Type 7

“Most of the time it wasn’t even like assembling a normal 911, where you can reference other cars. We were making parts from scratch and reconfiguring whole subsystems, operating completely outside the box. There’s a saying ‘it takes a village’ and that certainly applies to these builds.”

There’s no quick work-around or serialised process to building world class custom cars these days, the standard is just too high to be forgiving of any shortcuts. Goldberg is among the few who understand this first hand, though he’s perhaps unique in the level of restraint he exercises in the exterior design of his cars. For this 964 build, he went with a very specific look, one that might be familiar to fans of over-the-top mid 90s action films.

“I have to laugh when I admit this because it exposes the inner nerd in me and my client. Our common goal for the build was for it to look like the car from Bad Boys. We both loved the 3.6 Turbo from the movie, in many ways the car made it a cult classic. This one started life as a 1992 3.3 Turbo, but the roof, fenders and quarter panels are now all carbon and exact replicas of the original Turbo S shape. The hood is factory RS aluminium and the interior is all black to be subtle but it’s done similarly to a 964RS. Everything is wrapped in Spinneybeck leather, even the edge trim on the carpets.”

Aesthetically, the car went from a Turbo to a Turbo S, which essentially means it gained a pair of air intakes just ahead of the rear wheels. Doesn’t seem like much, considering all the work that went into it, so why not go further? For Marlon, it seems to be a matter of principle.

“For most of my career I worked at a Porsche dealer, first as a mechanic and then on the sales side when I moved to LA. I have a huge amount of respect for the cars they built and I often feel that certain cars should be kept original and not used as a platform to modify. We tend to use donor cars that have had a hard life that we can save from uncertain futures or even bring back from the dead. We don’t do backdating or costume bodywork in my shop, I want to restore these cars in keeping with their original design, while integrating motorsport parts as desired by the client.”

There’s more to what makes Workshop5001’s “Number 8” build so comprehensive. The chassis for instance sits on a custom setup by KW Suspension, who also supply all the springs and dampers for the 718 GT4RS Clubsport program. According to Marlon, it’s a setup capable of “soaking up pot holes at high speed like a trophy truck”. The car also received a comprehensive new wiring system and a rebuilt transmission, but the engine is still at the heart of what makes this car special.

Marlon himself still builds the engines for all these cars and with this one, things get steadily more exotic as you move towards the extremities. The bottom end is Mahle’s basic motorsport kit, mated to a set of 3.4 litre barrels that increase the cylinder capacity by 100cc. The connecting rods are totally custom, as are the cylinder heads which are fitted with twin plugs and bespoke camshafts.