“If a car sits too long, it starts to die.”
That is the ethos at Lab Eleven. No over-polished baubles. No overbuilt tech experiments masquerading as classics. Just 911s built to be used, built to last, and built to keep showing up for its only job, to be driven.
The restomod world has a habit of missing the point. Somewhere between the bespoke interiors and the carbon fiber everything, a lot of builders lost track of why people love these cars in the first place. The formula has gotten predictable. Strip a 911 down to its studs, load it up with more power than anyone will ever use, tweak the suspension until it stops feeling a bit bitey, and then call it an improvement. It isn’t. It is just progress for the sake of it, and progress does not always move things forward. Lab Eleven is not interested in better for the sake of automotive performance theater. They are interested in better for the sake of driving.
Pino La Rosa and his daughter Milena run their shop in Milan the way you would expect from people who actually care about these cars. Every Lab Eleven build starts with an accident free 993 and gets stripped down. What happens next depends on the car and the owner, but the process is always the same. Make it sharper, stronger, and more usable without killing what makes it a 911.
“We are not here to make a completely different car, we are here to make the best possible version of the car that already exists.”
That means no unnecessary gimmicks. No touchscreens, no pointless tech, no desperate attempts to make an air cooled car feel like something that rolled off a production line yesterday.
“You should still feel the road, still hear the engine, still know what the car is doing beneath you.”
The engines are rebuilt in three stages. A 3.6, a 3.8, or a 4.0 liter pushing anywhere from 300 to 400 horsepower. It is more than stock but not excessive, just enough to make the car feel alive. This may turn things into a bit of a handful for the rear engined uninitiated, but never more than one.
Some panels are swapped for aluminum or carbon fiber, but only when it improves balance and durability. There are no qualifying laps that reward weight savings, and Colin Chapman is not breathing down your neck as you roll out of your garage. The goal is not to shave grams off a control arm or hub. It is about balance. Inside, they stick to materials that belong, wool fabrics, houndstooth, and leather that looks and feels right.
Somewhere along the way, the restomod scene evolved into a competition to build the most expensive cars and coffee accessory. Machines that flick their blinkers a few times before arriving at an asphalt prison, only to be tucked back into a temperature controlled garage, polished with an overpriced orbital, and plugged into a twelve volt battery tender, the automotive equivalent of life support. Lab Eleven builds cars that need to be driven.
Lab Eleven cars belong on alpine passes, winding back roads, and long stretches of open road where dirt and rock chips are part of the experience. A Porsche was never meant to be perfect. It was meant to be driven, to wear in, to collect the marks of use that prove it is alive, and when the time comes, you pass it on, imperfections and all.
More info at : www.labeleven.it
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