At this month's 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed, former Formula 1 driver Stefan Johansson will unveil a modified Porsche 911 he hand painted. It won't just be any 911, though. Instead, it will be powered by one of his former F1 racing engines.
The car—code-named SJ87—is the eighth of 11 Porsche 930 TAG Turbo builds by Lanzante, a British motorsports and engineering company that in recent years has been making road-legal versions of the McLaren P1 GTR and other track cars. Announced in 2018, the Porsche build combines a 930-generation 911 chassis with actual TAG Turbo F1 engines. These turbocharged 1.5-liter V-6 engines were developed by Porsche and used by McLaren in the 1980s.
SJ87 has the engine that powered Johansson's McLaren MP4/3 in the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix. The race didn't go well for Johansson and McLaren; the Swedish driver totaled his primary car in a collision with a deer in practice, and then lost a wheel in a pit stop during the race, finishing seventh. But the engine was in its ultimate form development-wise. McLaren had been racing the TAG Turbo engine since 1984, and would switch to Honda power for the 1988 season.
Johansson also hand-painted the car's livery. According to Lanzante, it's a mix of green, referencing Johansson's helmet design and childhood nickname "Little Leaf," the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag, and red and white for the Marlboro colors of Johansson's McLaren MP4/3 F1 car.
Lanzante 930 Porsche 911 powered by Tag Turbo Formula 1 engine
While the race car was estimated to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 hp, the 930 road car has a more manageable 503 hp, which is sent to the rear wheels through a 6-speed manual gearbox from a 993-generation 911. Lanzante estimates a curb weight of 2,248 pounds, not including the driver and fuel.
The completed car will be unveiled at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed, which starts in the U.K. on July 13. It won't be the only retro 911 build; Singer will present its Dynamics and Lightweighting Study — Turbo, a 964 that channels the Porsche 934/5 race car of the 1970s.
