This is the Porsche 911 “STR II” built by Magnus Walker. It’s one of the most recognizable custom 911s in recent memory thanks to its appearances on Jay Leno’s Garage, Adam Carolla’s CarCast, and the Fifth Gear TV show.
Remarkably the car weighs in at just 997 kgs (2,197 lbs) with 10 gallons of fuel, and it’s powered by an uprated 3.2 liter short-stroke flat-six that’s capable of 275 bhp at 6,500 rpm – giving it the ability to embarrass far more modern sports cars.
Fast Facts – The Magnus Walker Porsche 911 “STR II”
- Magnus Walker initially rose to prominence as a fashion designer, founding the brand Serious and creating clothing that was worn by Madonna, Alice Cooper, and Bruce Willis.
- Walker had been enamored with the Porsche 911 ever since his father took him to the 1977 Earl’s Court Motor Show at the age of 10. It would be an event that had a major impact on his life, in later years when finances allowed he began buying and customizing Porsches. He’s now a major figure in the Porsche community, and the classic car community as a whole.
- The 911 “STR II” started life as a 1972 model 911 T. It was bought by Walker as a project car and restored modified significantly, taking inspiration from the iconic 911 S/T and the 911 R. Every aspect of the car was modified, with a strong focus on lowering the weight, improving the handling and braking, and significantly increasing power output.
- The car is now powered by a 3.2 liter 911 flat-six rebuilt with JE pistons, high-lift Mod S camshafts, and Bosch mechanical fuel injection. It produces 275 bhp at 6,500 rpm and power is sent to the rear wheels via a rebuilt 5-speed 915 transmission.
Urban Outlaw: Magnus Walker
Magnus Walker had already been a well-known figure in the Porsche community for years when he began work with Canadian filmmaker Tamir Moscovici to create a documentary film about his passion for Porsche. The film was released in 2012 and it became a viral sensation, shooting Walker to global fame and making him a household name.
Above Video: This is the full film “Urban Outlaw” starring Magnus Walker. He’s appeared in many films and TV shows since, but this is the film that first shot him to fame.
Walker originally comes from humble beginnings, he was born into a middle class family in Sheffield, England. As a 10 year old his father took him to the 1977 Earl’s Court Motor Show where he was stopped dead in his tracks by a white Martini Turbo 911 with a red and blue stripe on the Porsche stand.
It would be the car that triggered the beginning of a life-long passion that would see him become arguably the best-known Porsche collector in the world, and the red/blue colorway still features prominently in many of his builds.
The Porsche 911 “STR II”
The car you see here, called the STR II, originally left the factory as a 1972 Porsche 911 T. It was a California car and by the time Walker bought it decades later it had fallen into disrepair, so he took it on as a project car.
The rebuild would be an extensive process focussed on improving the car’s performance by lowering its weight, improving its handling and braking, and vastly increasing its power output. There would be a series of cosmetic upgrades as well of course, but Walker’s builds always tend towards the form follows function side of the scale.
The body work was modified with all steel panels including reprofiled front wings, Turbo-style rear wings, R-style bumpers and taillights, and louvred polycarbonate quarter windows for weight reduction.
The suspension was completely revised, it now consists of Bilstein Sport shock absorbers and Elephant Racing torsion bars with adjustable spring plates. It has Tarett Engineering RSR type front and rear sway bars and Turbo-type tie-rods with an anti-bump-steer kit.
The car now has reprofiled front wings and Turbo-style rear wings, fitted with 8-inch wide PAG (Campagnolo replica) gold alloy wheels with matching 10-inch wide wheels in the rear.
The car now rides on 15-inch PAG (Campagnolo replica) gold alloy wheels that are 8-inches wide up front and 10-inches wide in the rear. They’re shod with Michelin TB Course tires and they cover SC brakes in front and M-type calipers in the rear.
A heavily modified 3.2 liter 911 flat-six is now fitted to the car, it was rebuilt with 9.5:1 compression ratio JE pistons, high-lift Mod S camshafts, Aasco Motorsports valve springs and titanium retainers, stainless-steel valves, and Bosch mechanical fuel injection.
Power is sent out through a rebuilt Porsche 915 5-speed transmission with a limited-slip differential and a JWest shifter.
Inside the cabin the rear seats were removed for weight savings, period-look bucket seats trimmed in black leather were installed and fitted with four-point Schroth harnesses. A roll bar was added for safety and the car has a Raid three-spoke steering wheel with Momo hub, back-dated VDO instrument gauges, and a 917-style lightweight wood shift knob.
The car now produces 275 bhp at 6,500 rpm and it’s said to tip the scales at 997 kgs (2,197 lbs) – and that’s with 10 gallons of fuel of onboard.
Since completion the car has been featured on the cover of the June 2013 issue of Road & Track magazine, it also appeared in Total 911 magazine, on Jay Leno’s Garage, Adam Carolla’s CarCast, and the Fifth Gear TV show.
Power is now provided by a 3.2 liter 911 flat-six is now fitted to the car, it was rebuilt with 9.5:1 compression ratio JE pistons, high-lift Mod S camshafts, Aasco Motorsports valve springs and titanium retainers – producing 275 bhp at 6,500 rpm.
Walker eventually sold the car and it was bought by The Ingram Collection, then later it was bought by the current owner and imported to the UK, then registered with the DVLA in November of 2019.
It’s now being offered for sale out of Dorset in the United Kingdom on the Collecting Cars platform. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Collecting Cars
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
