Who the TAG is Lanzante? A playdate with Automobili Amos' newest toy

It’s a calm Saturday morning at Engadin Airport. No Indian weddings or similar must-attend mass gatherings of the global jetset have been scheduled for the weekend in St. Moritz, so only a handful of private airplanes sleep on the tarmac, glistering in the summer sun like tired exotic insects. Suddenly, a whistling noise fills the air, as a dark green Porsche 930 appears rapidly between the hangars. It’s our friend Eugenio Amos who is spending his summer holidays around St. Moritz with his family. And who has brought his newest toy to the Alps. This time it’s not another Lancia Delta restomod from the Automobili Amos stable in Varese – the Futurista or the Safarista which we recently experienced in action – but the latest creation from insider favourites Lanzante Motorsport in the UK: A Porsche 930 TAG Turbo powered by a Formula 1 engine. Or, to be more specific, the exact 1.5-litre turbocharged V6 McLaren engine that was raced 40 years ago by Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, including Prost’s win at the 1984 San Marino Grand Prix.

In the 1980s, Porsche had built twin-turbocharged 1.5 litre V6 engines for the McLaren Formula 1 team, generating between 750 and 1000 horsepower. As the engine development was financed by the Luxembourgian company Techniques d’Avant Garde, the engines were soon known as the TAG Turbos and a Porsche 930 on RUF wheels, sporting a whale-tail rear spoiler was used as a test mule to test the engine. Famously, the TAG Turbo engines powered McLaren to three consecutive World Championships in 1984, 1985 and 1986. In 2018 Lanzante Motorsport revived the idea of the Porsche 930 TAG Turbo and bought 11 of the original, historically highly significant engines from McLaren to be restored by Cosworth and fitted into a limited series cars – including Eugenio’s olive-green car standing in front of us on the runway. Naturally, we wanted to know more.

Tell us, what was it about the TAG Turbo that sparked your interest, especially when the choice for a ‘restomodded’ Porsche 911 is so vast and varied with options from Singer, Gunther Werks and so on?

For me, what I fell in love with more than the car itself is Lanzante, and how they operate as a brand at such a high level to complete what is truly a work of art. I first saw the car at Goodwood Festival of Speed, and was amazed to discover there was still an option for me to purchase a build slot. Usually with these crazy restomods and recreations the order book is bursting, but for me it was the Lanzante way of dealing with the noise, working with clients with grace and self-awareness. Of course, it helps that the car is completely stunning, too! What I love most is that to the untrained eye, it is just a regular 930 Turbo, which in itself is a wonderful car, but what Lanzante have created is pure magic.

Having now worked with Lanzante on creating what we believe is the best TAG Turbo to be released, what did you learn from your time with them as a car maker yourself?

Oh, absolutely I’ve learnt an awful lot from going through this process. What surprised me the most was that Lanzante manage to slip under the radar so well, they aren’t in any way flashy, despite the McLarens or Paganis they work on being so in-your-face. As a business they keep it very calm and tranquil. Everything they do, they do it super cool, super smooth.

Another thing that I really like about Lanzante is their ability to adapt the way they tune each car according to the to the nature of the brand that is being worked on. It’s rare and extremely difficult to achieve this, but everything that is carried out looks like factory made. If they are working on a Pagani, the details look as if they were made by Pagani. When work is carried out on a Porsche 930, all the details seem to be made by Porsche. You can have your own style and try to put your side on everything you tune, but another thing is to adapt yourself to the to the aesthetics and to the details of every given brand you are that you have the chance to work on.

Can you give an example for that?

So many, as so many of the details they care about in such an OCD way, but one standout for me was that they even machined the back part of the of the rear floor mats, in order for them not to move one millimetre. All the carbon fibre is impressive, but this obsession with detail is what sets them apart, and you can see it’s born from their motorsport heritage. We say in Italian that when you don't talk too much and you mind your own business, you are like a bear. Dean Lanzante is definitely a bear. Quiet, calm, straightforward and honest, but he can produce the goods when the time is right.

