In 1948, a German bloke called Ferdinand produced the first Porsche, and the motoring world has never been the same since.

In 50-odd years of production, Porsche have consistently produced some of the world’s finest sports cars. Blinding acceleration, ridiculous top speed capability and near perfect handling have always been Porsche trademarks.

True, other auto manufacturers produce cars with the same characteristics, but performance is never diluted by other features when it comes to a Porsche.

Ferdinand and his descendants (who are also called Ferdinand for some strange reason..) have always given their cars distinctive curves and lines too, literally defining the term ‘sex on wheels’.

After all, if a Porsche was a woman, she’d be a stunning supermodel with the perfect 36-22-32 figure. And as for her sports performance ...

So, all things considered, Porsches are damn near perfect - or are they ?

You only have to look at this Western Australian 930 turbo to see that even a Porsche can be improved, although before we go any further, it’s probably worth pointing out a few things about the 930 in particular.

You see folks, there are Porsches and there are – well - Porsches!

A star is born
When the 930 first arrived on the scene way back in 1975, in standard trim it was immediately crowned as he world’s fastest production car.

This little German mistress could rocket from 0 - 100kmh in 5 seconds and reach a top speed of 260kmh. A swag of cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Aston Martin, even Carroll Shelby’s AC Cobra, were instantly embarrassed.

At that stage the ‘Type 930’ was known simply as the 911 Turbo, which goes to prove that Porsche type and model designations are confusing even for rocket scientists.

True, there had been 911 Porsches before (since 1964 in fact), but this new ‘Type 930’ 911 had something rather special bolted to the engine – a turbo.

As such, the 930 was the world’s first turbocharged production car and the 930 lineage has continued from the 80s through to today with types 964, 965 and 993 - all referred to as 911s in Porsche circles, remember.

In fact, the all new 2000 Porsche 930 with 400Hp and 4WD will set you back $350,000 when it comes to Australia. And early 80’s model 930s such as this 1981 example are few and far between.

Mark Bojanjac, the owner of this car, says there are probably less than fifty real ones in Australia from this era.

Cosmetically speaking, Mark had his car sorted out quite a few years back.

The colour is a Glasurit 2 pak semi-clear metallic finish in Porsche Midnight blue over a yellow base rather than silver, which actually ‘appears’ everything from black to blue to purple depending on the day.

Mark also renewed the full leather interior some years back and there’s a mild sound system of sorts in there too. The 930 was the most expensive Porsche of the day and came with every factory extra. To the uninitiated, the boost gauge set into the 7,500 tacho is the tell-tale sign of the real thing.

As well as being certainly one of the finest around, Mark's 930 is also one of the fastest, with a dyno proven 375Hp at the back wheels as compared to the stock figure of 300Hp at the engine.

Now, it just so happens that Mark’s brother Grant runs a business called Per4Manz Turbochargers in Perth.

The plot thickens…
For a while there, Mark figured all the dyno charts produced by some of Grant’s turboed Jappers were bullshit, until one day he jumped in one of his brothers creations.

"A terrifying ride in an 11 second ‘Nissan Bluebird’ was the last F*&^%g straw", admits Mark. "I realised then that I had to upgrade my 930 and I knew Grant had the technology plus the proven ability to make it happen."

As mentioned above, the 930 came from the Wolfsberg factory in Germany with a bullet proof bottom end, so the starting point for this project was simply to ensure that the factory forged steel race crank, strengthened alloy cases, forged rods and forged pistons were all in good order.

Well known in Aussie Porsche circles and a Porsche Cup racer of some renown, Walter Epple was given the job of ‘freshening up’ the bottom end on Mark’s motor.

This saw the two piece crankcase split, inspected, cleaned and re-sealed, with every bearing renewed before the forged pistons were cleaned and fitted with gapless rings.

To tell the complete truth, every nut, bolt and washer was replaced, an ARP stud and conrod kit went in along with an hydraulically tensioned timing chain & internal gears.

All hoses were then replaced with either stainless or silicone items, while an up-spec’ dry sump oil pump now handles 65 Litres / minute. There’s a host of other little bits and pieces which we just haven’t got room for, but with the bottom end and numerous ancillaries taken care of, attention turned to the top of the motor.

Once again, the upper workings on these engines are basically ‘race ready’ for the street, with 52mm sodium filled valves, double springs and the like.

Still, with a 3.2 litre Carrera non-turbo manifold and 600Hp Garrett ball bearing turbo ready and waiting back in the Per4Manz workshop, Grant instructed Epple to fully port and flow test the heads, before installing all new Porsche valve gear.

The standard cams were retained to ensure driveability and work surprisingly well with all the modifications.

Let’s change this – and that…
There’s a few little mix`n’match tricks one can play with the enviable Porsche parts bin and that 3.2 litre non-turbo manifold is gas flow heaven, well known for assisting in the production of extra grunt in hot non-turbo motors.

If you’re wondering why Porsche never used the manifold in the 911 turbo, the answer is that there simply wasn’t enough room. That might seem like a contradiction when you look at the photo and see that monstrous great custom intercooler, yet there’s a whole host of factory items which have either been removed from or replaced in this particular 930, er, 911.

Removing the original Bosch K Jetronic ignition / EFI system with its truck style recirculating valve system, for example, made more than enough room for the 3.2 non-turbo manifold and saved about 50kg into the bargain.

Engine management is now handled much more capably too, by Haltech’s latest laptop computer programmed E6K electronics.

As for the 600Hp Garrett ball bearing turbo, well, it sure ain’t a Porsche item, but hey, it’s a darn sight better than the now agricultural KKK K-26 or T 04 spec turbo that the 930 had fitted up back in ‘81.

