Modern 959-Inspired Supercar Wants To Prove It Can Be A Real Ferrari Rival

Dutch Porsche restomod company Kalmar pushed its 911-turned-959 prototype named 9X9 onto the Nürburgring in early November for its first round of public testing. Packing over 900 horsepower in its 3.8-liter twin-turbo boxer engine through an all-wheel-drive system, it had, predictably, some issues.

Kalmar’s Porsche 935 Homage Packs 900 HP And Posts Hypercar Lap Times

No prizes for guessing what’s underneath Kalmar’s 935-inspired carbon fiber bodywork.

However, the Porsche 911 Turbo-based car, designed as a tribute to the Porsche 959 that’s perfectly useable on the road while also hitting hypercar levels of performance, did manage to put in low 8-minute ‘Ring laps in the wet and with the driver instructed “no curbs, no Karussell, and a max speed 300 km/h (186 mph).” Its next test outing was to cross Europe, starting in Torino, Italy, heading to Paris, France, then to London, UK, for its reveal and first media drives. The final leg was back to France to continue the 9×9’s testing program.

Clearing The Alps

The Kalmar 9X9 features adaptive suspension, cruise control, and LED lights, which is a solid basis for a winter trip across Europe. However, not having heating and a twin-turbo 3.8-liter engine tuned to 917 hp isn’t ideal when things get cold and icy. Still, company founder Jan Kalmar reports that he negotiated the mountain passes of the Alps with little change other than moving from Michelin Cup 2 tires to Super Sports. He negotiated Paris and the Arc de Triomphe just for fun and embarrassed a Lamborghini driver before making it to the UK, where the problems started.

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Jan also says that Kalmar needs to reduce road noise significantly before it can work as a GT car. The team now has an even longer Open Issue List following its time on the legendary Nürburgring, but that’s the whole point of this sort of adventure – to identify and fix problems. The prototype 9X9 is now in the hands of endurance racing specialist Romain Dumas and his team, along with Kalmar test driver James Rossiter, in France for more testing.

Kalmar’s 9X9 Range Is Diverse

The prototype is of the grand tourer and most powerful version of the 9X9 Kalmar is offering. There will also be a Sport model for those who want a saner and more manageable 3.0-liter flat-six engine making 641 hp, and then a hardcore 9X9 Leichtbau (Lightweight). This is the most promising for track enthusiasts as it gets rid of the turbos and bumps the engine to 4.0 liters, swaps the paddles for a 6-speed manual transmission, and only sends its power to the rear wheels. As you can probably guess, this one is based on the 911 GT3, but whatever is underneath, Kalmar seems determined to ensure its new supercar is as quiet as comfortable as anything the established purveyors of high-performance grand tourers can muster.