LS-swapped Porsche Pushes Gut-busting 1,210 HP
LSA V8 ditches supercharger for a pair of nasty twin turbos to make huge power in this Porsche 718 Cayman.
It may sound strange but there are quite a few Porsche owners that have retired their Bavarian flat-six powerplants for American V8s. Typically, you see them swapped with LQ4s (or an LQ9, if you can actually find one for cheap) or an LS1. On the outside, Jordon Musser’s vibrant-green Cayman looks like any other 718 from 2007, save for the GT3RS front end swap and apparent #BigWangGang appeal. However, he skipped over the heavy iron block route for the 6.2-liter aluminum goodness of the legendary LSA V8. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill crate engine.
You see, Musser is both a race driver and an engineer. So for him, 556 horsepower simply wasn’t enough. And with today’s street performance, that power rating is more par for the course rather than something extraordinary (thank Dodge and its insanely-powered SRT Hellcat line). So he decided to toss the factory supercharger, plop on an LS3 intake and throw in a pair Xona X3C turbos, pushing the Porsche to 1210 HP and 959 lbs.-ft of torque.
As insane as this all sounds, this project naturally had its issues. For one, the transmission was wholly incompatible with the engine so he used a Lamborghini Gallardo 6-speed tranny (with a billet trans center plate), and transaxle. He also had to fabricate his own trans cooler, coolant tubes, crossmembers for the motor and transaxle and other proprietary components.
Naturally, being an engineer means you overcome challenges (physical or otherwise) with innovation. And the coolest thing about his build is that it is “semi-modular,” meaning he’s rigged the vehicle’s frame so the engine can easily go in and out for general maintenance and upgrades.
Nonetheless, it appears the quest for legendary power is a successful one for Musser. And we can’t wait to see this thing slay the opposition on the track and on the street.
What do you all think of this behemoth Porsche? Let us know in the forums.
Photos: Jordon Musser
