(Images: Autoblog) We aren’t normally bothered too much with Porsches around here. We appreciate the history and the motorsports contributions and actions, yeah. We wouldn’t turn down any seat time in them, either. But like any supercar, the Porsche line and especially the 911 line of sports cars aren’t our normal wheelhouse. They are what they are and that’s that. So what would make us look twice at a Porsche? Well, if it’s one of the “Widowmaker” 911 Turbos (also known as the 930) that’ll make us perk up and take notice. Flat-sixes with turbochargers turned the 911 into a monster, with turbo lag like you wouldn’t believe and the ability to snap oversteer, which is where the nickname came into play. 930s came with either a 3.0L or 3.3L six that at the most, churned out 296 horsepower.

Now we are hearing about a company called Lanzante taking 930-era 911s, eleven of them to be precise, and fitting them with a 1.5L V6 where the flat-six used to sit. Sounds very odd, right? Yeah…here’s the catch, and why we are watching this with raised eyebrows: the engiens are TAG-Porsche TTE P01 mills. The only other cars they came in? The McLaren MP4/2 and MP4/3. 1.5 liters of pure anger, these mills…good for a thousand horsepower in qualification mode and typically tuned down to 750 horsepower, this is a mill that did well for drivers like Alain Prost and Niki Lauda. These aren’t continuation mills, either…there are only eleven of these cars being bolted together because McLaren sold Lanzante the eleven engines for this run, and they are the real-deal. Cosworth is going through each engine to make sure they are ready for duty, and each car will have a plaque that breaks down each individual’s racing history. For example, in the display car that Porsche showed off at the Rennsport Reunion, the engine in the display car put Lauda in the winner’s circle at the British Grand Prix in 1984, and Prost on the podium in Portugal in 1986.

More than likely these cars will be museum pieces, rarely (if ever) started and/or driven. That’s a travesty…hopefully a potential buyer will have the fortitude to find a good track and learn about the engine that Lauda could make work.