Porsche 911 Carrera (996)

HERE’S THE HEADLINE. AND IT’S A GOOD one. After many twists, (U-)turns and broken dreams, Project Arena Red is alive. And in place of the sadly departed M96 engine is a 3.8-litre direct-injection 9A1 lifted from a 991 Carrera S that a reversing lorry hadn’t noticed. The resulting carnage along the entirety of its nearside flank unwittingly provided the perfect donor for my reborn 996 Carrera. So, what I now have is a 996 with somewhere around 400bhp, a complete chassis overhaul and so much trick fabrication and invention by Litchfield that, I suspect, it will remain forever unique. To say I’m happy with how things have turned out is something of an understatement.

Of course, it also means I’m