Another Porsche 911 Project #5
by Mads – April 16, 2020
Race car or not a race car
After all the stripping, cleaning and structural work, there comes a moment where things stop being about metal and start being about intention. This was that moment.
I had already decided that I wanted to do things properly this time. Not just assemble parts, not just build something that looks like a race car from a distance, but actually think through what it should be.
And that includes details most people don’t even notice.
Not just bolting in a cage
One of those decisions was the roll structure.
I had a roll bar from a previous race car sitting in storage. A simple, functional piece. I could have just installed it and moved on.
But that didn’t feel right for this build.
After everything I had done so far, I didn’t want a “quick solution” inside the car. I wanted something that matched the rest of the project in intention.
So I started over.
Building the structure I wanted
I had a very clear idea in my head. Not an aggressive, overbuilt cage, but something that felt balanced. Structured. Intentional.
I went for a cross design. Simple, symmetrical, visually clean.
It wasn’t about maximum stiffness alone, although that was part of it. It was also about how the structure reads when you open the door and look inside.
There is a difference between something that looks like it was added later, and something that feels like it belongs. That was the goal.
Front reinforcement and RSR influence
Once the rear structure was defined, I moved to the front. Again, not just for rigidity, but for coherence.
Another cross brace went in, inspired by classic Porsche RSR-style reinforcement layouts. Self-built, adjusted, and fitted to match the geometry of the shell.
At this point, the car was no longer just a stripped chassis. It was becoming a structural system.
Every bar, every connection, every weld started to define how the car would behave, not just how it would look.
Form starts to follow intention
What I like about this phase of a build is that nothing is cosmetic anymore. Even visual decisions are no longer just visual.
The cross structure inside the car, for example, is not decoration. It changes how the space feels, how the light moves through it, how your eyes read symmetry. It becomes part of the experience. And that was exactly what I was aiming for. Something simple, but not empty. Functional, but still visually considered.
The question remains
At this stage, the car was clearly moving in a very specific direction. But there was still one question that hadn’t been fully answered yet.
Not about suspension. Not about engine. Not even about structure. Something more fundamental. What exactly is this car supposed to be? And the answer to that would shape everything that comes next.