This Porsche 911 has more holes than a hoop of Swiss cheese.
How do you go about stripping literally half a ton out of an already lightweight 1968 Porsche 911? If you’re Richard King of Karmann Konnections based out of Southend-on-Sea in the UK, you go to the absolute extreme, replacing panels with lightweight alternatives and holes, drilling holes in absolutely anything and everything.
Here’s a gallery of photos I’ve found online which is just a compilation of Karmann Konnection’s Instagram account of this project and here’s the latest photo from their Instagram page.
Like most of my blog posts, I came across this momentous project from a Facebook group sharing the above post. I shrugged it off as a fake photo because, I mean honestly, who drills holes in a transmission case and expects it to survive its first up shift? Then, someone posted that it was legit.
Thankfully, Porsche Club of GB has already done a bang-up job profiling this project with far prettier pictures doing this project justice.
Basically, this project started six years ago in 2014, the brainchild of Karmann Konnection’s founder and shop owner. With a bare-shell from a 1968 Porsche 911 bought somewhere in California, the goal is to make the world’s lightest street-legal Porsche 911, a target weight of 595 kg or 1,311 lbs.
To put that goal into perspective, a regular 1968 Porsche 911 weighs just 2,400 pounds. Imagine stripping the equivalent weight of three average Americans from an already light car.
According to Total911.com, what’s regarded as the lightest Factory Porsche 911, the Porsche 911R, weighs 815 KG or 1,796 lbs, plenty light but not light enough!
An Ariel Atom, a bona-fide go-kart for the roads will weigh more than this Porsche 911 since they weigh 1,349 lbs.
What a madman!
According to Richard in his PorscheClubGB writeup,
“I didn’t have much of a plan,” he admits. “I just carefully analysed every component and decided on three things: Do I need it? Can I lighten it? Or can I replace it with something more efficient?
Drilling holes into cars is a time-honored method to strip weight that became mainstream in the early 1950s when hotrodders did anything and everything to gain a competitive edge over their rivals. Check out the photos in this article by the Daily Breeze to see what I mean.
And, if you’re thinking all this light-weighting has stripped this classic Porsche of its structural integrity, guess again. All major load-bearing components like cross members, transmission cases, and mounts have been fortified with bead welds in key spots. According to Richard, the holed versions are much stronger than they came from the factory.
We will have to take Richard’s word on that.
Richard had plans to wrap up this project by the end of March to display at a car show in Germany but, well, you know…
Admittedly, just based on the aesthetics, this project isn’t my cup of tea but I can respect the amount of light-weighting he’s attempting. When he’s done, I don’t think anyone will ever come close to getting a Porsche 911 as light as his.
I also think this project will put this shop even more on the map than it already is, a rolling piece of marketing if you will.
And with 220 HP moving something so light, it’ll be a ripper.
