At last week's 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed, former Formula 1 driver Stefan Johansson unveiled a modified Porsche 911 that not only did he hand paint, but that's powered by one of his ex-F1 racing engines.
Code-named SJ87, the car in question is the eighth of 11 Porsche 930 TAG Turbos by Lanzante, a British motorsports and engineering company that has also made road-legal versions of track cars like the McLaren P1 GTR. Announced in 2018, the TAG Turbo combines a Porsche 930 body shell with actual F1 engines, specifically the 1.5-liter V-6 TAG Turbo units developed by Porsche and used by McLaren in the 1980s.
Johansson was one of the drivers for McLaren in that period, and the SJ87 has the engine that powered his MP4/3 F1 car in the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix. Things didn't go well; 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.
The engine also makes plenty of power. Estimated to produce around 750 hp in race trim, the turbo V-6 has been detuned to a more manageable 503 hp for use in the 930 road car. It's connected to a 6-speed manual transmission from a 993-generation 911, which directs power to the rear wheels. Lanzante estimates a curb weight of 2,248 pounds, not including the driver and fuel.
Porsche 930 TAG Turbo
The SJ87 won't be the only Porsche 911 with a TAG Turbo engine, but it will be unique thanks to a livery designed and painted by Johansson, who is now an artist. The streaks of color over the white body include green for the driver'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 race car.
The completed car was displayed alongside Lanzante's road-legal Pagani Zonda Revolución, plus a couple of the company's McLaren F1 GTR road-legal conversions at Goodwood.
