Tag Archives: Porsche

Restomod

Kalmar 7-97 Turbo

Restomods are supposed to be about nostalgia—rose-tinted memories of simpler cars, rebuilt with just enough modern hardware to keep them from leaving you stranded on the side of the road. But Kalmar has never really played that game. When the Danish outfit unveiled its 7-97—a beautifully sharpened take on the Porsche 993—it already felt less like a museum piece and more like a driver’s car turned up to eleven.

Now Kalmar has taken that idea and bolted on a turbocharger.

The result is the 7-97 Turbo, a strictly limited, deeply obsessive homage to the most feared 911 of them all: the 930 Turbo. Only 11 examples will be built, split between coupe and cabriolet, and every one of them exists to answer a single question: What if the Widowmaker had been given modern technology—and modern restraint?

Turbo Power, Without the Terror

The original 7-97 was a purist’s dream. Its naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six made 417 horsepower and delivered its power the old-fashioned way: cleanly, instantly, and with no digital safety net between the driver and the rear tires.

The Turbo Edition throws that restraint out the window. In place of the 4.0 sits a heavily reworked 3.2-liter turbocharged flat-six that makes an outrageous 659 horsepower and 670 Nm of torque. Those are modern 911 Turbo S numbers, wrapped in a body that looks like it just rolled out of a 1990s Porsche press kit.

To survive that kind of boost, Kalmar went deep into the engine. New pistons, reinforced cylinder walls, copper-beryllium head gaskets, and upgraded valve seats all ensure the engine can handle being force-fed at this level. This isn’t a tuned street motor—it’s a purpose-built turbo powerplant designed to live at the edge.

And yes, it sends power to all four wheels. Traction control is standard, because even Kalmar knows 659 horsepower in a 1200-kilogram car is nothing to joke about. But this is still a proper enthusiast machine: three pedals, a gear lever, and no dual-clutch safety blanket in sight.

From Widowmaker to Precision Tool

The original 930 Turbo earned its reputation honestly. Massive turbo lag, brutal power delivery, and rear-heavy balance made it infamous for catching drivers out mid-corner. It was thrilling, but it was also ruthless.

The 7-97 Turbo is built on the opposite philosophy. Kalmar’s goal wasn’t to recreate the terror—it was to recreate the character, minus the unpredictability. Modern electronics, adaptive TracTive dampers, and all-wheel drive give the Turbo Edition a level of composure the old 930 could never dream of.

You can still get sideways if you want to—but now it’s a choice, not an accident.

Carbon-ceramic brakes sit behind 18-inch magnesium center-lock wheels, while the chassis has been reinforced to cope with the forces this thing can generate. Carbon-fiber doors and roof keep the weight at a stunning 1200 kilograms, giving the Kalmar a power-to-weight ratio that edges into supercar territory.

A Subtle, Smarter 930

Visually, Kalmar showed rare restraint. The 7-97 Turbo doesn’t scream for attention. Instead, it refines the 993 shape into something that feels both familiar and subtly more aggressive.

The rear wears a new whale-tail spoiler, a clear nod to the 930, while the front blends design cues from several vintage 911s, including a grille inspired by the 1967 911R. It’s retro, but not cartoonish—exactly the kind of design that makes you look twice without ever feeling forced.

Inside, the Turbo Edition sticks close to the standard 7-97 formula, but with bespoke details to suit its boosted personality. The example shown wears Recaro Sportster CS seats trimmed in dark brown leather, but with only 11 cars planned, buyers will have near-total freedom to tailor the cabin to their own taste.

A Restomod With Supercar Punch

What Kalmar has created isn’t just a faster 7-97—it’s a redefinition of what a classic-inspired 911 can be. With power that rivals today’s best from Stuttgart, a curb weight that embarrasses them, and a manual gearbox to keep things honest, the 7-97 Turbo sits in a class of its own.

It’s not trying to replace a modern 911 Turbo S. It’s trying to do something far more interesting: deliver that level of performance while making you feel like you’re driving a piece of Porsche’s most notorious history.

The Widowmaker has been tamed—but it hasn’t been neutered. And for the lucky 11 people who get one, that might be the ultimate version of the turbocharged 911.

Source: Kalmar Automotive

News

Porsche Ice Experience Canada Turns 15

If you’ve ever wondered how a 911 behaves when the road turns into a skating rink, Porsche has been refining the answer for 15 years. This February, the Porsche Ice Experience Canada marks its 15th anniversary, and the brand is celebrating the milestone the only way it knows how: by putting people behind the wheel of its latest sports cars and letting them loose on snow and ice.

The setting is Mécaglisse, a purpose-built winter driving playground just outside Montreal. Think of it as a frozen laboratory for oversteer, complete with multi-turn circuits and expansive skid pads. Everything is designed to let drivers explore the limits of traction in a safe, controlled environment—where spinning out is part of the lesson, not a reason to panic.