We know you’re perhaps a bigger fan of green cars than me, founder of Green Over Tan. What is the colour you ended up on, and why did you choose this one?

How much are you paying to find out? (laughs). I joke, but, like you, I love green cars. People often ask me: ‘Is this your own green?’ And I say, no, no. All the projects I've done, every car had a different green. The Ferrari F40 had an original Ferrari colour. This Porsche 930 has an original Porsche colour. The Futurista had a colour that we invented, and we gave the name to it. So, yeah, every car I do is pretty much green, but every green has its own history. But if you really want to know, the TAG Turbo is Porsche Black Olive.

Equally, with so many options, fabrics, materials and finishing touches to go for, how did you land on the interior of your TAG?

When I see a car, I immediately know how I want it to look, and it takes me literally five minutes to spec the car. Even with Dean and the Lanzante team, I’d like to think it's been very smooth and easy for them to work with me. I gave them my ideas, they sent me a couple of samples, and I immediately chose the one I liked. The dark brown leather contrasts the exterior well, and I went for the iconic houndstooth cloth, then I wanted to have the detail of the gear knob inspired by the Porsche 917 race car. No window tints, silver wheels, and black brake calipers, adding to the subtle look of the car. I mean, who doesn't like a flashy car? But then, if you have to see the flashy car every day, it gets boring. I think that if you go with classic, you will always be happy with it.

Let’s talk engines. Part of what makes the TAG Turbo’s so special is the engines taken from period-raced Formula One cars, driven by the likes of Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, and Alain Prost. What’s the story behind your engine?

Each of the 14 TAG Turbos (11 'normal' cars like mine, and 3 higher performance models) have a bespoke badge to the engine trunk, with mine showing the engine was raced by Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, with the Frenchman bringing home a victory at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1984. How many other cars can you say have history like that waiting to be unleashed on the open road? Although the engine has been detuned to almost half of the power, its redline is still 9000 rpm, combined with twin turbos, it’s one hell of a ride!

So, please, can you describe to us mere mortals just what is it like to drive such a car?

I've driven a lot of cars in this world, but there is nothing so scary but so, so enjoyable like this TAG Turbo. I collected the car, and the rain was pouring, not just drizzling. Despite having brand new and highly capable Michelin tyres on the car, while upshifting from third to fourth on the freeway the car broke traction. Five seconds of drama, and you’re quickly reminded you need to respect a car like this! To me, that is the beauty of it. Despite the incredible finish and attention to detail, the car’s characteristics have been left untouched, and it still possesses all of the original 930 Turbo’s quirks. At high speeds, the original cars would feel light on the front end, a very typical Porsche feeling, but Lanzante did an amazing job with the weight and the setup. You don't have ABS, you don't have traction control, you don't have power steering. It’s a crazy ride.

The car looks right at home here on the Swiss mountains – which was your favourite pass to drive the car on?

To be honest, and I don't want to be too much of a pussy, but I'm bloody scared to drive recklessly in Switzerland, as my driving license has been taken a few times already! For me it was the high altitude of St Moritz that changed the car entirely, being almost 2,000 meters above sea level. The car struggles a little bit with the carburation, and it sounds like having an AK 47 installed behind your ears.

To mark the occasion, Automobili Amos teamed up with Lanzante to create some awesome merch which we proudly have in the CD Shop, was it always the plan to create a collection based around the TAG Turbo?

It wasn’t initially planned, but when my team saw Lanzante's beautiful logo of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh, we all fell in love and felt we could create some unique pieces around the car and the logos. Ganesh is the kind of branding you’ll see once and instantly know it is Lanzante, and so we felt it was a fitting way to bring Automobili Amos and Lanzante together in celebration!

Are we likely to see the car attend any upcoming shows or events around the world?

Right now, I’m just really, really enjoying the car. I’ve crossed three borders, racked up over 2,000 kilometres already and can’t wait to settle in with driving it even more. Watch this space!