Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Hamann Stallion: re-turbocharging the Porsche 911 Turbo


You wouldn't be mistaken for thinking that the Porsche 911 Turbo was already one of the fastest, best-performing sportscars on the road today. But that's where uber-tuners like Hamann – who've tuned everything from the MINI Cooper to the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti – come in to confound expectations and shatter assumptions.

Not satisfied with "only" 480 horsepower, the Hamann Stallion packs a whopping 630 of its namesakes. To achieve that 150hp boost in output, Hamann swapped out the variable nozzle turbochargers and replaced them with... bigger variable nozzle turbochargers. They've also fitted a new stainless steel exhaust, a new air filter and, of course, tinkered with the ECU. But they didn't stop at the engine. Hamann also chopped the roof down by 8 cm (about two and a half inches), bolted on a new aero kit and fitted huge 20-inch three-piece modular rims. They've also done up the interior in ostrich skin, applied some racing stripes and, oh yeah, also Lambo'd out the doors. The result? Well, the suddenly ordinary Turbo hits sixty in 3.9 seconds, but the Stallion cuts that down to 3.3. Not too bad for a day's work, but we dare not ask how much all these mods would cost over the price of a stock Turbo.

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