Among the favorite "victims" of tuning in the 1980s the Porsche 911 took a prominent place. Many tuners used the 911 as a platform for their tuning-extravagance. The diversity of the tuned cars is quite big. Many 911 Porsches didn't receive more than a slanted nose (or Flachschnauze as called in German), a popular tuning-item which was derived from the 911-family racing cars that ruled the racing-world in the 1970s. But a slantnose was just the start, because Porsche 911's were modified into everything from street-worthy racing-cars to 400.000 Dollar luxury sportscars. Here we show you what was possible on the nine-eleven back in the 1980's.

This is a Porsche 911 Turbo (930), somewhat mildly modified by a US-based tuner named American International Racing (AIR). AIR have equipped this 911 with a new front bumper, a slantnose, new side skirts and a set of spoked wheels.

This 911 Porsche is a tuning-legend: the B+B Porsche 911 Targa Turbo. The car doesn't seem to be very special, but when you know Porsche only made a regular version of the Targa (at least not for another 10 years), no Turbo you can appreciate the rarity of this car. The car was made from a regular Targa, B+B from Frankfurt strengthened the body of the car so it was able cope with the 300BHP Turbo engine's power and added a lot of extra toys when desired by the customer as well.

A Rinspeed 939 (a few years after introduction named Rinspeed R39). The Rinspeed 939 / R39 was the convertible equivalent of the Targa Turbo from Buchmann. Porsche didn't make a Porsche 911 convertible with Turbo-engine until 1986. Rinspeed from Zürich did virtually the same as Buchmann, converting a regular 911 cabriolet into a Turbo-version by strengthening the car to cope with the extra power. The Rinspeed 939 was not just about the engine though, the car had very flashy looks: a Porsche 928-style slantnose with round pop-up headlights and 928 tail-lights, flared fenders, special interior and new rims.

One of the finest and most extremely modified Porsche 911's from the 1980's: the Gemballa Avalanche. This Gemballa Avalanche started life as a Porsche 930 Turbo, but was fitted with new very wide fenders crafted from metall, Ronal rims, a slanted nose with pop-up headlights, a huge rear wing and a spoiler over the rear window. On the inside there was a new interior and all electronic gadgetry available including cameras to replace the rear-view mirrors. Then there was the engine which was modified by renowned Porsche-tuner Alois Ruf, developing 374BHP which was about 100 more than stock and quite a lot for the day. Prices were steep, an Avalanche used to cost 220.000 USD (1987).

This is a Kremer 935 Street-Turbo (or Kremer 935 Group 5 Street). It looks like a DP Motorsport Porsche because it almost is: Kremer-Porsche was the private Porsche racing team that gave DP's Ekkehard Zimmermann the order to make a new body for the 935 Porsches in the 1970's. This street-version based on a regular Porsche 930 Turbo also used a bodykit similar to the one DP Motorsport street-cars used. Accept for the racy looks with slanted nose and widebody fenders the Kremer 935 Group 5 Street had a 360BHP or 390BHP engine.

Another Rinspeed creation: the Rinspeed 969, later called Rinspeed R69. For this Porsche 911 conversion Frank Rinderknecht was inspired by the Ferrari Testarossa which he found a better looking car than the Porsche 911. Combining both designs might not have been the best idea according to many, but this is 80's tuning at it's best. As long as it looks different! With the slanted nose and Testarossa side and rear the roofline almost looks like glued on top of a real Testarossa. This 969 conversion was also available for the Porsche 911 cabriolet.

This is the DP Motorsport Daytona 935, basically a Kremer K3 racing car for the street. DP Motorsport was responsible for the bodywork of the Kremer racing Porsches and it wasn't strange there were some customers wanting just that for the streets. Based on a road-worthy Porsche 930 Turbo this DP 935 Daytona was made for a customer in NewYork City that wanted something different. 520BHP from a 3.4 engine with two turbos were the power output for this monster and priced at 300.000 DM in 1988 it was a real supercar.

This "tuner-Porsche" was in fact a factory-produced car. Mansour Ojjeh, owner of the TAG investment company, who was involved with building Porsche-turbo engines for the McLaren F1-team in the early 80's, got this very car as a present from Porsche. This street-version of the Porsche 935 (though based on a 930 Turbo) was different in most ways from a stock 911. Widebodied, big spoilers, fat rims and tyres, slanted nose, Recaro-seats and a Clarion G80 sound-system were among the few extras. An uprated engine with about 100BHP extra made this also a bit faster. A very nice 280.000 DM (1983) present.

A US-built Porsche creation: this Porsche 930 Turbo was modified by Car Crafters of Miami / EF Widebodies from Miami, Florida. The conversion was completely made from "U.S. Steel", as mentioned in a period ad. The rear wing resembles that of a Porsche 959 and with the slantnose and BBS 17" deep dish rims it makes a true 1980's tuning-marvel.

To conclude this list of examples a 930 Turbo by Duttons-Porsche from Australia. Not quite as extreme as most of the others on this page but very cool though: dark-green with creme Fuchs rims. The slanted nose and flared fender seem to be from the "Special order program" from Porsche.

Text: copyright Bram Corts 2013