The $500,000 Gunther Werks 400R

 

The 400R in the 2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders staging area

The only imported car named as one of the twelve finalists for the 2017 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Battle of the Builder was this Gunther Werks 400R, a modified 1995 Porsche 911 Carrera which was displayed during the week in the Meguiar’s booth.

The 400R in the Meguiar's booth

 

Gunther Werks was founded in Orange County California by Peter Nam, the man behind, a company best known for body kits for luxury cars such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and Vorsteiner Nero which builds kits for high-end sports cars such as Lamborghini and McLaren. For more than 14 years, Vorsteiner has manufactured autoclaved pre-impregnated carbon fiber composite parts and now offers forged aluminum custom wheels.

 

 

The 400R in the Meguiar's booth

 

The company name is an homage to Günter Wendt, a German born mechanical engineer who worked with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) as an employee of McDonnell Aircraft and North American Aviation. Wendt was in charge of the spacecraft service crew on the launch pads for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and the early phases of the space shuttle program at the Kennedy Space Center before he retired in 1989.   

 

The 400R in the 2017 SEMA Battle of the Builders staging area

 

Gunther Werks specializes in the development of its Porsche 993 400R designed to retain the appearance and driving experience of the Porsche 993 (the last air-cooled Porsche) but augment it with modern technology   Only 25 examples of the $525,000 Porsche 993 400R conversion will be produced, each customer car modified to the customer’s specifications.    

Photo provided by Gunther Werks

 

Rothsport Racing enlarged the stock Carrera’s 3.6 liter flat-six naturally aspirated engine to 4.0-liters of displacement, and the engine uses Mahle pistons, billet connecting rods and billet crankshaft which are blueprinted and balanced before its dynamometer test. The power and torque targets are 330 foot-pounds (ft/lb) of torque and 400+ horsepower with a 7800 revolutions per minute (RPM) redline, which is quite an increase from the stock 911 Carrera’s 272 horsepower, 243 ft/lb of torque and a rev limit of  6700 RPM.   

 

 

 

According to Gunther Werks, “all the greatest Porsche race cars ran a square track where the front and rear tracks were the same width which helped to eliminate the inherent understeer of the 911 platform.” Apparently these folks have never seen a Porsche 917, in particular the 917/30 SCCA Can-Am car which had a 4-1/2 inch wider front track than the rear.

The 400R has a 63-inch track both front and rear, a huge increase from the stock 55.3 inch front and 56.8 inch rear track widths. In addition the 400R is equipped with 8-1/2 inch wide front and 11-1/2 inch wide rear Pirelli P Zero tires , which is 1-1/2 wider than stock in front and 2-1/2 inches wider in the rear.  

To incorporate the extra width, the 400R bodywork retains the basic style of the earlier 911 models, but uses carbon-fiber composite body panels, hood, deck lid, spoiler, front fascia and roof to create a customized body that is lighter weight, stronger and more rigid than the original.

While it was an honor to be selected to participate in the Battle of the Builders the 400R did not make it to the top-three finalists as Troy Trepanier’s winning 1929 Ford Model-A Tudor sedan edged out Alan Johnson’s 1932 Ford Tudor Sedan and Troy Ladd’s 1936 Packard roadster. 


 
Information for this article was provided by Gunther Werks which is not affiliated with Porsche Cars North America, Inc., or Dr Ing h.c.F. Porsche, AG. The Porsche®, 993® and 911® names are trademarks of Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG. Any mention of trademarked names is for purpose of reference only.

http://guntherwerks.com/

All photos by the author unless noted