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Intercontinental Engine Swap: Porsche 928 with Rare Toyota V12

I bet you guys didn't even know that Toyota had ever built such an exotic engine as a V12. Buy they did, and it's called the 1GZ-FE. The 5-liter mill is used to power the Japan-only Toyota Century luxury limousine that entered production in 1997.
Intercontinental Engine Swap: Porsche 928 with Toyota V12 Engine 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from Youtube
There aren't a lot of them around, so we were surprised when we discovered that a guy had found one and stuffed it under the bonnet of a Porsche 928. This awesome looking coupe from 1982 constantly reminds us of Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear (Risky Business), but it never had that large of an engine.

The Japanese 5-liter V10 monster was stuffed under the long bonnet and connected to a 2002 Corvette six-speed T-56 transaxle using an adapter. It kind of changes everything we know about engine swaps. I mean, most people would be happy just keeping the Porsche 928 on the road while a precious few might think about an LSX. But to use a Toyota V12 nobody knows about… that's classy.

The 1GZ-FE has an interesting story to tell. Officially, it's rated at 280 horsepower, but that's because of the armistice in the 'power war" going on at the time. The actual output is estimated to be around 310 horsepower. Why use a large V12 in a luxury limousine? Because it produces 80% of its torque from 1,200rpm. Considering the Emperor of Japan rides around in a Toyota Century that cost $500,000 (52,500,000 yen), that's a good thing.

This still isn't the weirdest Porsche 928 we've ever seen. That title belongs to a 6-wheeler sports pickup truck we discovered in March.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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