TUNED PORSCHES It may look like a 911 but a whole host of interior and exterior changes make it a totally new car

By Derryn Wong

THE FAMED TUNER brand Gemballa landed in Singapore on 31 July with its initial offering, the Gemballa GT 380. Handling the distribution here will be Exquisite Marques Pte Ltd, who’s sister company Exquisite Marques Sdn Bhd has distributed the cars since 2005.

Gemballa was founded by Uwe Gemballa in 1981 in Leonberg, Germany who began tuning Porsches as a way to pay for his very own 911 while still just a student. Since then it has become one of the most well-known Porsche tuners alongside names like Ruf and 9ff.

Initially only the GT 380 (based on the 911 Carrera S Coupe) will be available. It features a raft of interior and exterior modifications to make it almost a whole new car, in line with the Gemballa philosophy of offering only complete conversion packages, as opposed to singular parts.

New side skirts, bonnet, front and rear spoilers, 20-inch wheels with upsized tyres make up some of the external improvements. Performance upgrades include sports suspension, front strut bar, engine improvements and a ‘Powerkit’ exhaust system. The interior also gets worked over with a Gemballa sport steering wheel, sport seats, new instrument dials and alloy pedals amongst other things.

The GT 380 conversion is available at $471,888 without the horsepower bump (355bhp stock) or $510,888 up-tuned to 380bhp as the name suggests. Prices include COE and price of the base car.

While super-exotics like the Mirage GT (based on the Carrera GT) won’t make it here since they were never built in right-hand drive, Exquisite Marques has plans to expand the range in the near future. These include luxurious Cayenne conversions like the GT 550 Aero 3 and true face-flattening supercars like the Avalanche GTR 650 EVO-R, a 650bhp conversion based on the 911 Turbo.