Some project builds trade on brutality, channelling the spirit of the Minotaur or the Chimera. But Allen Yang’s wide-bodied blue RWB Porsche 993 is more of a unicorn…
It’s often said that petrolheads’ motoring enthusiasm is fuelled by the cars their parents had when they were a kid. It makes a lot of sense – if your dad plodded about in a base model Corsa then it’s perhaps less likely that you’d grow up wanting a badass race car with number plates. However, if your mum had a jacked-up V8 Cortina or an R33 with a 700bhp RB26 then perhaps you’d feel differently.
In the case of Allen Yang, who’s lucky enough to be prowling around in the Miami Blue widebody Porsche you see here, it’s all thanks to his dad’s Acura Legend – that much underrated luxury Honda with the lusty V6 and road presence in spades. “I’d wash and wax that Legend every weekend, as if it was my own car,” he laughs. “I’ve always loved cars ever since I was a young kid, and it all started with that Acura.”
Fast-forward through puberty, adolescence and into adulthood and we find the bright-eyed Allen all grown up and, surprising precisely no-one, behind the wheel of the first of a string of modified cars.
“My first heavily modded car was an E46 M3,” he recalls. “I had a couple of those, and currently have a couple of E36 M3s for future projects.” Okay, so it’s safe to say that life is going well for Allen right now, and what better way to revel in the fortunes of fate than to work your way through a checklist of eye-catching projects? A Nissan GT-R soon found itself welcomed into the fold, bought stock and treated to a Varis aero kit and Powerhouse Amuse wing, and then another GT-R happened – this one being built up into a SEMA-quality ride with 1,000bhp at the Asanti wheels and a Liberty Walk widebody kit. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? And the current contents of Allen’s garage makes for interesting reading too – a Rocket Bunny GT-R, Ford Raptor, couple of 911s, those E36s, it’s all looking very pretty.
It has to be said, however, that creating an RWB Porsche isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill project. You don’t just walk into a tuning shop and buy the panels off the shelf. The genesis of the whole RWB concept was that it would work like this: Firstly, you’d need to source and prepare the right car as a project base, and secondly Akira Nakai (the mastermind behind the RAUH-Welt Begriff operation) needed to interview you, to make sure you’re on the same page with what you want the car to achieve. Then, when the Porsche was correctly prepped for surgery, Nakai-san would travel over and spend a few days in a whirlwind of smoke, crafting the widebody kit by hand and by eye. It’s a bespoke, full-custom experience.
“I first heard of Nakai-san and RWB through stumbling across some YouTube videos,” says Allen. “I was at SEMA in 2016, and I saw several RWBs in person and fell in love! I also ran into Nakai-san at the Air Lift booth, and asked him to take a photo – he was a super cool guy.
And why did I choose a 993 for my project? Because it was the last air-cooled model, and I felt that these were steadily going up in price and I should hurry up and get a 993 while I still could!”
Helpfully, Allen managed to find a decent 993 locally on Craigslist; it needed a little work here and there, but as it was being bought as a project that was no bad thing as it drove the price down a little.
And the first task upon purchasing was to send the car down to Goldcrest Motorsports to get an inspection and evaluation of what level of mechanical and suspension work it would need. “I chose Goldcrest as they came highly recommended to me by Leh Keen,” Allen explains. Keen is a professional Porsche racing driver, as well as the owner of another RWB 911, so he’s a man whose word can be trusted.
With the belt-and-braces taken care of, it was time for Classic Livery of Atlanta to step up, as they’re a full-service custom shop with an incredible CV of work and more than a few hot Porsche builds under their collective belts.
“I delivered the car to Classic Livery to get all the paint and custom fabrication done,” says Allen. “Bryson, the owner, was actually the one who put me in contact with Christian Couijin – who mentored me through my RWB build and became one of my best friends.
“The team stripped the whole interior so we could send off the pieces to get custom-upholstered by Dale Hemmingway, in black Alcantara and black-and-blue houndstooth, and we also went with custom carbon fibre-backed Recaro Pole Position seats by Carbon Signature. Classic Livery painted the car, installed the RS carpet kit, and fabricated a fully custom rollcage and custom exhaust system. They also helped install all the small miscellaneous parts I had ordered!”
With the 993 suited-and-booted, it then returned to Goldcrest for the suspension to be set up. Allen went with KW Variant 3 coilovers along with a neat hydraulic lift kit to clear speedbumps and trailer ramps (although he points out that Nakai-san’s clever design gives a lot more clearance than you might think), while every single bush was also renewed to tighten everything up.
And of course, the crowning glory is that vast set of wheels: Kinesis Wheels provided sponsorship for the project, and the Porsche now wears mighty 13×18” rims on the back with supercar-fat 315-section Falkens. The fronts are pretty meaty too – naturally staggered, they still weigh in at 10.5”-wide, which should keep Allen’s forearm muscles rippling.
The overall results, as you can see, are pretty startling. Every Rauh-Welt Begriff build is a jaw-dropper, but there’s something about the Miami Blue finish of Allen’s car that elevates it to new heights; it wowed the crowds at SEMA 2017, and this serial modifier has big plans. “It’s all RWB and more RWB for me now,” he laughs. “The car’s going back to Goldcrest soon for a full 3.8 engine build with velocity stacks, and then who knows what next…?”
We’ll just have to keep our eyes on the 2018 show scene to see how things develop. Suffice it to say, that old Acura Legend has a lot to answer for.
TECH SPEC RWB PORSCHE 993
Styling:
RWB 993 widebody race kit with Champion wing, Miami Blue
Tuning:
3.6-litre air-cooled flat-six, Fabspeed Motorsport headers, custom exhaust system with titanium tails by Classic Livery of Atlanta, 6-speed manual
Chassis:
10.5×18” ET-14 (front) and 13×18” ET-46 (rear) Kinesis wheels, 265/35 (f) and 315/40 (r) Falken Azenis RT615K tyres, KW Variant 3 coilovers with front and rear hydraulic lift system
Interior:
Custom carbon fibre Recaro Pole Position seats by Carbon Signature, custom RS door panels, RS carpet, black Alcantara/black-and-blue houndstooth trim by Dale Hemmingway, Porsche 996 Cup steering wheel, Rennline pedals
Thanks:
“Thanks to Nakai-san, RAUH-Welt Begriff, Falken Tire, Christian Couijin, John Vang, Peter Tran, Eric Greiving, Kinesis Motorsport, Leh Keen & The Keen Project, Bryson at Classic Livery of Atlanta, Goldcrest Motorsports, Carbon Signature, 311 RS, Totem, Thomas Kim, and Sharon Kim – aka the wifey!”
Words Daniel Bevis Photography Mike Kuhn
