Daily Slideshow: This RWB 993 is Pure Gold

The RWB 993 named after Japan’s ancient sin city in our Sin City

Christened Yoshiwara Yūkaku—the name of Edo-period Japan’s infamous red-light district—by Akira Nakai, the sole official installer of 993 Wide Body Kits for Japanese Porsche tuner RAUH-Welt Begriff (RWB) at the 2017 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Yoshiwara’s story, however, started in the mind of its creator/owner, Ricko, as a unique totem representing the bridge between his “playboy” days and married life. And that deeply personal reason for its creation may be why this is the first you’ve heard of it.

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*GASP* It’s got a Tip! And it’s a Targa, too!

I figure it’s best to rip those Band-Aids off up front, especially the Tiptronic ‘box as it’s the bit that gets the most tongues wagging. Truth is, he wanted a minty 993 upon which to base his custom RWB and grabbed it. That the experience would be al fresco was a bonus and the Tiptronic? If you’ve ever lived in the San Francisco-area—or any other hilly and congested commuting environment—like he does, you’ll know why this was a plus. Not that he asked for anyone else’s opinion, of course…

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Fattened form fabricated at Fatlace

Speaking of first-time hearing about, San Mateo, Calif.-based Fatlace was a new one for me. But in their—I swear this is true—"Shop Illest” section (ugh) is a link to RWB’s USA site, in addition to other Porsche-related content. So once Ricko got the base 993 how he wanted it—thanks to two Porsche mechanics, Efrain Ortiz and Edwin Zuñiga—he flew Nakai to Fatlace for its embiggening with RWB’s standard kit plus additional extra-cost pieces, including the black wheel arch canards and a few additional rear spoilers not shown.

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In love with a stripper

Stepping back for a second, thanks to his desire to perform a complete color-change on his RWB build, if anything could come off the 993’s unibody, it did. Then, once everything was repainted in multiple golden coats, what was necessary for the car to function—and $20,000-worth of requisite age-related replacement bits—was put back on. Once you’ve clambered into its low-slung cabin and into one of its Recaro SPG XL (their largest size) racing seats on MFREnterprisesmounts, you’ll find the expected dash (though signed by Nakai), steering wheel, center console, controls, and… that’s about it, in true sports-car fashion.

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As nasty (sounding) as you wanna be

In keeping with his desire to daily-drive his car at-will, the 3.6-liter air-cooled flat-six engine has been left surprisingly stock. You wouldn’t think so from the sounds it makes, however, thanks to an RS-style carbon fiber heater duct bypass pipe fed by an open-cover BMC panel filter on the intake side and MFR-made custom RSR-style exhaust headers and unmuffled tapered straight-pipe dual exhaust. If you want to meet your neighbors, the local cops, and feel like you’re working on jet aircraft without ear protection, this car’s racket will do all three for you in short order.

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Putting power to the ground with Sex, Breakfast of Champions

When it came time to source the steamroller-sized wheels and tires the kit is meant to cover, Ricko once again went his own way and had a set of 18-inch wheels (11-inch-wide fronts, 14-inch rears) custom-made and capped with D-LNG Design turbo-fan covers—yes, gold-toned on the left, black on the right on purpose. The wheels were then wrapped in massive Toyo Proxes R888s, with D-LNG James Hunt-tribute center caps serving as apropos icing on the cake.

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The angel in the details

One could spend days staring at images of Yoshiwara without running out of new things to see—believe me—as every aspect of this machine has been made to the exact vision of its creator. Granted, you could get a near-clone built for yourself to the same specs, but the one thing you should crib from Yoshiwara is the spirit of the “RK-Strong” sticker on the right door beside the car’s name printed vertically in kanji. It’s for a website “supporting 13-year-old car nut Ray Kanda currently undergoing treatment for leukemia,” and perhaps the only “mod” I think every Porsche “camp” can agree belongs on a 993.

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For help keeping your Porsche running right, please see our how-to section in the forum.