Repco and ShowTime have pulled the covers off one of this year’s most radical custom car builds at Mount Panorama today, as part of the build-up to the Repco Bathurst 1000.
The leading automotive parts and accessories retailer joined brand ambassador Gary Reid from entertainment group ShowTime for the official unveiling of the ShowTime Repco-Mod 933, a 1,200-horsepower monster based on a Type 996 Porsche coupé.
“I’ve always been a Porsche fan, and I love big-horsepower V8s, so the plan was simple: put a twin-turbo LS 427 in the front of a 911 Porsche, build a one-off wide-body kit, take inspiration from builds all over the world, and you end up with the 933 Twin Turbo,” said Reid.
Starting with a tired shell and boxes of parts, Reid and his team dedicated more than 2,000 hours to precise metal fabrication for the firewalls, floor, transmission tunnel, roll cage and other structures.
The result is a one-off body with an integrated frame and race-car front end that uses more than 280 separately fabricated parts and laser-cut highlights, along with a carbon-fibre roof, bonnet and doors.
The handmade aluminium wide-body kit features a shark fin between the roof and the extreme rear wing and required an almost uncountable number of 3D-printed templates—and more bruised knuckles than a boxing tournament.
Late-model Porsche headlights and tail lights are fitted, along with STEDI auxiliary lights at the front.
The car is finished in Sandy Taupe, a paint shade taken from Toyota’s LandCruiser range, with red, black and blue highlights applied to components including the turbocharger intakes, brakes, wheels and roll cage.
Inside, a pair of custom carbon Recaro seats are trimmed in Porsche’s Pepita fabric. A Supercars-inspired MPI steering wheel controls the front wheels, while two carbon levers—the sequential shifter and hydraulic rear handbrake—control the rear wheels in concert with the custom pedal box.
Car Builders sound-deadening and heat-proofing materials are used throughout the cabin.
Under—and poking through—the front bonnet is a heavily worked LSX V8 engine with twin Turbosmart turbochargers delivering serious boost. The handmade exhaust system also exits through the bonnet.
A mid-mounted cooling system is fitted to the full-height firewall behind the passenger compartment. Accessed via the combined single-piece rear window and former engine cover, it effectively makes the car a hatchback.
An eight-speed Bentley gearbox with sequential shifting delivers more than 1,200 horsepower to the fabricated motorsport rear end.
Custom Rotiform wheels in 18 x 9.5 and 18 x 10 are wrapped in Dunlop tyres.
Repco hosted today’s unveiling at the Mount Panorama circuit ahead of this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000, joining Reid’s extreme car build to reflect the passion its own team has for dream cars.
Repco is powered by car people whose own projects span everything from restorations and drift cars to open-wheel racing, making Gary Reid’s extreme build a natural fit for the brand.
Many custom car builders rely on Repco, and this project brings to life the passion shared by many of its customers.
The ShowTime Repco-Mod 933—with the ‘33’ taken from ShowTime’s traditional racing number—will soon begin work in the team’s stunt fleet, with appearances already scheduled at some of Australia’s biggest forthcoming car-culture events.
The specs
- Car: Porsche Type 996
- Engine: LSX V8, twin-turbocharged and front-mounted—yes, at the front
- Output: More than 1,200 horsepower
- Transmission: Sequential eight-speed Bentley, rear-wheel drive
- Suspension: Custom race-engineered
- Body: Custom aluminium and carbon fibre
- Wheels: Rotiform, 18 x 9.5 and 18 x 10
- Tyres: Dunlop
- 0–100 km/h: Fast enough to make the stopwatch nervous
- Rear-tyre life: Short
Gary Reid and the ShowTime team wish to thank
“Massive thanks to the many partners who made this possible: our ShowTime team, master fab guru Aaron Gregory, Haltech, Turbosmart, Rotiform Wheels, HOONIGAN, Hi Touque Performance, Oxytech, Car Builders, CMP Wraps, Trim FX, Ron Goodman, Steve Bulman from Axalta Paints, Dean from 3DFX Engineering … and my wife, Amanda,” said Gary Reid.