“Porsche could never do this” Jan Kalmar, founder of KALMAR Automotive, insisted to me as we walked around the KALMAR 9X9 on the soft turf of The Quail. He was talking about the 3D-printed brake calipers in particular, though he could have been talking about the entire car.
Modified vintage Porsches were the thingĀ at this year’s Monterey Car Show, ranging from whimsical reimaginings like the Porsche 911 Targa Hybrid from bb/Beau to the Tuthill GT One. And if on-road Porsches aren’t your thing, you could easily grab yourself a RUF Rodeo. Singer, Tuthill, bb, and RUF are all known in the Porsche world as established brands and all were on display at Monterey Car Week.
KALMAR is relatively less known, but the 9X9 on display wants to be the most extreme version of a 911-shaped thing you can buy. If you thought a Singer was a cost-is-no-option car, just wait until you get a closer look at this.
What Is The KALMAR 9×9?
The most famous high-performance production Porsche might be the Porsche 959, a car born out of FIA racing specs. The all-wheel-drive supercar did everything that an early ’80s 911 could do and took it to its logical extremes. There was only one 959, and Porsche, for various reasons, struggled to make a real production follow-up until the Porsche Carrera GT (unless you count the two Porsche 911 GT1 StraĆenversions the company built).
This means the world was deprived of a Porsche supercar for the 993 era of 911. which covers the mid-1990s.
KALMAR is solving this oversight with the 9X9. Starting with a 993 donor car, the company and its suppliers do everything possible to add power and grip, and to remove weight. It’s why the company refers to the car as a “Retro Hypercar,” combining an era-appropriate aesthetic to the best of what modern technology offers.
This means engines out of the 992 (in the trim I’m looking at it’s the 993’s Turbo S flat-six squeeze to 930 horsepower) paired to the 992’s PDK transmission. If the PDK isn’t your bag, you can spec a Sport model that’s basically a 992 GTS 4 and its seven-speed manual or, hey, why not get the Leichtbau version with the 4.0-liter six and a six-speed manual? You’ve got options.
Up front, where the frunk should be, is a Danisi Engineering-designed double-wishbone push-rod front suspension because, sure, why not? The body has the greenhouse of a 993, but both the front and rear treatments feel a little more modern to me. Of course, the body has been entirely redesigned using carbon fiber to minimize weight and maximize downforce and very little of the 993 has been retained.
In fact, other than the interior and greenhouse section, most of the car’s subframes and all of the electronics come courtesy of a new 992 Porsche 911. Oh, yeah, in order to get one 9X9 you have to sacrifice a 993 (which you provide) and a 992 (which Jan provides).
The good news is that Jan loves 911s like the rest of us, and anything that isn’t needed for the final car is going to get put back into the Porsche ecosystem for other owners to buy.
Wait, What About That Headline? The Brakes Are $240,000!?!
Actually, the brakes are more expensive than that. The $240,000 figure is just the $60k per corner for the freaking calipers. Are these calipers made out of diamonds or freakin’ mithril?
Nope. The custom-designed, massive calipers are 3D-printed lightweight titanium. These are made by a company called CARBO Brake not too far from Kalmar’s Scandanavian HQ.
I had to run the math by Jan a few times just to make sure I was hearing it correctly. He insisted they cost about $60k a set and, to his main point, while Porsche might technically be capable of such engineering, it could never justify the cost of doing it to save a little unsprung weight.
Why do any of this? I’ll let the company’s website explain:
The rear callipers weigh just 1.8kg ā some 51 per cent lighter than the original 993 example ā while the fronts tip the scales at 2.0kg ā 44 per cent lighter than a factory 993. Of course, unsprung mass is reduced too, with almost 10kg of rotating mass lost. In addition, the stiffness of our callipers is similar to that found on top level single seater racing cars. The body of the calliper itself is crafted from special motorsport-grade forged aluminium before being CNC machined. It is also nickel plated to provide an additional heat barrier and as a result, it is capable of a working temperature between 200 and 300Ā°C. This is a whopping 200 per cent more than rival cast or forged aluminium products on the market.
You’ll also have to pay for ceramic brake discs and pads and fluid, but compared to the extremely bespoke calipers the price of that is all nominal.
So How Much Does The Whole Car Cost?
All of this is utterly ridiculous and over-the-top and probably too much car for me, but I do kind of like it. The 993 is one of my favorite 911s and I’m a big 959 fan. If you’re going to combine them into one car and charge a stupendous amount for them, why not go all the way? Why not embrace the inherent insanity of the moment and see just how insane you can get?
This is not a car that you look at and rev your Onan to while parking it outside of Harrods. It’s meant to be driven harder than anyone you’ve probably ever met can drive. And that ain’t cheap.
According to Jan, the price is about $2 million to start, though timing and currency fluctuations will impact this. Additionally, they only plan to make a few of these every year, so you might as well just fork over a little extra to get it exactly right.
This cost doesn’t include the 993. You’re going to have to buy a 993 if you don’t already own one, though given how much of the car is going to get chucked I wouldn’t necessarily fork over a fortune to get a Concours-grade donor car.
