Text By:  Les Bidrawn
Photos By:  The Authur

Force-fed flat-six motors have been a tuner favorite, because the gains are huge and long-lived. At places like Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring, 911s are so ubiquitous because of their reliability that you can jump from 911 hood to 911 hood and never touch the ground. And while the 911 featured on these pages was intended for street use, it could hold its own on a race track...hell, it might even win.

"We started with the best of the best," said Alex Shen of SP Engineering in Temple City, California. "The 911 biturbo is basically a race car; we expanded its capabilities largely through Porsche's GT2 parts bin."

An engineering graduate at Texas A & M, Shen and his team have been building high-end project cars for six years, both domestic and imports. Our new sister publication, Turbo, just featured SP's 650-bhp Toyota Supra Turbo, a street-legal monster capable of covering the 1/4 mile in a tic over 10 sec. This car isn't quite that brutal--1/4 miles in the high 11s, 0-60 in 3.9 sec and a top speed that exceeds 180 mph. However, reducing this car to mere numbers is like counting the brushstrokes on a Van Gogh. This car does everything with such brilliance, it belongs in very rare company.

The view from inside the SPE 911 is largely factory-spec save for an elaborate Breykrause strut brace mounted between the rear towers and SPE's carbon-fiber inserts Although the stock seats look like basic buckets, they are deceptively comfortable, offering superb support--that's a good thing, as launching this beast without proper restraint would be like shaking a ball bearing in a coffee can.

First gear is laughably brief.

The Porsche pings off the rev-limiter so violently you're thrown forward with enough force to eject old fillings.

Second is about the same.

The engine builds boost fast, and the gear is over by the time your hand leaves the knob for the steering wheel. SP chose a GT2 cam profile that retained much of the bottom end, so the term "turbo lag" does not apply here. Additional fuel comes by way of an upgraded fuel regulator, which feeds blueprinted GT2 injectors.

Third lasts a bit longer but not much, just enough to press internal organs against the spine.

GT2 turbochargers feature larger exhaust housings, which gives the Porsche bigger lungs--coupled with SP Engineering's own free-breathing stainless steel exhaust, you'd swear this car will never run out of steam.

Fourth gear is something just shy of automotive nirvana.

Shen chose a Gemballa ECU for the engine management, because it provided a good compromise between spirited track sessions and trips to the grocery store.

Fifth gear and the Porsche exceeds the take-off speed of a 747 (168 mph).

The pronounced bodywear is as purposeful as it looks. The big GT2 wing provides considerable downforce at speed and features an adjustable lip to fine tune its effectiveness. The nose has been fitted with a Motorsport airdam, and the side skirts are Gemballa pieces--all of which are fabricated from carbon-kevlar composites.

"I have an extension for the wing, another GT2 piece that adds even more downforce, but I don't really need it,"said Shen. "Besides, every kid with a Wings West Honda wants to race me...it's kind of embarrassing."

Sixth...well, 200 mph seems entirely possible.

The underpinnings have been massaged with custom-wound H&R lowering springs and Bilstein dampers, and the front/rear swaybars are thicker GT2-spec units. Shen had the crew at BBS build him a special set of wheels--super lightweight shoes wrought from magnesium. The mags measure 9x18 in front and 11.5x18 out back and carry Bridgestone SO-2 rubber sized at 235/40ZR-18 and 285/35ZR-18, respectively.

The folks at Irwindale Speedway were kind enough to let us flog the biturbo around the track's banked oval. While it was great fun, its 1/3-mile circuit seemed to frustrate the Porsche's exceedingly long legs. Despite all-wheel drive, its 400 bhp, combined with the tight course-induced understeer--made the experience less impressive than had the car run, say, Talladega.

There are faster biturbos out there, but I doubt they blend power and handling as seamlessly as the fly yellow rocket featured here.

Text and photos courtesy of European Car Magazine