A Car Dealership Rebuilt this Porsche 930 Turbo Slantnose in Glorious ‘80s Colors

• One of the greatest Porsches ever made is back and it’s beautiful, baby!
• Porsche Santa Clarita rebuilt this 1988 Turbo Slantnose 930 in total 1980s glory and debuted the finished project at this year’s Werks Reunion Monterey.
• The car makes a claimed 850 hp.

You may or may not remember the 1980s. Maybe you are trying to forget them. But among all the polyester silliness of that decade was one standout we can all agree was absolutely fabulous: the Porsche 930 Slantnose Turbo.

At the time, it was the fastest production car in the world – one model year peaked at 165 mph. It was the street-legal, road-going, yes-you-could-buy-one version of the mighty 935 that was tearing up race tracks across the globe. Surely you remember that.

Porsche Santa Clarita remembers it. The California dealership, part of the massive car-sales juggernaut of Galpin Motors, which includes the largest Ford dealership in the world along with numerous other brands, remembers it, too. So when the dealer found itself with a fire-damaged, corrosion-eaten 1988 model, it went to town.

“…it (was) the perfect candidate for a themed competition-ready build,” Galpin said. “The Galpin Porsche Santa Clarita team embraced the challenge and set about bringing the car back to poster-worthy glory.”

Among Galpin’s many entities is G.A.S., or Galpin Auto Sports. You may know G.A.S. as the customizing force seen on the popular TV show Pimp My Ride. Those guys could build (or rebuild) anything. Likewise, Porsche Santa Clarita knows its way around a 911. Porsche Santa Clarita built it and G.A.S. handled the paint and body work.

Thus, the fabulous ’80s build includes:

• An X83 Flachbau factory body kit (sourced from Japan) painted in custom Rubystar paint complete with racing stripe that Galpin says “incorporates a design inspired by the Porsche 75^th anniversary color patterns.”
• A very ‘80s turquoise interior with seat inserts that look like psychedelic houndstooth but are officially called “pasha.”
• A matching instrument panel with “genuine Porsche parts.”
• A Porsche classic radio with a custom Blaupunkt sound system.
• A modern climate control system.
• A powerplant upgraded to a 3.5-liter turbo, with individual throttle bodies, making a reported 850 horsepower. The engine also features a custom-fabricated oil cooler system, and a limited-slip transaxle.
• Suspension upgrades include 997 GT3RS and ASP rear components, coilovers by MCS, and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires on custom HRE wheels.

“This project is the most ambitious build we’ve created for the (Werks Reunion’s) Porsche Classic Restoration challenge,” said Beau Boeckmann, President and Chief Operating Officer for Galpin Motors. “Despite starting off with fire damage and corrosion, we were able to transform it into a period-correct Porsche on the exterior and interior while making the performance simply terrifying. Our goal with this Slantnose was to bring it back to the original generation while incorporating our own unique Galpinized design.”

Those who saw it at Werks agreed, as it won both the People’s Choice and the Kid’s Choice awards. When’s the last time those generations agreed on anything?

Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since.