Lanzante Limited has been around since the ‘70s and while not immediately recognizable outside of some very niche motoring circles, the company has built up an enviable reputation as a classic car servicing and restoration company. It also competes in both modern and historic motor racing events under the Lanzante Motorsport label.
Its most notable achievement was prepping the outright winner at the 1995 Le Mans 24 hour, namely the iconic McLaren F1 GTR. It has also raced Porsche 911s in various GT Championships and is currently converting a handful of rare track-only McLaren P1 GTRs into road-legal variants.
What better way to combine all of these McLaren and Porsche-based skills than to fit a 1980s McLaren Formula 1 engine into a classic 911? The original 930 Turbo was a handful even with its 300-horsepower output, earning itself the nickname ‘widowmaker’ for its predilection for depositing Wall Street types into, well, walls.
Lanzante clearly never heard of this as it plans to fit the Porsche-designed 1,000 hp 1.5-liter turbocharged TAG V6 as used in the McLaren MP4 Formula 1 cars between 1984 and 1987 into 11 Porsche 930s. These engines amassed an impressive 26 victories and three world titles in their time.
Crazy, yes? Yet McLaren actually fitted one of these engines into a 930 back in the ‘80s and Lanzante has received permission from McLaren Racing to build a further 11 such vehicles. The engines will all be ones that were actually used in Formula 1, complete with a plaque detailing their racing history. While no concrete specifications have been announced just yet, they will most likely be detuned for reliability and safety.
The original McLaren converted 930 looks mostly stock from the outside, so even with a detune these 11 restomods may well be the ultimate sleepers. We suspect that Lanzante will need to carry out some comprehensive chassis upgrades to ensure that their customers don’t meet the same fate as their ‘80s counterparts.
