EVO Magazine just released info (and pics) about that very special project from German Porsche tuner, 9ff. If 9ff sounds familiar, you may remember it as the company that has set a couple of street legal records with highly modified 911s. It appears they have given up on the 911's rear-engine configuration in favor of a custom vehicle with its engine mounted amidships.
Specialist Porsche tuner 9ff is going after the Bugatti Veyron’s top speed record with this, the Porsche GT9, a 900bhp-plus mid-engined supercar loosely based on the Porsche 911. The car is currently being assembled at 9ff’s impressive new factory in Dortmund, Germany, in time for the annual Auto Motor und Sport top speed shoot-out
at the Nardo test track.
9ff boss Jan Fatthauer hopes the Porsche GT9 will achieve 409kph (254mph) to eclipse the Veyron’s record of 407.5kph (253.2mph). We reckon it’s a good bet – in late 2004 9ff’s Porsche 911-based V400, powered by the company’s 840bhp engine, hit 387.9kph (241mph).
According to Fatthauer, the GT9’s 4.2-litre flat-six will produce 'at least 910, possibly 950bhp'
thanks to the advantageous positioning of its twin turbos afforded by the mid-engined layout.
If the GT9 makes 409kph on the 7.8-mile bowl it will be an impressive achievement – the Bugatti hit its speed on the 5.6-mile straight at VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track.
American specialty manufacturer, SSC is currently going about that task in a slightly different way, and Koenigsegg and Saleen seem to have vehicles available that would also challenge these speeds, but 9ff has experience here, as
well. They've already had a Porsche 911 go 241 with just 840 hp. Sorting out what kind of record this would be is a bit tricky. Tuners are generally separated from production cars, but specialty manufacturers can actually qualify as production vehicles, even if they sell far fewer cars than the tuners.
It’s a measure of 9ff’s growing reputation that it has already sold two 9ff Porsche GT9s at 400,000 euros plus local taxes.