It’s actually quite common to use the slightly up-spec turbo from a Volvo truck with Porsches, but these produce no significant boost until 4,000rpm and are medieval by comparison.

The Garrett ball bearing unit, on the other hand, is producing an easy 14psi of boost by 3,200rpm and will maintain that pressure all the way through to redline at 7,000rpm.

This particular Garrett was the first of its kind in Oz and features every lesson learnt from Formula 1 in the 80’s. It can produce up to 28psi of boost and its free nature is demonstrated by the fact that it is still spinning 2 minutes after the engine has been
turned off.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the turbo has its own little oil tank and separate pump in case it gets hungry.

Although this engine could handle 20psi plus in bursts, that maximum horsepower of 375 at the back wheels was achieved with a ‘mere’ 14psi at 6,200rpm.

Obviously, there is heaps of potential for the back tyres to lay down well over 400Hp and the torque too is said to be phenomenal, with seamless grunt available from as low as 1,800rpm.

Oh, and just for the record, calculated top speed is now in the region of 320kmh.

Turbo nuts`n’bolts
While you’re all trying to understand the potential of over 400Hp at the wheels of an 1150kg car, we’ll look at how the turbocharger was fitted and tuned.

Air for combustion is first drawn in through a K & N air filter equipped custom air box in front of the left hand side rear wheel. Routing the 4" pipework from this back to the 75mm Ford EF Falcon throttle body (the Haltech unit needed a decent throttle position sensor) and then turbo was a nightmare job, but with compression complete, the custom plumbing continues to that massive aluminium custom intercooler.

This is an item which Per4Manz custom manufacture in house and as can be seen in the photo, it takes up quite a large amount of room in that rather small engine bay. Just for comparison purposes, the car’s original intercooler was only a third of the size and only 15% as efficient!

The Per4manz coolers designed by Grant have shown some mighty impressive results, dropping turbo heated air to ambient air temp in a fraction of a second with minimal pressure drop. Enough said, really.

From the cooler, that 3.2 litre manifold takes over, before four Bosch high volume fuel injectors add the premium unleaded.

On the exhaust front, Grant made up his own stainless tuned length headers that feed the waste gases to the turbine housing. Once used, the pollutants are disposed off through a unique twin exhaust courtesy of Geoff Garland at Exhaust Dynamics.

This sees a 3" stainless pipe leave the turbine housing before twisting down to exit at the rear on the driver’s side of the car. A separate 2" system then exits from the wastegate and pokes out on the passenger side.

The idea behind the twin system is to prevent back pressure pulses from disturbing gas flow. The serious bits glow red on the dyno and the odd flame has been belched out the back too, between changes and on overrun.

It’s not all radical
All things considered, this Porsche is a real retro tech hybrid and you wouldn’t know it with the lid closed. After all, the basic flat -six air-cooled engine is an ageless and proven design, yet in this case it beats and operates thanks to the very latest technology.

The driveline componentry hasn’t been as radically modified as the engine though, but as we’ve seen, the basic mechanicals of the 930 are race ready straight from the factory, with scores of Le Mans and Spa 24 hour victories behind them.

Still, a few basic tidy ups were performed, with the pressure plate skimmed, pivot points modified and a new 5 puck brass button clutch plate installed.

Oh - and don’t even ask about the tailshaft or diff’ - Porsches use a transaxle arrangement straight out of the gearbox at the back of the car, which in this case is a four speed 917 manual race box which was made for the factory 24 hour Le Mans racers. Hence the whopping 1.36:1 top gear ratio and 320kmh top velocity.

These Boxes are subjected to 750Hp for 24 hours in those European endurance races and are virtually unbreakable.

While Mark’s beast came equipped with 309mm rear / 304mm rotors and four-spot Alcan calipers that could stop the car on a Deutschmark, the recent engine upgrade means the original anchors really do need replacement.

Said Mark; "The latest ‘Big Red’ factory package will be the way to go ....... the four-spot Brembo calipers that come with the package cover half the disc and produce the equivalent of 2000Hp negative G, bringing the car from 100kmh to 0 in 2 seconds."

A whale of a tail
If you’re looking at the photos and reckon that Mark’s Porsche looks fairly standard, well it does, for a 930 at least, and will remain so to retain its heritage/resale value.

The introduction of the turbo 911 back in ‘76 saw the first use by Porsche of that unique rear wing - which was quickly dubbed ‘Whale Tail’ for obvious reasons. This was needed for downforce and to cover the factory intercooler which otherwise didn’t fit in the engine bay.

The popularity of the Whale Tail grew over the years, to the extent that it was copied by nearly every spoiler manufacturer and offered as an upgrade kit for base model Porsches. Even Porsche themselves offered a 930 steel "turbo-look" brake and steel wide-body upgrade, so recognising a genuine 930 is a hard business.

Suffice it to say, that the example you’re looking at here is the real thing - got that ?

Mark has of course added to the look of his 930 by adding 17" Antera rims wrapped in Pirelli P Zero rubber.

"When the right foot gets buried, the Pirellis struggle for grip and wheelspin at 150k’s aint for the faint-hearted," conceded Mark.

" I’ve got Aussie V8 touring car race rubber on order ...If we can get as much grip on the road as I’ve got on the steering wheel, we’ll be going somewhere !"

What you’re looking at is a real collectors piece, but also a very streetable ‘race car’ with reliable horsepower and nearly 50% more sting than the latest $350,000 930 which will arrive in Oz later this year.