Kei Miura, famed for his Rocket Bunny body kits, draws much of his inspiration from the 1970s, filtered through the bōsōzoku aesthetic that was so prevalent while he was growing up. So it only makes sense that his take on a 997 Carrera would draw from the most brutal, outrageous 911 variant of them all—the 935, which dominated sports-car racing so thoroughly in the late ’70s and early ’80s that an example actually won Le Mans overall in 1979.
Miura adopted and updated Porsche’s Flachbau (slantnose) look, a design originally conceived to exploit an FIA loophole on headlamp height. It proved so popular, Porsche later offered it to 911 buyers through its super-custom Sonderwunsch (special order) program. Miura retained the glassed-in low headlamps so closely associated with the racing machines but ditches the roadgoing slantnose cars’ pop-up headlights in favor of a discreet set of LEDs.
A track-ready rear wing complements the bolt-on fender flares, but the whole look is more Liberty Walk than Rauh-Welt Begriff. Where the latter tuner’s Akira Nakai tends to go raw, IDL Design’s Miura went slick. Polished Rotiform LSR 19-inch wheels wear 265/30 Toyo Proxes R888R tires in front and 305/30s out back, while an Air Lift suspension raises the car up off the floor when necessary. Under its carbon-fiber roof, the water-cooled slantnose features a businesslike cockpit with an AiM GT350 wheel, a CAE shifter, and Techno Craft buckets to hold the occupants in place. A GMG-built cage offers protection in the event of destructo incidents.
We dig the execution, although, with its 3.6-liter naturally aspirated flat-six, it reminds us of the ’80s trend of ordering a Turbo-look 911 and then having an aftermarket company do a cheaper-than-factory slantnose conversion on the front end. Had IDL Design applied this treatment to a 997 Turbo S, we’d dork out very hard indeed.
