SEMA 2014: The “DV8” 911 Is Brilliant, Innovative, And Complete Sacrilege To Porsche Fanboys Everywhere

I have a theory when it comes to building cars, or basically any kind of creation and that theory is that it is impossible to create something truly innovative and awesome without violently pissing off at least a few people.  No matter how brilliant an idea is, if it is something that changes the status quo major flame wars are to be expected.  To take on something that like regardless takes some brass ones.  That is where Falken Tire Motorsport Marketing Manager Nick Fousekis comes in.

Like all of us Nick was witness to the explosion of the Toyobaru phenomenon AKA the rise of the Scion FR-S and the Subaru BRZ and saw all the individuals who were picking up rear wheel drive sport cars for $25k.  Nick decided that he wanted to have cool sports car for $25k too but he didn’t want an FR-S or a BRZ and he wanted his car to have double the performance offered by the split personalities of the GT86 platform.  Being constantly surrounded by Porsches due to Falken Tire’s GT3 race program Nick decided that a Porsche 911 would be his platform of choice.  Its not hard to find a Porsche chassis for a decent price, but making one fast is another story.  Their flat six engines have tons of potential but it also takes tons of money to get those engines to that point.  He needed a less expensive way to make reliable power.  It was at this point he was inspired by the current trend in drifting, (another motorsport in which Falken Tire is heavily involved) he was going to shoe-horn a Chevy V8 into it.  “Sayyyy whhaaaaaat?!” Said all the Porsche fanboys in the world!

Saying that you are going to put an American V8 in a Porsche 911 is enough to get you thrown off a bridge in some parts of the world, or at the very least harassed in some parts of the internet.  However, as crazy as the idea sounds, dropping an American V8 into a Porsche is not unheard of.  In fact there is a shop out in Las Vegas called Renegade Hybrids that specializes specifically in just such a conversion.  Naturally, Nick turned to them to build the conversion for a 996 chassis he had on deck for the project.  While the conversion was being done Nick was able to find an authentic GT3 widebody aero kit thanks to his Motorsport connections and turned to Race Tech Services (a race car shop that works closely with Falken Tire’s drifting program) to install it.  The Aero package is a bit out of the price range but this wasn’t about the looks, the goal was to create performance as good as or in this case much better than any new sports car in the $25k range.

The result is what Nick has dubbed the “DV8” (get it?) Porsche 911.  Its awesome, its innovative, and its mere existence is driving some people into a complete rage spiral and I love it!  For a closer look, just click the thumbnails in this post.  If you’re lucky you may just catch the DV8 Porsche 911 at a car show or motorsport event next year.