Daily Slideshow: This 997 Doesn't Strut... It Liberty Walks

The Few, The Brave

If you aren't familiar with Liberty Walk, they want you to know that "there is no other brand out there being quite so brave, or seemingly capturing the current tuning zeitgeist as this brand." That bravery was born with owner Wataru Kato's love of Laurels and Skylines in his youth and more recently has manifested itself in the form of body kits Liberty produces for Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Brave customers can cut into supercar fenders, and drop their bodies onto taut tires with air shocks that have "style at their heart." The courageous often have something to prove and ahead of the SEMA 2014 Liberty Walk was out to prove they could build a car that had as much impact moving as sitting.

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From Skyline to Stuttgart

By now you've probably sussed out that Liberty Walk chose a 997 for the task of turning heads at the track, and to help do that they tapped CSF Cooling and BBI Autosport as partners. Huntington Beach, California-based BBI promise in their mission statement to "strive to find superior ingredients and time-consuming rituals that will guarantee a product built solely on passion, artistry, and craft." Let's find out a little more about what that means...

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Back to Bearings

BBI wanted to find a reliable, street-able way to adapt their earlier packages to the car you see here. As BBI's Betim Berisha told Speedhunters, "This build is a bit unique in that we started on the 2011 911TT a little while ago. This car has Porsche’s new ‘9A1′ direct fuel injection engine in it. It has a very similar architecture to the [current] 991TT. We wanted to see how hard we could push this new engine so we can learn what our future of tuning this new breed of 911s would look like. We did away with the VTG turbos and opted to go with a more traditional TiAL ball bearing turbo. We were able to adopt about 50% of our B8 package that is used on the 997.1TT (2007-2009) to this new engine package. Our biggest challenge was to de-tune the power and sneak up on possible limits in fueling or weak links in hardware.”

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Keeping it Cool

BBI met those challenges, to the tune of 688 wheel horsepower on 21 pounds of boost, with the engine configured to run on 91 octane fuel. Betim says more power is definitely possible but he wanted to stay on the safe side of 700 horsepower for the time being to preserve the engine's stock internals. Project partner CSF Cooling added a margin of safety in the form of their 997-specific three-piece racing spec radiator kit. CSF's products are no strangers to BBI builds, including the latter company's Airstrip Attack veteran ‘King Kong’ 996.

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The Shape of Things to Come

In true collaborative spirit, as LB was developing their original 997 widebody kit, Kato asked Betim for input, so this project was a sort of homecoming. This particular 997 has been freed of its sunroof, the new carbon fiber roof panel adding stiffness and trimming weight, and has received additional rigidity and safety from the installation of a BBI RSR half cage. The car also features Porsche GT3 Cup fender liners and carbon fiber intercooler inlet ducts.

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Flightless Missile

Keeping the performance-oriented goal in mind, the 997 foregoes Liberty's standby air suspension; a BBI Stage III set-up—including their upper control arms, adjustable Öhlins TTX dampers, Swift springs, and Porsche RSR lower control arms—exists in their stead. That gives a little more room than usual for the Toyo R888 tires (265/35R18 front and 335/30R18 rear, over 18×10.5-inch front and 18×13-inch rear BBS E88 center-lock wheels) to do their thing. They did their thing clear up to 197 miles per hour at the Texas Mile—which just proves that old adage, to the brave, go the spoils.

>>Join the conversation about this Liberty Walk 997 right in the Rennlist Forum!

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