Modified 911s part 1: air-cooled

Gunther Werks comes out of nowhere and produces a stunning rework of the last air-cooled Porsche. Total 911’s Kyle Fortune is the first journalist to test how it drives

Total 911 is the first publication in the world to test Gunther Werks’ 400R on home roads in California

I said they were out of their minds. Bespoke bodywork, running gear and everything else that goes along with building a custom car in that short a time. ‘We’re not a TV show, we’ll not do it in a week’”. That was owner of Rothsport Racing, Jeff Gamroth’s response when the call came from Peter Nam at Gunther Werks. They didn’t do it in a week – as Gamroth said, this was not a TV show – but the sheer persistence of Peter Nam and his team saw the 400R go from concept to the car I’m sitting in today in just six months.

I stumbled across the project mid-summer: Gunther Werks drip-feeding a Facebook group some details of what would become the 400R. If you’ve never heard of the firm before that’s no surprise – I hadn’t either. Gunther Werks is a new company, but it’s not come from nowhere. Nam owns Vorsteiner, which specialises in aftermarket wheels and carbon fibre styling for premium manufacturers. Gunther Werks is a natural progression of that. With it Nam has been extremely clever, assembling a team of highly respected names in the air-cooled Porsche community to create the 400R. The a-list roster includes Jeff from Rothsport Racing, Joey Seely from E-motion Engineering and Carey Eisenlohr.

The idea itself is a simple one: take a 993 and develop it as if Porsche hadn’t replaced the 993 with the 996 20 years ago. Not as a mere Carrera though, but as a GT3. Different to the usual backdates, instead this is more of a continuation, bringing the car forward rather than modernising mechanically with a reverential stylistic nod backwards. The 400R is a 993 for today – the past blasted forward into the present – using modern technology to enhance and improve, all without denying it of its original allure and driver appeal, and building on it. That was a key goal, Nam determined to create the very best 993 as it could be now, focused on driving, Gunther Werks demanding that its customers don’t buy it as a trinket, but as a car to be used, and used as intended – hard.

If the concept sounds easy, the execution is anything but. It is genuinely difficult to comprehend that the 400R was a standard, pre-varioram

Carrera 2 back in May 2017. To create it, Gunther Werks tasked its team on their specific areas of specialism: Gamroth’s Rothsport took on the engine build, Seely’s E-motion and Eisenloher focused their attention on the chassis and Gunter Werks took