Beyond the driving, the location does a lot of the heavy lifting. The Laurentian winter scenery looks like a brochure for Canadian tourism, and Porsche layers on the kind of five-star hospitality you’d expect from a global luxury brand. Mont-Tremblant is nearby, too, making it dangerously easy to turn a driving course into a full-blown winter holiday.

According to Trevor Arthur, President and CEO of Porsche Cars Canada, the anniversary isn’t just about nostalgia. The goal remains practical: showing how Porsche’s sports cars can be both thrilling and confidence-inspiring, even in brutal winter conditions. With Porsche-certified instructors riding shotgun, participants learn real skills—how to manage throttle on ice, read weight transfer, and correct a slide before it becomes a pirouette.

The program lineup is broad enough to suit just about anyone with a driver’s license and a pulse. There’s Ice Trial for beginners, Ice Intro and Ice Experience for those looking to step it up, and the more intense Ice Force and Ice Force + for drivers who want to push closer to the edge. Returning for the anniversary season is Ice for HER, a program designed specifically for female participants and taught by female instructors—same cars, same ice, just a more tailored learning environment.

Canada’s program is part of a much larger frozen empire. Porsche’s winter driving concept started in Finland, where the Arctic Center north of the Arctic Circle hosts advanced events on frozen lakes. There’s also an Ice Experience in Mongolia aimed at Chinese customers, along with smaller winter programs in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. In other words, Porsche has effectively turned “bad weather” into a global training brand.

At its core, the Ice Experience isn’t about pretending everyone will become a rally driver. It’s about learning how performance cars behave when conditions are less than perfect—and doing it in a way that’s equal parts education and adrenaline. Fifteen years in, Porsche has figured out something important: sometimes the best way to understand a sports car is to take away its grip and see what’s left.

Source: Porsche

News

Thieves Make a Clean Getaway With Ferrari and $1.4M Porsche

If you’ve ever wondered how long it takes to steal nearly eight figures’ worth of dream cars, the answer—apparently—is less time than it takes to brew a decent cup of coffee.

Early Sunday morning, a Canadian car dealership was relieved of eight high-end vehicles in a theft that reportedly lasted between eight and ten minutes. No tow trucks, no elaborate Mission: Impossible choreography. Just a crowbar, a box of keys, and enough confidence to walk out with a Ferrari 812 GTS, a Porsche 911 GT3, two Mercedes-Benz S580s, and two BMW M4s.

According to footage released by Global News, the operation looked less like a smash-and-grab and more like a grimly efficient pit stop. Roughly a dozen thieves, all dressed in black and wearing masks, smashed through the dealership’s glass doors at around 3:35 a.m. Once inside, they went straight for a wall-mounted lockbox containing the keys to every vehicle on the lot. A crowbar made short work of it.

From there, the group calmly rearranged furniture to clear an exit path, fired up the engines, and drove off—one by one—in some of the most desirable performance cars money can buy.

It took another four hours before anyone noticed.

The list of stolen cars reads like the lineup at an enthusiast fantasy draft. The Ferrari 812 GTS alone packs a naturally aspirated V-12 producing 789 horsepower, while the Porsche 911 GT3—arguably the most track-focused road car Porsche sells—carries an estimated value of around $1.4 million. That GT3, notably, remains missing.

Four of the stolen vehicles have since been recovered, and one suspect has been arrested. Another thief reportedly left a trail of blood at the scene, suggesting that not everything went entirely according to plan. Still, as far as high-speed automotive crime goes, this one was alarmingly smooth.

What makes the story unsettling isn’t just the value of the cars, but how easily they were taken. No hacking of encrypted ECUs. No relay attacks on keyless entry systems. Just a physical lockbox full of keys, waiting behind glass doors. It’s a reminder that while modern cars are rolling fortresses of software and sensors, the weakest link is often still a piece of hardware bolted to a wall.

The Porsche’s disappearance is particularly painful. GT3s aren’t just expensive—they’re sacred objects in enthusiast culture, engineered with obsessive focus and often spec’d by owners who waited years for an allocation. Seeing one vanish into the criminal ether is the kind of thing that keeps collectors awake at night.

Dealerships, meanwhile, are left with an uncomfortable takeaway: it doesn’t matter how advanced the cars are if the keys are easier to steal than the vehicles themselves.

As for the missing GT3, there’s a good chance it’s already been shipped overseas, stripped for parts, or hidden away in a warehouse where its flat-six will never see a redline again. For enthusiasts, that may be the real tragedy—not the money, but the loss of a machine built to be driven, reduced to a line item in a police report.

Eight minutes. Eight cars. And one Porsche that, for now, has disappeared without a trace.

Source: Global News via YouTube