Brian Docherty purchased his 1999 Porsche 996 in the summer of 2017. Since then he’s enjoyed driving and modifying the sports car. Over the past two winters Brian has transformed his 996 into something unique.
The first phase of the build started with making custom bucks and fiberglass molds. Out of those came custom side skirts, bumpers, and a roof scoop. A set of steel wheel flares welded to the body completed the custom widebody design. Brain finished the exterior look with a coat of Nason “Envy Green” paint and a set of CCW lightweight aluminum wheels.
Brian also upgraded the suspension with a set of HSR adjustable coilovers, Elephant Racing Sport control arm bushing, Powerflex sway bar bushings, and ESP front/rear trailing arms. The interior received Sickspeed racing seats and the factory flat-six a new exhaust with shorty bullet-style mufflers, X-pipe, and modified headers.
The next year Brian started work on the second phase. This involved replacing the factory 3.4 L flat-six with a supercharged 3.8 L V6 from a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Brian didn’t need to cut anything to fit the engine. Instead he built a custom subframe connecting the existing Porsche motor mounts.
Brian rebuilt the motor with a XP camshaft, ported heads, 80 lb injectors, and upgraded springs, lifters, and pushrods. On top of the motor sits a ported intake, Cadillac Northstar V8 throttle body, LQ4 V8 mass air flow sensor, and ported supercharger with ZZPerformance 3.2-inch pulley. He also threw in a 75-shot nitrous system for good measure.
The engine was tuned by Sinister Performance on a stand-alone ECU and harness. The motor should make around 370-380 horsepower to the wheels. The exhaust system consists of equal-length shorty headers leading to an X-pipe and Dynomax bullet mufflers. Brian mated the V6 to the Prosche six-speed manual transaxle using a custom adapter plate made by Eric from Mad Mechanics and a Spec Stage 2 clutch.
Brian is currently working on the car’s interior. It’s receiving a replica Lamborghini Diablo dash with Glowshift guages, custom center console, and sound system. You can view more photos of the project and follow the progress in the Rennlist build thread.
Just when you thought ricing was over. Good Lord that poor Porsche. Seriously…a Pontiac V6? What happened to the flat six?
It went away for something better.
Sold that $28k boat anchor and swapped in a motor i can actually build up and repair when needed with out having to take out a loan.
I wouldn’t call this a ricer in any way. I took a slow porsche and did some quite tasteful mods to it in my opinion and made it a beast under the hood.
That’s a lot of custom work Brian. Is the GM3800 have stock internals? Also you need to get some higher res photos to capture the paint job.
No they are not stock, i built that motor as good as it can be built short of going the 4.3 stroker and turbo.
It should rip quite well. The build thread has some much better pictures of the paint job I’m not sure how to get better pictures on this forum but the paint came out pretty nice it was the first time I had did a pearl and I really liked how it laid out. Quite different than metallic which is what I usually spray
Thanks
I’d be worth the $250 listing fee on Bring a Trailer- just to read the comments on this swap!!!
Nice work- I applaud you!!!
AND now no IMS bearing to fail!!!
Oh i got some serious guff but equally good compliments as well. That porsche motor is nice but its insanely expensive to make it fast and I built this motor to have roughly 420bhp for $2300. This porsche will put some cars to shame when its done 😉
That’s a badass ride dude. I personally would have gone twin turbo but still a sick build.
Turbo is still an option down the road. I have some GT35’s on a shelf and it wouldn’t be much at all to swap turbo on but for now i just want to get it running good ad will revisit the mods in a year or two.
With the price of this motor I can rebuild them so cheaply and have more than one set up ready to go it’s literally about a half hour job to drop and lift the motor into the car such a great swap IMO
Thanks
Love it. Well done. Hot rodding at its finest.
Wow, thank you for that. I have redone quite a few of my own cars and this one really brought me a lot of joy. My son and i have had a blast with it.
What a combo, nice job.
Thank you willy, i tried to think this out in a way that would make it very unique while hoping some would applaud and some would cringe but all would respect the effort regardless. I really think this set up will rip when finished.
That’s right and you chose an dependable motor that you can put in and take out quickly and the parts won’t be hard to find and it’s cost effective. Overall this build is unique. props and i’m sure your car is going to fly.
Thanks ☺️
A reliable Porsche where you can go to OReilly’s Auto for off the shelf maintenance parts. What a concept. Well done for this different type of swap. Nice to see something different than an LS swap or mega dollar flat six upgrade.
You hot the nail on the head with your comment. Porsche owners love the flat six as do i… while hating the short comings of it at the same time. This trans/engine combo plus the way i built it… going to be fast 😉
Mechanically, this is exactly the kind of swap I come here to see. Seeing a Camaro with a bigger Chevy v8, or a Ford pickup with a bigger Ford v8 is boring, but something unusual is interesting. That shade of green, though, jeez.
love that green lol 😉
Brian, as an owner of a stock 996 I’m damn envious of your ingenuity and vision, car looks epic! Got to have a rear seat delete so as not to muffle the noise coming form that blower!
Bob
Bob, thanks for the comment. That car was a blast to do and a lot of fun to drive I recently sold it about three months ago I am currently starting another Porsche. 2008 Porsche Cayman is now on the chopping block hopefully I’ll be able to post it up here in a few months 👍
Look forward to it Brian, what’s the plan motor wise????
Bob
TPC turbo kit as of right now. Could change though. Im over on renlist as “ttt123” if you want to follow along as i start the build.
Thanks