My suggestion is to get one that costs about $60k or, roughly, one caliper’s worth of 911.
[Ed Note: My suggestion is that you then just drive that 993 and save yourself $2 million, but that’s just me. -DT].Ā
Iām already bracing for the rain of rotten eggs coming my way but despite real appeal and qualities (I truly appreciate a mid-80ās 911) they lost me after the G-series. And the mass pop cultural appeal peaked with Magnus Walker imo. All of it since feels so me-too and so so boring. And this particular contraption, just like the Singer builds, are just money flexes. There. Now go get some expired tomatoes- Iāll be over there on the bench reading my 1978 Peugeot line-up brochure.
Wow. Mind blown. I could get a TON of rusty classics for that much and start my own junkyard in a field. Also, for that much I would just retire, make investments and live off of that
“Of course, unsprung mass is reduced too, with almost 10kg of rotating mass lost.”
Did they switch subjects here? Are they still talking calipers? I’m confused by the whole thing frankly but really confused about that quote. Frankly not impressed with only 10 kg of rotating mass lost. I’m starting to think that, “No, I won’t buy this.”
āThe custom-designed, massive calipers are 3D-printed lightweight titaniumā
āThe body of the calliper itself is crafted from special motorsport-grade forged aluminium before being CNC machinedā
Umm, what?
Pointless willy waving for the sake of it. Huibert will know better than me but double wishbones is absolutely over specified for a road car, and now youāve lost any vestige of practicality. And lest we forget one of the 911s key characteristics is it is practical. Still itās not like any of these ass-engined poncemobiles are going to be driven anywhere anyway.
“…double wishbones is absolutely over specified for a road car…”
Nitpicking police here – my CRX called and greeted me with a crisp “Nope”.
Now, double wishbone with pushrods – no contest.
i Know Honda used to use them all the time, and they are absolutely not necessary for any of those cars. They give you packaging problems and additional expense.
Nothing on my CRX was unnecessary š It was perfection made car. Just as most of its siblings from that generation were. Nor was it the most expensive.
And it survived an encounter with (pot)hole in a bridge that one could look through with only destroyed tires. My mechanic’s comment was that the double wishbone saved the day and that his Escort’s would have left its whole set in that hole. Can’t comment on that one, as I don’t know if he was right or just consoling me (he had sold me new tires three days prior and I destroyed two in that pothole on that day – the front and the back on one side).
Donāt get me wrong, itās cool it has them. But the only reason it does is because Honda were trying to establish themselves as an engineering led, hi tech company. They could afford to do it because of the Japanese bubble, and made a big deal about that sort of suspension arrangement in their advertising, which heavily featured their F1 involvement.
But a lightweight, modestly powered FWD car doesnāt need them. If it had struts you wouldnāt know the difference.
Do they take the leftovers of both cars to make another one? Seems like there would be enough.
Outrageous.
This is just fucking stupid. Stupid and wasteful. The world is full of hungry, starving, very poor people. And yet some asshole thinks hey- let’s use a shit ton of money. For brake calipers. In fact, let’s apply this to the entire show this thing is in. Fuck the rich.
The only reason anyone would justify spending $60,000 per corner on brakes is money laundering. Anyone buying this has dirty money to hide.
Yeah, the money’s dirty, but at those prices it better not be brake dust.
Hard sell next to something like the Tuthill GT One, which is only 2X the price ($4MM vs. $2MM.) It really is absurd how many options there are for insanely expensive sports cars. But only a small handful of affordable ones.
What a tremendously stupid amount of money to spend on something that will only leave the garage to be shown at car shows and never actually be driven. Buy a fucking painting guy
Yeah, this is not a restomod. A restomod is exactly what it says – a restoration that is modified in key places. This… thing… is not that. I don’t care if it started with an old frame; this is basically a kit car now.
Exactly. Except the donor chassis is a Porsche, with other running gear and engine from another donor car that is a Porsche and then a bunch of custom stuff.
l like kit cars, but they are kit cars. It’s not a Porsche any more than the Cobra I saw the other day is a Mustang because it uses so many Mustang parts as part of the kit.
So they compare their exotic calipers to the weight of 993 calipers. But since the car is 90% 992, how do they compare to 992 calipers? Or any other modern high-performance and commercially available calipers?
I seriously doubt they are 44% (or whatever) lighter than any other option on the market.
This car wasn’t engineered. It was done by kid flipping through a catalog and having fun picking all the most expensive stuff just for the fun of it.
I’d love to see a story about CARBO Brakes…. who are getting $60k per caliper. That’s the real story here.
“We are going to make you the most beautiful calipers ever by 3D printing them out of titanium, which is what happens when you CNC them out of aluminium. They magically change from aluminium to titanium. Or something. It’s complicated. Anywho… that’ll be $240K. Paper of plastic”?
I was also confused by the statement they are 3d printed titanium (which is hardcord for sure) to the comment that they are CNC aluminum (which seems only 1 step above normal).
Waste of a 993.
And of a 992.
Brake calipers at sixty grand a wheel? Makes sense that this was posted at 4:20 p.m.