Produced between 2011 and 2019, the 991 is Porsche’s way of designating the seventh-generation 911. No fewer than 233,540 units were produced, including this pre-facelift Turbo S that develops 1,406.48 horsepower and 1,170.21 pound-feet (1,586.6 Nm) at the wheels.
Take a minute if you need to let those numbers sink in, then remember that the 991 Turbo S originally developed 552 horsepower and 516 pound-feet (700 Nm) at the crankshaft. Pictured at Bahrain International Circuit’s drag strip, the blue-painted monster clearly isn’t a stock vehicle.
Baptized ES1XXX by its owner, Ebrahim Kanoo of EKanoo Racing, the rear-engined sports car was tuned by ESMOTOR, a Turkish company that prides itself as “the home of the world’s quickest Porsches.” In addition to custom ECU and TCU software upgrades, the peeps at ESMOTOR further specialize in custom engine builds, turbo kits, transmission upgrades, drivetrain and suspension tuning, track day preparation, and all that jazz.
Built by EKanoo Racing and ESMOTOR, the wheelie-popping Neunelfer wears a set of sticky drag radials. Engine management comes courtesy of Syvecs Powertrain Control, although we don’t know if Ebrahim went for a plug-in engine control unit or a standalone system. Another notable improvement over the stock vehicle is the dual-clutch transmission, which is rocking a Dodson Motorsport clutch kit manufactured in New Zealand.
We’ve covered Dodson Motorsport on quite a few occasions. A heavily-modified Corvette Stingray sporting Dodson Motorsport clutches ran 8.973 at 160.9 miles per hour (258.94 kilometers per hour) last year, driven by FuelTech big kahuna Anderson Dick. As far as the 991 is concerned, the New Zealand-based company is aware of an 8.21-second record run at just around 167 miles per hour (267.76 kilometers per hour).
Right after popping a wheelie, ES1XXX got back to the Christmas tree for a cleaner start off the line. The Dragy performance meter shows that it launched to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) in a whopping 1.91 seconds, accelerated from 60 to 130 miles per hour (nearly 210 kilometers per hour) in 3.29 seconds, covered the eighth mile in 5.52 seconds, and ran the quarter mile in the low 8s. More specifically, it needed 8.373 seconds.
There are plenty of reasons why the 991 platform is popular with straight-line aficionados like Ebrahim. For starters, this generation of the 911 is old enough to benefit from a wide selection of go-faster goodies from the aftermarket. It’s also way less complex than the subsequent 992, which is due to receive the 992.2 mid-cycle refresh next year for model year 2024.
The 991 platform, however, isn’t without its downsides. Arguably the most popular downside of them all is the switch from hydraulic to electric steering, which doesn’t offer the same feel as the hydraulic system introduced by the 964 in 1989. On the other hand, going electric means no engine-driven pump for better efficiency and weight savings over the 997.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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