The legendary 911 Slantnose makes a comeback as the astonishing Porsche Flachbau RS.

      **Porsche**

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      If you need evidence that creativity can be cultivated, take a look at Porsche’s Sonderwunsch program that was relaunched in 2021, creating factory one-off vehicles for extremely wealthy individuals. It began with a custom-liveried Porsche 911 GT3 for the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans victor, Paolo Barilla. The scope quickly expanded to include more intricate projects such as the 993 Speedster and the 997 Classic Club Coupe. Now, these skilled craftspeople are unveiling their most ambitious creation to date: the Flachbau RS, a modern slantnose 911 built on the chassis of a 2018 911 GT2 RS.

      Commissioned by an anonymous client in Europe at a cost of several million dollars, the Flachbau RS is much more than just a restomod. It's difficult to categorize; it’s an eight-year-old vehicle meticulously disassembled, re-engineered, and reassembled with modern aerodynamics, a low-tech caged interior, and that distinctive front end reminiscent of the original 911 Flachbau from the 1980s.

      Over the past three years, a dedicated team of designers, engineers, and other enthusiasts from Porsche, Manthey, and Weissach have worked to fulfill the customer's vision for a legally street-viable tribute to the 935/78 race car known as Moby Dick, which inspired the original Flachbau, produced in extremely limited quantities from 1982 to 1989.

      The client requested that the powertrain remain unchanged—wise given the 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine producing 700 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque—but everything else was open to interpretation. Fortunately, Porsche was able to enlist longtime designer Grant Larson, who also created the modern 935 concept displayed at the Rennsport Reunion in 2018, to finalize the design for the Flachbau RS before his retirement last year.

      Starting at the front, the sloped, louvered fenders required a new bumper and splitter, ultra-slim headlights, and even a redesign of the fuel filler system. Manthey contributed to the front-end aerodynamics with additional canards and underbody enhancements.

      Inside, the cabin preserves some of the original red and black color scheme and carbon fiber accents from the donor car, but much of the interior has been stripped away. This includes the entire infotainment and sound systems—where there used to be a screen in the dashboard, there's now a leather-lined storage compartment. Sound insulation was minimized wherever possible, exposing the polished metal surfaces throughout. Even the wiring harness was left visible. This effort reduced the car's weight by 70 pounds compared to a standard GT2 RS, which is already quite lightweight.

      At the rear, the large wing with its S-shaped supports offers three configurations to enhance downforce up to 1,221 pounds over the rear axle at the car’s maximum speed of 211 mph. It’s patented, so don’t attempt to replicate it. Since the customer wanted the vehicle to be street legal and it is technically a factory product, Porsche underwent the usual validation and homologation procedures as they would with any model. This included producing multiple test cars, conducting virtual crash tests, wind tunnel evaluations, endurance testing, extensive vibration assessments for the rear wing, and completing 50 laps on the Nürburgring—where a spy photographer captured one of the test cars last August.

      And yes, the street-legal requirement is also the reason Porsche didn’t go all-in on an 1980s design and include pop-up headlights. Sadly.

      While it’s disappointing that the spy photos or the recent Flachbau trademark application Porsche filed earlier this year didn't indicate a production slantnose 911’s return, it’s still fascinating to see how the company is pushing boundaries within the Sonderwunsch division. I know they’ll be one of the first calls I make if I win the Powerball.

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