As long as classic cars have been around, there have been Frankensteinian mechanics who operate on them. And as long as they have fooled around with the classics, there have been automotive purists who throw tantrums. It’s the circle of life.
However, Emory Motorsports, the California- and Oregon-based shop specializing in Porsche “Outlaws” (basically top-of-the-line restomods), is on the cusp of breaking the wheel with its latest build: the Porsche 356 RSR Outlaw.
You don’t have to be a marque historian to realize this a highly customized, potentially sacrilegious Porsche. Emory’s naming scheme offers clues to the provenance, but as Designboom notes, what you’re looking at is a mash-up of a 1960 Porsche 356B (the body) and a 1990 Porsche 964 Carrera 2 (the chassis) with extra parts and their own proprietary touches filling it out.
The 356 is the first production Porsche ever made and was only manufactured until 1965, so you can see how traditionalists could easily get up in arms over this build. And they certainly have.
“It was not built to accommodate everybody’s taste,” writes Rob Emory, founder of Emory Motorsports, on Instagram. “So obviously there are some out there that think I took it too far. To be honest that’s OK. My idea was to look at the way Porsche evolved the 911 platform to accommodate more power better performance and drivability on and off the track like they did with the 935 and RSR back in the day and apply some of those same ideas and concepts to the 356 platform as if they would’ve continued building and developing it past 1965.”
But anyone who thinks this custom job goes “too far” should know this is more a case of a car being reincarnated than it is of a classic car being torn apart. As Hagerty writes, “The donor car was a 1960 [356B] coupe with a solid roof and not much else. It was stripped and new aluminum bodywork was hand-formed for the nose, tail, and hood.” So if it wasn’t for Emory, this 356 would have remained an undrivable piece of junk — historic and original, but still a piece of junk.
So where does this 356 RSR fall in terms of power and performance? The engine is the shop’s traditional Emory-Rothsport Outlaw-4, which combines features from three different 911 engines into a 2.4-liter four-cylinder. Here it’s boosted with twin turbochargers, upping the output to 393 horsepower.
As for drivability, every single Outlaw Emory produces is made to the exacting standards of the customer (for a commensurate price), so obviously this RSR is going to be a pleasure to drive. But this particular build might just offer the best driver’s seat experience to date because the customer isn’t just some titan of industry with cash to burn; as Hagerty writes, the customer is none other than Henrique Cisneros, semi-professional race car driver and CEO of Italian automotive accessories company Momo. So naturally, this car has Momo wheels, a Momo steering wheel and even a gorgeous Momo shift knob.
Yes, that means Cisneros won’t be handing off the keys to an auction house in the near future (and that’s just fine, because you probably don’t want Momo logos plastered in your custom Porsche anyway). Instead, take Emory and Cisneros’s ideas from this 356 RSR and use them as jumping off points for your own blasphemous build. You don’t have to be an automotive CEO to get in touch and customize your own.
If you want to hear Emory talk through the build, and a bit of his background, check out the video from Hoonigan below:
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
