US Restomod of the Year: Gunther Werks Turbo vs Eccentrica V12

Jack Rix: Morning Jethro, ready for another hard day in the office? Um, you appear to have brought along two cars when only one is permitted. Care to explain?

Jethro Bovingdon: Technically, they’re the same car. This is the Gunther Werks Turbo and that is the Gunther Werks F-26, both are restomods based on the mid-90s 993 Porsche 911 and both are bat-s***. The Turbo produces 850bhp, the F-26 produces 1,067bhp and gets the slant nose styling… but they are essentially the same car underneath. Oh, and the F-26 is without its engine right now (it’s a long story) so we’ll have to make do with the Turbo on track. You said you wanted the ultimate restomod shootout, well I’ve brought a pair of Desert Eagles…

JR: I have brought along a Beretta - an exquisite wedge of Italian engineering that makes me want to weep with joy just looking at it. It’s called the Eccentrica V12, it’s based on the 90s Lamborghini Diablo, aka the coolest supercar of all time and the one I lusted after as a spotty teenager. Except, this thing has been improved in every possible way; reliability, looks, materials, useability. I could go on. You, on the other hand, have brought along the boggo base model?

Words: Jack Rix & Jethro Bovingdon / Photography: Mark Riccioni

JB: I think 1,360kg and 850bhp is probably enough to be getting on with. How much power is yours producing?

JR: An ample 550bhp, but from a 5.7-litre naturally aspirated V12, which is twice as many cylinders and therefore twice as good as your heavily-turbo’d flat-six. The philosophy behind this car is to preserve the essence of the Diablo, to keep that edginess and not polish out the character or pump it up so much you lose sight of what made this a hairy-chested hero. Yours looks like a 993 brimmed to the eyeballs with testosterone and steroids.

JB: It’s a noble cause, but the early Diablo was, um, terrible. So I hope they haven’t been too true to the original. Anyway, shall we start with the noise these things make? I’ll go first and humbly submit that while the Gunther Werks turbo sounds good, it's hard to beat an Italian 5.7-litre V12. I’m on the back foot here. As you’d expect from a Porsche it’s gruff and guttural, the best bit is probably when you come off the throttle and it dumps all the boost. On the throttle there’s a load of turbo rush, but this car is about the end result - getting somewhere as fast as possible.

JR: The Eccentrica absolutely isn’t. Eccentrica claims 0-60mph in 3.8s and a 208mph top speed but it doesn’t actually feel that fast at all (especially when it starts to overheat and strangle the power) but my word is it dripping in drama. It's got a really old school sound to it, which is not what I expected. There's more depth, more bass. It feels like a 60s V12 rather than a 90s V12.

JB: Yep, it’s definitely got some historic V12 racecar in there. And, I’ll concede, is music compared to the angry, pure-function soundtrack of the Turbo. I do love the tangible raw horsepower spewing from the Gunther Werks, though. It might not win this bit, but you wouldn’t pick a fight with it, would you?

JR: Yeah, it’s wild. And I guess it’s got its own motorsport vibes. Flame-spitting 935s come to mind…

JB: Okay, I guess the aesthetic of these cars is also crucial. They need to celebrate the original and exaggerate its unique identity. Whilst looking more - how can we describe it? - badass, I suppose. The Gunther is based on the 993, which is one of the great 911 shapes. This is a turbo, obviously, but the donor car is a Carrera - Gunther Werks then massively widens the front and rear tracks, adds full carbon fibre bodywork and braces the chassis so it’s 200 per cent stiffer than the standard car.

There are three potential wings you can order - a little ducktail spoiler that looks crap, an extra high one and this - aping the 993 turbo wing, therefore it’s the sweet spot. The engine underneath is a 4.0 Rothsport flat-six twin-turbo with a horizontal fan, like the Porsche 917. To be honest it’s all a bit too pimped for my taste (there’s a special place in hell for leather lined engine bays), but at this sort of money people expect the garnish on top.

JR: Interesting you mention engine bays because there are countries with smaller footprints than mine. The engine is fully-exposed and they’ve retained (but uprated) the original 5.7 V12 (purity, you see) albeit with another 60bhp or so, and now with a six- not a five-speed manual. Every panel is new and all carbon, overall it’s wider but shorter than the original and… pop down headlights. Not sure about them. Look, I get that some might find it a bit overwrought, but you cannot deny that those proportions are, always will be and always have been supercar perfection.

It’s so addictive and has the perfect blend of savagery and control

JB: I’m not denying it. I wasn’t sure about this thing in pictures but with a bare carbon fibre body the Diablo GTR racecar styling cues make a lot more sense. To be honest the donor car is so spectacular it would be very difficult to totally undo the pure supercar theatre. Weirdly you appear to have taken a 2-0 lead. Let’s do a quick tour around the interiors then stop gassing and get out on track, shall we? I’ll go first because it should be quite short and sweet.

