Photo: Mitchell Race Xtreme
Porsche engineers are some of the most stubborn people in the history of the automobile. When Old Man Porsche and his team decided the perfect arrangement for a sports car was rear-wheel drive with an engine in the rear, contrary to everyone else, they dug in their heels and ensured it didn't change for six decades. So, what do you think happens when a group of tuners and mechanics messes up all of Porsche's hard work?
Well, it doesn't matter how much Porsche copes and seethes; Mitchell Race Xtreme of Horotiu, New Zealand, just ripped the engine out of 997-series GT3 Cup and put an entirely different motor where the front frunk used to be. To make matters worse for Porsche's PR people, the engine in question comes out of a freakin' Mercedes-Benz. This little shop, near the northwestern tip of New Zealand's North Island, Mitchell Race Xtreme's portfolio of builds consists of a 1970 Dodge Challenger with a 358 cubic inch NASCAR V8, a GT3-spec Ferrari 458 powered by a gosh-darn Indycar V8, and a few purpose-built racers competing in the various semi-pro touring car racing leagues across New Zealand and Australia.
In short, they're the perfect team of techs to take a perfectly good Porsche GT3 Cup shell and weld it to the chassis of, of all things, a 2015 Ssangyong Actyon race truck. The Actyon, a South Korean pickup truck also sold as an SUV, even had a bespoke racing series in New Zealand starting in 2014. Lightly modified Actyons with 2.3-liter petrol engines and lowered suspensions competed in what must have been the most bizarre-themed race ever to take place in Oceania. It would explain how Mitchell Race Xtreme got their hands on such a chassis so surprisingly easily.
Once the German and South Korean halves of this odd chimera of a vehicle were joined together, it was time to royally tick off Porsche engineers yet again. The new engine in question for the build is the same 2.3-liter Mercedes M111 four-cylinder engine used under license by Ssangyong between 2005 and 2013. It was also used in the S-Class clone SsangYong Chairman, as well as a few other Ssangyong models like the Kyron, the Musso, and the Rexton. In short, it was even easier to source an engine for this German-Korean fusion project wearing Porsche 911 clothes.
There's something so devilishly delicious about seeing the top of an engine block jutting out the front end of a 911. It's as if every single 911 fanboy and gatekeeper collectively looked at this creation and were all simultaneously appalled by what they saw. But while they all cry a river, the rest of us can appreciate a shop that dared to tip the rear-engine 911 sacred cow.
In short, they're the perfect team of techs to take a perfectly good Porsche GT3 Cup shell and weld it to the chassis of, of all things, a 2015 Ssangyong Actyon race truck. The Actyon, a South Korean pickup truck also sold as an SUV, even had a bespoke racing series in New Zealand starting in 2014. Lightly modified Actyons with 2.3-liter petrol engines and lowered suspensions competed in what must have been the most bizarre-themed race ever to take place in Oceania. It would explain how Mitchell Race Xtreme got their hands on such a chassis so surprisingly easily.
Once the German and South Korean halves of this odd chimera of a vehicle were joined together, it was time to royally tick off Porsche engineers yet again. The new engine in question for the build is the same 2.3-liter Mercedes M111 four-cylinder engine used under license by Ssangyong between 2005 and 2013. It was also used in the S-Class clone SsangYong Chairman, as well as a few other Ssangyong models like the Kyron, the Musso, and the Rexton. In short, it was even easier to source an engine for this German-Korean fusion project wearing Porsche 911 clothes.
There's something so devilishly delicious about seeing the top of an engine block jutting out the front end of a 911. It's as if every single 911 fanboy and gatekeeper collectively looked at this creation and were all simultaneously appalled by what they saw. But while they all cry a river, the rest of us can appreciate a shop that dared to tip the rear-engine 911 sacred cow.
Google News