Continue. Admit it. You’re surprised to see a Porsche 911 here, aren’t you? Hopefully so, because we want to surprise you from time to time, and hopefully in a positive way. That doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate a fine bit of German engineering, and we suspect you feel much the same way, even though we are, of course, diehard Japanese car lovers and constantly will be. True car enthusiasts tend to appreciate a wide range of machinery, regardless of geographic or brand allegiances, so expect to see more domestic and European brands sprouting up in this once JDM-everything magazine.
Aaron Ochoco, owner on this beautifully massaged ’05 911 Carrera, got his start like lots of us, tinkering with Hot Wheels and R/C cars and also making a yearly trip to the L.A. Auto Show with his car-crazed father. Everything I played with had to be modified. I remember coloring the windows on my Hot Wheels with a Sharpie to tint them. Even my R/C car was completely hooked up with upgraded carbon and motors fiber, so modifying real cars was actually a natural progression. I got to the car scene during high school graduation when The Fast and the Furious first became availableended up being to keep things restrained and clean, deciding on quality parts from Japanese tuning superstars including Volk, Tein, and GReddy. Just before you assume he’s yet another bandwagon jumper who has graduated to Porsches now that he’s in a position to roll a little deeper, you need to consider that Aaron’s first project was really an ’85 Mercedes-Benz 500SEC, which he modified in more of any classic hot rod style.
F&F wasn’t Aaron’s only movie influence, either. He actually credits his interest in Porsche 911s to the opening scene of the modern remake of Gone in one minute, where a 996 Carrera races a Civic on the street. Following that, I always wanted a 911, and a few years later, the 997 became available and I enjoyed a great ability to sell my tuned G35 for near to what I paid for this Porsche, according to Aaron. I went for it and do not looked back.
Given his early project cars and cinematic influences, you have to admit that Aaron’s 911 build actually makes perfect sense, allowing him to fuse his passions for Japanese-style tuning and modified German machinery in one of the world’s most legendary sports cars. And as you’d expect, Aaron’s stayed with his clean and subtle approach to modifications, drawing inspiration from Germany’s top performance divisions and also from Internet blogs and forums like Speedhunters and S2ki.com user Diez along with histo create the car with an ‘OEM Plus’ state of mind. I really like and respect what the ‘M’,’S’, and ‘AMG’ departments do forAudi and BMW, and Mercedes, and so that’s the theme I’ve gone with the recent years. I don’t like cars that are modded to the point that it’s very obvious that they’ve been modified. I love subtle mods that flow with the original design language from the factory and that accent the vehicle rather than completely changing it.
To begin with, Aaron used a healthy quantity of Alcantara around the interior surfaces, and he accented that with carbon fiber, like the DCT Motorsport Alcantara/carbon-fiber controls and Rottec CGT carbon-fiber seats. The steering wheel was custom built to appear similar to a Lamborghini Superleggera’s, and the piano-black console had been a design cue taken from the Aston Martin DBS. Aaron also equipped his 997 with a Porsche factory rollbar finished beautifully in stainless-steel, which should tip you off that he enjoys this car on the canyon roads near Los Angeles and takes it to the occasional track day,too.
The exterior of Aaron’s 997 has seen some high-quality ‘OEM Plus’ treatment, too, in the form of a Porsche GT3 front bumper, GT3 Cup front lip, and Porsche Motorsports carbon-fiber dive planes, along with a Precision Porsche GT3 Euro rear bumper, a ’10 GT3 rear wing, and dry carbon rear ducts. Aaron hasn’t ignored his JDM roots here, opting for an RWB-inspired list of Work Meister S1 three-piece wheels covered with Falken FK453 rubber along with JIC/Cross coilovers to set the ride height and improve road holding.
2005 porsche 911 carrera custom work meister wheel
2005 porsche 911 carrera m96 boxer straight 6 engine
2005 porsche 911 carrera carbon fiber cover
Aaron’s 997 isn’t practically aesthetics and stance, though. He’s done just bout everything easy to his Carrera’s 3.6L M96 Boxer engine to squeeze some additional naturally aspirated jam from it, including Borla headers, IPD’s competition plenum, and a Porsche GT3 82mm throttle-body. Since he tells us, I really loved the purity in the NA engine but wanted to make it sound better and work more efficiently. The exhaust has been completely swapped out, along with the current setup is the fourth iteration and my favorite-sounding version, plus it’s been modified to exit out the core of the GT3 rear bumper. EVOMSit then tuned the ECU to tie in all the mods I made to the engine.
Sure, maybe Aaron could have obtained a 997 GT3 with the money he’s committed to his Carrera, but as he says, Building a completely custom, bespoke vehicle that reflects my personality was worth every penny and hour wrenching on it. My crew, The Encore Collective, has been a big part in pushing the other person to build our cars to the next level, and my best friend, Aaron-Ross, and my brother Ace always produce input over a mod before it goes about the car. I believe now that it’s at the height of its build, it’s time and energy to just take advantage of the car as it is. Is it faster than a GT-R or cooler looking than the usual Rocket Bunny S13? Who cares? This can be Aaron’s 997, and we think his superclean fusion of Japanese and Euro influences makes it one of the mostconsole, dash and headliner shift knob/shift boot and e-brake handle; piano-black center console; carbon-fiber armrest and ignition ring; DCT Motorsport Alcantara/carbon-fiber controls; Porsche Motorsports rollbar; Rottec CGT carbon-fiber seats w/Alcantara center cushions; billet aluminum pedals; rear seat delete; Pioneer avic z110bt nav head unit and 4-channel amp; Apple 160gb iPod; Bose component speakers and subwoofer
Numbers 368 305 and bhp lb-ft at the flywheel
Special Thanks The Encore Collective; Robert at Falken Tire; Mike and Brian at RSS; Matt and Ian at EVOMSit; Jay at Speed Alliance; BMC Filters; AASCO Motorsports; Meguiar’s; my closest friend, Aaron-Ross; my loved ones, girlfriend and friends for their continued support