Every year around Halloween the most intense car builds in the world gather to capture attention at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturing Association convention—or SEMA—in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. Each time SEMA happens, the builds get bigger and wilder and start from a more bizarre premise. We’ve seen lots of crazy engine swaps into Porsches, but this is the first time we’ve seen a 997 GT3 with a Subaru WRX engine in the back. The car presented here is currently sitting in the Eneos Oils booth at SEMA in booth #23819 in the central hall, so if you’re at SEMA go check it out and report back to us. From the photos, it looks like a truly well built car, and probably a whole lot of fun.
While the car hasn’t hit the dyno yet, it’s reported to be pumping around 550 horsepower out of that diminutive 2.5-liter four-cylinder. Consider that the Subaru engine is a full 170 pounds lighter than the flat six it replaces, and the car has been largely stripped of its interior creature comforts, and you’ve got a real weapon on your hands. This engine is now a laggy big-turbo four cylinder, and the engine it replaced was a high-revving sports car masterpiece, but power is power, right?
Don’t fret that a perfect car was wrecked for this build, the car was wrecked before it ever got to the builder. This 2007 GT3 was sent off to DevSpeed Motorsports as a rolling shell that had been crunched as a street car. DevSpeed set about building a Subaru Impreza WRX STI engine, known among Subaru fanatics as the EJ25 engine, with the aim of turning the car into a track monster. The engine was fitted with a single BorgWarner EFR 7064-C turbocharger, which you can see poking out of the rear bumper. Add in a Vibrant Performance intercooler, high-flow Deatschwerks injectors and fuel pump, and more. The transmission is still from the STI, a six-speed unit, but it has had a custom-machined reverse-cut ring gear to flip the whole thing around and run it backwards in the 911.
The bodywork on the car has been replaced with incredible 997 GT3R race car spec stuff, thanks to VAD Design in the UK. The Rotiform 917-style wheels are 10 inches wide at the front and 13 inches wide at the rear, wrapped in Toyo Proxes R888R tires. The suspension is handled by a set of BC Racing coilovers.
The final icing on the cake that is this car, however, is the livery. If you look, the sweeping stripes down the side and over the top of this car are reminiscent of the red and white 917 Salzburg that Porsche won Le Mans with in 1970, but they’ve been color-swapped to Subaru’s WRC racing color combo of Rally Blue Mica and yellow. There are even a few “stars of Pleiades” on the car as well to represent the constellation around which Subaru designed its badge.
Okay, it’s not Porsche-powered, but I kind of love this car. It it’s built half as well as it looks in these promotional images, I’m in.