There’s nothing worse than a try-hard. You know the type – perfectly distressed jeans, immaculate bolt-on over-fenders, sticker bombed panels that took 18 hours and a committee to create. They start by trying to portray an image of ‘no care’, but fly right past that point to end up right where most people start – spending a lot to get noticed.
That’s where this 911 comes in.
The car’s owner: has a job. The specifics of which, we do not know. What we do know is that he likes hunting, adventures, and Porsches. The car’s builder, Kelly Moss Motorsports: does not do poseur, try-hard shit. No ‘inspired’ designs. No ‘artisanal’ touches for the sake of ‘authenticity’ and ‘artistry’. They uses the best parts, combined with their generations of expertise & knowledge from racing, and then funnel that into the project at hand… with ‘function’ at the core of everything they touch. These two parties would ultimately collide to create one of the ultimate overland 911s.
In Kelly’s words: “The story goes, that a guy walked into my office one day with an unusual request. He said, “I know you guys build a lot of cool cars, can you build me a Porsche 911 that I can use for hunting and do some serious off-road duty?”
Intrigued, they went through the warehouse for a suitable donor to haul around 1,000lb. elk carcasses on its roof. They settled on a formerly raced 1986 Carrera, that was just sitting out back of the Kelly Moss shop… waiting for next chance at life.
First, the car was mounted on a Celette frame bench on factory fixtures to get the roll cage properly modified. The door bars needed to be more ‘street friendly’, and also needed proper mounting for the suspension-seats & rally spec harness belts. In addition, the custom roof rack utilizes a removable mounting system that penetrates the roof, and mounts at 4 points – directly to the main hoop of the cage, and again at the windshield bar. It can hold more than your average scenester’s wicker basket to say the least.
The focus of a car like this is survival, adaptability, & durability… it’s not to squeeze-out every last horsepower at any cost. To that end, the engine is basically a stock, rebuilt 3.0 out of an SC, with the idea to upgrade to a 993 Vario Ram 3.6 liter engine later. Right now, it’s running B&B stainless headers and a custom stainless muffler for added aural drama.
The transmission is a 915 unit with a 7:31 RSR ring and pinion and short 1st-4th gear sets… with a tall 5th. Every part in the gearbox was fully REM polished and is built as a full racing gearbox.
For braking, a ‘Charlie Brake’ kit with 13” front drilled discs and big red Porsche calipers all around was chosen for its stopping power and endurance. The master cylinder is a 21mm Mercedes master with a proportioning valve to modulate front to rear balance.
The front suspension is modified using an early model steel cross member built to handle punishment. It’s got a special fast-ratio steering rack, and Custom Bilstein RSR front struts – with the spindles lowered instead of raised like most road and race cars with a long travel insert. The springs are a special long travel double-stacked coilover setup that KMM had experience & success with in their Baja builds.
For the rear suspension, aluminum Carrera trailing arms are converted to spherical bearings with reinforced mounts. The rear shock towers were also reinforced to handle the load as well. Again – a double stacked coilover set up. The anti roll bars are a proper ‘blade type’ anti roll bar that can be adjusted from inside the car when used with a cockpit adjustable controller. All told, this 911 now has 8.25 inches of suspension travel now. 8.25.
Since the front of the car was already light, they designed a special bash-guard bumper system that attaches all the way under the car to the chassis & the front suspension points. Monster driving lights and a 6061 aluminum skid plate system were added as well. For extra insurance, an electric winch with kevlar wire made its way onto the nose. Then, further details were addressed that go missing on Internet builds – but matter in real life: Extra windshield squirters with huge tank. An electric heated windshield from UK (many thanks to the Southern NJ auto glass repair center for assistance). The dome lights have an additional option for red or green light (animals can’t see those colors)… and the instrument toggles/knobs have glow-labels that illuminate under these lights. Not to mention, a flecked $3000 carbon dash.
Build notes from Jeff Stone at Kelly Moss Motorsports: “The finished product weighs in right at 2,400lbs. It’s fast & responsive on the road… and is simply amazing off road. The first road test was in the dead of winter in a foot of snow down the railroad bed and track at 80 MPH – it was perfect! Since then it has seen woods, trails, hunting duty, bean fields, corn fields, gravel roads, etc. It’s jumped ditches, and been stuck in the mud once or twice for good measure. It can handle anything you throw at it – and begs for more.”
So what you have here is not another high-profile Porsche rebellion project. Well… it is… and that’s what makes it so great. This car was built for personal excursion and fun times only. It was built for someone who desired to merge 2 or 3 passions into 1. And it cuts to the true core of life, without any fvcks given.
