Have you ever ridden a roller coaster at an amusement park that was just so much fun you had to immediately get back in line to try it again as soon as possible? When I was younger, I’d do that all the time. In the below video, Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire, takes Marco’s turbocharged “Carrera Turbo” (a narrow-body 911 with a non-intercooled 911 Turbo engine shoved in the back) for a spin, and that’s exactly what I was reminded of. After a sweet run down the road and back, Matt saw the finish line of his drive come into view and decided to keep driving right past it, getting in another five minutes of glorious boost and non-linear throttle.
This Porsche, like the 914 featured a couple weeks ago, was built by TLG Porsche in North Hollywood, California. Marco’s father built the 1975 911 into a little bit of a hot rod for the family matriarch, but Marco ended up with it after it had racked up serious miles. After a brief stint with a hot naturally aspirated engine, the wild 3.2 liter single turbo non-intercooled engine was built for this car, and it’s been in there for a few years now. With over 300 horsepower to the rear wheels and original narrow fenders, this beast has an uncomfortably high power-to-tire-width ratio. That doesn’t stop Marco from driving the Porsche as often as possible, or Matt from pushing the 911 to its limits on gorgeous SoCal roads.
Matt’s One Take videos are ending at the end of this month, so it’s great that they end with a bang. This Porsche is perhaps one of the most interesting cars the show has ever featured, and has us thinking about how easy it would be to fit a spare 930 engine into the back of our 1976 Porsche 912E. This is how bad ideas begin.
