The Porsche 911 Backdate built by Willi Thom, dubbed the world's most secret Porsche, is a stripped-down, kevlar-bodied 911 weighing just 820 kg, created in total secrecy for Bugatti design boss Achim Anscheidt. If you searched for this Porsche 911 backdate, who built it and what makes it so special, here is the full story of one of the purest 911s ever crafted.
Who built the world's most secret Porsche?
Filmmaker Chris Kippenberger looked for Willi Thom for four years. After all those long years of searching, he was rewarded with one of the most perfectly built Porsche 911s in the world: a lightweight car with the bare essentials, crafted to provide the ultimate driving experience. Willi Thom has a very special work ethic. He has no phone, email or website. To find him, you have to talk to one of his existing clients who will refer you to him. His shop is hidden somewhere in the German suburbs, in one of Berlin's far corners. Masked like a regular garage with frosted glass, Willi Thom creates some of the world's finest Porsches inside. He explains the glass keeps prying eyes away from his work and avoids unwanted visits at night.
How did a Bugatti designer get involved?
This particular Porsche was a two-man operation: on one hand Willi Thom, on the other Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti's head of design. Characterized by secrecy and subtle specialty, this 911 was built to be as minimalist as possible. It took two years to shape this beautiful work into its current state. The most interesting thing is watching how the head of design at one of the world's most opulent car brands drives something so bare, pure and stripped-down.
How was the Porsche 911 backdate built?
It all started in 2011, when Achim began sending Willi pictures of custom Porsche builds around LA. Each car was a personal build and Achim would extract the best details from them: a fuel filler like this, headlights like that and many more details. There were no instructions; Willi had to figure out how to do everything perfectly. Achim had a lot of demands, which excuses the two-year build time. It is a blend of two different men, two extremes and a ton of money and ideas in between.
What details make this 911 so special?
For Achim, the car had to be perfect. The body panels were painstakingly shaped, each part going through numerous revisions. Street parts were too heavy and vague, motorsport parts too rough, so together they decided to create nearly everything from the ground up. The shifter alone took almost an entire year to build, with no pictures, plans or blueprints. Achim sat in the car, put his hand on an imaginary shift knob and said this is where the shifter should be. After hundreds of hours, the perfect shifter was created, with longer, pleasurably mechanical gear shifts housed in sheet aluminum cut to expose the movements underneath.
Why is it called the purest 911?
The interior was massively revamped to fit the new gearbox positioning. Willi is old-school, so he bent everything by hand using nothing but heat and quartz sand. The dashboard was shaved to remove all the holes. He cut covers for the intake trumpets from his shop's mesh trash baskets, and a plexiglass cover keeps rain off the engine. A custom front end fits the newer-model front hood to the older-model latch. The entire body is kevlar, resulting in a weight of only 820 kg. Combined with the punchy engine, this 911 sounds like a symphony and drives like a dream. Read more at Car Throttle, Jalopnik and the Porsche Newsroom.
This Porsche 911 is full of overwhelming details that take weeks to digest. The naked eye would simply fail to notice them, but the car has a certain aura. You can tell it is special, but you cannot point your finger to anything, until you drive it or at least hear it drive. Take a look at the car in action below and tune in to the throaty sound of the six individual throttle bodies.
Where to find restomods and reimagined classics like this
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