like a dream garage.

Production numbers remain a mystery, as does pricing, though neither will likely be modest. The question is less about cost and more about appetite: how many owners are willing to take a 997 this far from stock?

One thing is certain—Indecent’s Slantnose revival will hit the streets long before Porsche decides whether to revive the look itself. And for those who crave a mix of wild nostalgia and modern engineering, the 020 might just be the outlaw 911 of the decade.

Source: Indecent

Porsche Taycan Turbo GT Smokes the Quarter Mile in 9.08 Seconds

Sydney Dragway isn’t the kind of place you expect to see an unmodified production Porsche casually obliterate the strip. On a humid Wednesday night, where the air usually rattles with the sound of lumpy V-8s and tire smoke hangs heavy, Porsche quietly rolled out its newest electric flagship: the Taycan Turbo GT. What followed wasn’t quiet at all.

The Turbo GT launched hard, silently but brutally, covering the quarter mile in 9.083 seconds at 156.61 mph (252.04 km/h)—a number believed to be the quickest pass ever by an unmodified production car on an Australian drag strip. The crowd, expecting another round of nitrous-fed Commodores and turbo Falcons, suddenly found themselves watching the future of performance unfold in real time.

The speed was so serious it actually broke the International Hot Rod Association’s safety threshold. IHRA rules demand a parachute for any car topping 150 mph. The Taycan? No chute, no drama—just blistering acceleration and a reminder that Porsche’s idea of progress still means rewriting the rulebook.

At the heart of this beast sits an 800-volt powertrain that, with launch control, delivers up to 760 kW (1,019 hp) of overboost and can briefly spike to 815 kW (1,093 hp). That’s hypercar-level thrust in a four-door EV that still wears a Porsche crest on the nose. Its appearance at Sydney Dragway was symbolic: Porsche’s fastest and most powerful road car facing off on a stage typically reserved for nitro, big blocks, and heavily modified drag specials—and doing so with absolute authority.

For Daniel Schmollinger, CEO and Managing Director of Porsche Cars Australia, the night wasn’t just about numbers. “Porsche has always been at the forefront of performance,” he said. “The Taycan Turbo GT exemplifies our commitment to pushing boundaries—not just in lap times or acceleration figures, but in how we imagine the future of driving.”

What makes the run significant isn’t just that an EV crushed a record—it’s where it happened. This wasn’t a closed test track or a carefully orchestrated marketing video. This was grassroots, under the floodlights, with the public watching. It was a cultural statement: the electric future isn’t coming, it’s already here, and it’s fast enough to leave a parachute rulebook in the dust.

For Porsche, the Taycan Turbo GT is more than a headline-grabber. It’s a reaffirmation that performance—true, visceral, neck-snapping performance—doesn’t vanish when gas tanks do. Instead, it evolves. And as the Turbo GT showed in Sydney, sometimes it evolves quicker than anyone expected.

Source: Porsche