Widebody LS-Powered Porsche 944 Destroys Cones With Ease
The marriage of a classic Porsche 944, hand-formed body work, and a modern LS3 is a match made in heaven.
When it comes to designing a race car, most builders follow a couple of different schools of thought. Some guys cast aside the desire to build anything that’s visually appealing, concentrating instead on making their car as fast as possible. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got guys that put just as much effort into appearances as speed. Brian Bergeron most definitely falls into the latter category.
Just take a glance at his incredible Porsche 944 and that much is immediately evident. Bergeron put a ton of thought into his ride, an LS3-powered widebody that he hand crafted himself. Bergeron simply wasn’t satisfied with any 944 widebody conversions on the market. So he decided to build his own. That commitment not only led to this car’s creation, but the birth of an entire company, Widerstandsfahig.
Bergeron, who has a partnership with LS1Tech‘s Porsche-centric brother site Rennlist, has built a total of three widebody Porsche 944 cars so far, with a fourth in the works. Each of them hand crafted, individually numbered, and obviously exclusive. Bergeron pays special attention to weight reduction, using four layer, hand-laid fiberglass body panels. All together, the nose, front fenders, and rear over-fenders weigh around 45 pounds total.
Bergeron, a life-long 944 enthusiast, is open to building cars with the original Porsche turbo 4-cylinder in place. Yet for his personal car, he went with something guaranteed to upset the purists – an LS3. But no matter how much it bothers some folks, Bergeron has valid reasons for making the swap.
“It’s bulletproof, there’s less moving parts than some of your overhead cam engines. Which is great for me and what I’m doing. The fact that without the overhead cams I’m eliminating some overhead weight and dropping my center of gravity down with the LS engine, I enjoy that fact. And the power for the weight is just phenomenal.”
Obviously, it’s working, as Bergeron has greatly expanded his trophy case since completing his masterpiece of a Porsche 944. Is the marriage of a modern GM motor and a classic Porsche chassis the best of both worlds? It sure seems that way. Especially when you possess the obsession with detail that Brian Bergeron does.
