- At face value alone, the โAP87โ Porsche 930 TAG Turbo by Dean Lanzante is quite the sight to behold. But thereโs far more than meets the eye.
- Under the hood, youโll find a revived McLaren Racing F1 engine raced by Alain Prost himself at the 1986 German Grand Prix and 1987 Hungarian and Japanese Grands Prix.
- Set to auction next month at Monterey Car Week, RM Sothebyโs has listed a pricing estimate of US$1.8 million to US$2.1 million (AU$2.7 million to AU$3.2 million)
McLaren Racingโs grid dominance is often attributed to the Senna era of Honda-supplied power units. But before the four-time championโs arrival, the team made a name for itself with the equally legendary duo of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, who ruled the tracks using 1.5-litre twin-turbo V6 TAG-Porsche engines.
With Porsche under those iconic red and white MP4 chassis, McLaren claimed three driversโ titles โ Lauda in 1984, Prost in 1985 and 1986 โ as well as constructorsโ titles in each of those years, sans โ86.
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โThe V6 unit was designed by Hans Mezger of Porsche, who had been part of the team behind the six-cylinder boxer engine for the 911โs earliest form in 1963,โ explains Sothebyโs.
โMezger later designed the powerplant for the 917 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971, affording Porsche the race-earned experience and insight it would apply to its road cars as the 911 Turbo became available from 1974 โ again, by Mezgerโs hand.โ
โThe TTE P01 engine instantly transformed McLaren, with the MP4/2 winning 12 of 16 Grands Prix in 1984.โ
When McLaren and Porscheโs partnership came to an end post-1987 season, after much consideration, the latter chose not to offer its TAG engine to other teams โ though it did allegedly โponder its application elsewhere,โ including in a roadgoing 930-generation 911 Turbo. And rumour has it, Porsche even gifted McLaren a modified 911 in Grand Prix White equipped with the F1 engine in question.
But ultimately, those championship-winning V6s ended up nowhere of real consequence. That is, until decades later, when Dean Lanzante and his eponymous motorsport specialist and UK-based McLaren tuner made it their mission to bring this fabled creation to life.
Under Lanzanteโs direction, 11 examples of the Porsche 930 โTAG Turboโ were built to custom order from donor 911s disassembled to a bare metal shell; and rebuilt with F1-grade carbon fibre bodies that are 120 pounds lighter than the regular 930s. One of which is now up for auction, complete with a tasty Mintgrรผn paint job over a black leather interior and blue/green tartan cloth seat inserts.
The engine within this example โ numbered โTTE P01 051โ and currently mated to a six-speed manual H-pattern gearbox โ was raced by Alain Prost at the 1986 German Grand Prix and 1987 Hungarian and Japanese Grands Prix (the Professorโs best result being P3 at the former).
Extensively reengineered with input from Cosworth, said engine has been rebuilt with new pistons, connecting rods, valves, valve springs, turbochargers, upgraded cooling, oil heat exchangers, as well as an exhaust system with titanium tailpipes. Itโs capable of generating 510BHP and clocking a top speed of 200MPH.
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Since receiving its second life, this Porsche 930 โTAG Turboโ โ codenamed โAP87โ for obvious reasons โhas only logged approximately 500 kilometres on the dash. The donor car was a 1988 model 930 Turbo.
As for the โhow muchโ and โwhen,โ RM Sothebyโs has listed a pricing estimate of US$1.8 million to US$2.1 million (AU$2.7 million to AU$3.2 million); with the auction itself set to occur during Monterey Car Week on August 16th, 2025. Find out more below.
