This Porsche 911 Puts a Claimed 1,200-HP V8 Up Front
The engine swap gets your attention. The engine location makes you look again. ShowTime has put a twin-turbo LS V8 in the front of a 996-generation Porsche 911, creating a car that asks a lot more of its builders than a different set of motor mounts. Repco build preview, September 30, 2026
Called the ShowTime Repco-Mod 933, Gary Reid’s build was unveiled at Mount Panorama in Australia on October 7, 2026. Repco puts its output at more than 1,200 horsepower. Repco reveal, October 7, 2026
The fabrication is the story
Repco reports more than 2,000 hours of metal fabrication, covering the firewalls, floor, transmission tunnel, roll cage and other structures. The car combines an integrated frame with a race-car front end. Repco reveal, October 7, 2026
That list is worth slowing down for. A conversion this extensive changes the questions a builder has to answer. Where does the driver sit relative to the drivetrain? How can the engine be serviced? Which components need protection from heat? The appeal for anyone who enjoys fabrication is seeing how one ambitious decision creates a whole series of smaller problems to solve.
The hardware includes twin Turbosmart turbochargers and an eight-speed Bentley gearbox with sequential shifting, driving the rear wheels. Cooling equipment sits behind the passenger compartment, at a full-height firewall. Repco reveal, October 7, 2026
Our take: the packaging is at least as interesting as the horsepower. It gives this project a reason to study the space around the engine, rather than treating everything outside the valve covers as background.
The body gets its own substantial rework, with handmade aluminum wide-body panels and carbon-fiber roof, hood and doors. Taken together with the structural changes, those details make this a much bigger undertaking than the phrase LS swap usually suggests. Repco reveal, October 7, 2026
A number worth keeping in context
The horsepower figure remains Repco’s claim. Its announcement provides no dyno chart or measured acceleration result, so it does not establish independently verified performance. Repco reveal, October 7, 2026
That leaves some good questions for a deeper build feature: the test conditions, the tune used for demonstrations and how the car behaves during sustained running. Those details would tell readers more than a speculative quarter-mile time. For now, the reveal gives us an ambitious completed build without enough evidence to rank it against production supercars.
Porsche once tried a V8 too
There is an interesting wrinkle in Porsche’s own history. In its retrospective on the 996, Porsche says engineers tried a compact V8 in the rear in 1989, then abandoned the idea. The company ultimately chose a water-cooled flat-six. Porsche on the development of the 996
When the 996 appeared in 1997, it changed much of the 911 formula while retaining the rear-engine layout and six-cylinder boxer configuration. Its development also involved extensive parts sharing with the Boxster. Porsche says the two cars shared their interiors as far back as the B-pillars, despite one being a mid-engine roadster and the other a rear-engine coupe. That was a demanding packaging exercise in its own right. Porsche on the development of the 996
That history makes the ShowTime project more interesting to us. Porsche’s engineers explored a different engine while developing a production car. Reid’s team is working toward a very different brief, with far more freedom to rearrange the package. The familiar silhouette connects the two; the engineering priorities separate them.
Built for a crowd
Repco’s September 30 preview identifies Reid as a live-stunt specialist whose cars appear in drift and stunt displays at Australian events, including Supercars rounds. It also sets out the plan for this Porsche to join ShowTime’s stunt fleet. Repco build preview, September 30, 2026
That purpose matters when judging the finished car. We would want to see repeatable demonstrations, controlled responses and the ability to get back out for another run. Those are the qualities that would make the ambitious layout useful beyond the reveal photos. Seeing the car work is how the build earns the rest of its story.
The team’s own Carsales listing adds some personality to the project. It credits a doubter who said a twin-turbo LS would not fit in a 996, explains that 33 is both ShowTime’s factory number and racing number, and identifies the beige finish as Toyota’s Sandy Taupe. ShowTime build listing on Carsales
For the UTH crowd, that is the hook: an unlikely idea carried through the difficult work of making a complete car. You do not have to want this exact Porsche in your garage to want a closer look at how it was put together.