Porsches have long been the subject for the artistry of tuners who make a name for themselves embellishing the 911's race-inspired performance and appearance. With the factory's involvement in motorsports through the years, there have always been shelves of race-proven Porsche parts that could be used to beef up production cars without even turning to the aftermarket.

Most tuners start with a new car and build from there, adding performance components and aerodynamic pieces. However, the tuners at Einmalig take a different approach. If a customer orders a specific car, say a speedster or a wide-body slant nose, then Einmalig sets out to build it by hand from an older car. While this sounds like a formidable task, their 15 years of experience building custom coaches makes this business as usual.

Our feature car was ordered by a customer who wanted a unique slant-nose convertible with late model performance and reliability for less than the price of a new 911.

No problem.

Einmalig sought out a suitable donor car to serve as a starting point. A clean, straight '78 Targa was found for $10,000. Most enthusiasts would be please to drive the car as Einmalig bought it, but Einmalig stripped the car down to the bare chassis, removing every component from it.

Knowing that the car would be radically widened, the first task was to strengthen the chassis. Once the chassis was in shape, the next few weeks were spent on the body work. While the easiest way to add the slant nose would be to use fiberglass components, Einmalig is concerned with quality, not the ease of assembly. The nose conversion is comprised of specially-made metal pieces, and the flares were made with metal, as well.

The Targa band was chopped and the edges smoothed in preparation for the convertible top. The rear fenders were shaped like the factory Turbo flares, with three additional inches (per side) for a distinct appearance. With a widening of about 12 inches, this car looks very mean from behind.

Once the body was painted Guards Red in the Einmalig paint booth, a working manual top could be installed. Based on the factory top, Einmalig has their top made with German components, which saves money over the factory replacement.

With the body looking sharp,there wrere still months of work left in rewiring the electrical system, installing the drevetrain and interior, plus the essential details. As the car was put together, Einmalig replaced every component that showed wear. On this former Targa, most of the chassis components were replaced with new brakes, rotors, stanless brake lines, shocks, and strut inserts.

While any performance mod the customer can dream up could be performed, this particular customer simply wanted a factory-like car with late-model performance. Einmalig swapped out the stock 3.0L engine for a rebuilt 3.2 engine, which netted about 50 more hosrepower than the car had when new. The strong stock transmission carried over without change.

Widening the fenders created enough room to comfortably stuff 17x11 wheels out back and 17x9 wheels up front. The modular wheels were made using factory wheels with body colored centers. These custom wheels are as attractive as the body work.

Once the body and chassis phases of the build-up were completed, the car was passed on to the department of the interior. Fresh factory carpeting was installed, and the seats were upholstered in gray leather, effectively making the interior like new. White face gauges brighten up the dash. An Einmalig bass box was installed under the rear seat, awaiting the installation of speakers. Despite that Einmalig can handle every step of building a car from scratch, they prefer to leave the stereo installs to specialists. Prior to delivery, the car is expected to have a high-end Alpine system intalled.

It took several months and hundreds of man hours to build up this car, but driving through the coastal towns of SoCal shows that is was all worthwhile. We couldn't have turned more heads on our photo shoot if we had Sports Illustrated's swimsuit babes waving to passersby from the back seat.

We've been in and driven many tuned cars, most of which have made serious sacrifices in the name of performance and appearance. However, Ferry Porsche would approve of how this car feels, very factory-like. Einmalig's work is backed by a 12-month, 12,000 mile warranty on their custom-built coaches.

The bottom line on the car came to $40,000, including the 10 grand for the donor car. Compared to the price of a new car, this seems surprisingly affordable for a completely custom car. It would have been even cheaper had the customer provided the donor car.

Einmalig builds four or five custom cars a year, but the mainstay of their business is selling new and used parts. Their new 14,000 sq.ft. facility houses $1.5 million in inventory, ensuring that they have in stock most anything a customer could want. Rest assured, we're going to keep our eyes on these guys to see what projects roll out of their shop in the future. ESC

EINMALIG
"We Specialize in Porsches"
15571 Commerce Lane
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Toll Free: (888) 777-6772
Phone: (714) 895-6567, Fax: (714) 894-7126

. Einmalig, is not an authorized Porsche Dealership, nor has any affiliation with Porsche Cars NA, or Porsche AG. Copyright ©1995-2018 by AUTOPEDIA, all rights reserved. AUTOPEDIA™, AUTO411™, CAR-IQ™, DEALERPEDIA™, INTERLOT™, SIMULSEARCH™, STUTTGART-WEST™ and INTERQUOTE-RFP™ are trademarks of AUTOPEDIA. All other trademarks, tradenames and/or service marks are the property of their respective holders.