If you’ve ever seen a 993 interior you’ll recognise the architecture but the detailing, quality and materials are in another stratosphere. The dash has a carbon fibre structure, the seats are made in-house and have that carbon shell/strategic padding look as in a McLaren Senna only they’re much less tortuous - although they’re a little upright and could offer more side support for me.

The hollow gearshifter is a thing of beauty, the dials simple, clear and gorgeous. My brain says Porsches should be simple, unadorned and almost utilitarian, but I have to admit they’ve done a great job here. And the steering wheel feels fantastic and the nod to 992 GT3 RS with the drive mode selector switch mounted beneath the right spoke is a cool touch, too. The whole thing is a great mix of stripped-back but with the quality dialled-up to 11.

JR: Annoyingly for you, the Eccentrica’s interior is where they’ve really gone to town. If that town was made out of pixels and ‘90s excess. The seats are the original Diablo shells, but re-upholstered and still tilted towards the centreline of the car with the pedals horrifically offset to the right, but fractionally more spaced apart to give my fat feet a chance. The displays are digital but fantastically simple dot-matrix graphics, think original GameBoy, there are three driving modes, a switch to open the flaps in the exhaust and a click-clack open-gate manual. There are five-clicks for the dampers and the traction control is either on or off. I mean, what more could you want?

JB: Sigh, it is quite cool. Not sure why your key looks like a dart, but… 3-0. Right I’m off for a drive.

There’s a reason I’m not fighting too hard about these arbitrary categories. Jack could get to 10-0 before the driving starts as far as I’m concerned, because the Gunther Werks Turbo is right on the money dynamically and I’m pretty sure it’ll blow the Lambo into the weeds, even if Eccentrica has truly transformed the Diablo.

It feels so small and light. The additional stiffness in the structure is real and you feel its effects all the time. It allows the suspension to work more efficiently and chases-out any slack in a car that basically has, um, no slack. This thing really does tighten, heighten and hone the 993 into a pretty amazing place. The performance is mighty (although I can’t help thinking 850bhp in 1,225kg should be even more violent), but the grip, braking ability and balance are all up to the task of creating a cohesive whole.

You can attack, use the massive front-end grip and then feel the rear edge into oversteer mid-corner. It’s really reminiscent of the 993 GT2 in that respect - highly alert but with the sense it could eat you at any moment. Even so, it’s so addictive and has the perfect blend of savagery and control. Plus, the manual ‘box is lovely. For me, cars are about the driving. I can’t see the Eccentrica getting close.

JR: I fear that while I have points on the board, the yawning gulf between the two cars in this category could seal it for the Gunther Werks. Let’s start with the good stuff, because the clutch action is definitely much lighter, I love the gear shift - slick, mechanical, requires a really positive shove - and we’ve got power steering. But make no mistake, this is not an easy car to drive. It feels intimidatingly wide, it's actually quite juddery at low speeds and generally feels like it's from a different era… one where you had to work for your speed and it wasn't handed to you on a plate.

I like that this is a car with principles. Eccentrica could have just set out to build the wildest most powerful mid-engine V12 supercar possible, but they didn't want to do that, they wanted to refresh the Diablo experience, which is why it feels more old school than I thought it would. On one hand that’s great, it’s authentic, it’s night and day different to a modern-Lambo… but on the other hand, it feels brittle and a bit wayward to drive fast, which are precisely the things that restomodding is supposed to fix.

It needs more focus, more blood and thunder and a greater impression of integrity

JB: Let’s bring this in to land shall we. But first, prices: including donor car, taxes and the conversion work… a little over $2m for the Turbo. Peanuts. You?

JR: Um, about $1.7m all in.

JB: To me it doesn't matter if it's $1.6m, $2.1m or $10.8m, you almost have to forget the price because they're all stupid money. And let’s not comb over those earlier categories, because the Gunther Werks is simply so much better to drive.

JR: I reluctantly have to agree. Both cars are keen to show you where your money’s been spent, but on the Gunther Werks you can feel where it’s gone, too. Although undeniably knockout to look at (especially the interior) the Lambo leaves too much room for a nagging question to creep in: if I just bought an original Diablo and spent a few hundred thousand fixing it and with some light mods, wouldn’t I have 99 per cent of the Eccentrica experience for a lot less?

JB: Yep, that sums it up nicely. The Eccentrica feels like an idea. A concept. And a really appealing one at that. But it’s not fully realised and by being reverential to the original it perhaps doesn’t strive to push far enough beyond the constraints and experience of a donor car that was always limited as a dynamic driving experience. For me it needs more focus, more blood and thunder and a greater impression of integrity, too. A restomod needs to feel bulletproof.

The Gunther Werks does. Plus, it’s a ballistic device in its own right. So fast, so clear in its purpose and re-engineered to a level where even that monster engine doesn’t overwhelm the package. The engine-driven cooling fan is loud and wearing. The ride is hardcore. But it rips. And it takes the great strengths of the Porsche 911 and enhances them with respect but no fear of abandoning the core DNA. Restomod overload is a real thing, but when they deliver like this you can see why they capture the imagination of enthusiasts everywhere.