This Porsche 993 Has a PDK Transmission

Just about everyone and their mother makes a Porsche 911 restomod, most following the template set out by Singer, blending modern engineering with absolute reverence for the past. But over in the Netherlands, KC Performance does something different. It built a 993 with a PDK transmission.

And this isn’t a full drivetrain swap. Their 993 retains its original air-cooled flat-six, albeit modified both to work with the new transmission. KC Performance builds all sorts of restomods beyond Porsches for individual customers, but it also works with other shops. Its experience doing modern electronics for air-cooled 911 engines took it down this particular path.

Kazimir von Hooijdonk, one of the co-founders of KC Performance, felt that some higher-powered old 911s left a bit to be desired. When you go up in power, you need a stronger clutch, and almost invariably that means a heavier pedal action. He’s not a fan, and he suspects customers aren’t either. 

"We have a couple of clients that have those 911s and 964s as well, and they just park them in the garage and they don't drive them," he tells Motor1. "Sometimes they drive them like on Sunday to do a quick tour, but they never drive them during the week."

A shame, in his view. Cars are meant to be enjoyed. The shop has a lot of experience swapping ZF eight-speed automatics into older cars, so the thought of pairing Porsche’s excellent modern dual-clutch transmission with an air-cooled 911 felt natural. The benefits are the same as choosing PDK over a manual in a new car—more performance, more usability, and to a lesser extent, better gear ratios.

But getting it to fit is complicated. KC Performance designs and mills its own adapter plate to mate engine and transmission. Von Hooijdonk says that any good shop with an engineer proficient in SolidWorks can design things like this, but not many can do CNC work that’s precise enough to actually make the aluminum part. KC Performance also fits a new flywheel with an integrated crankshaft position sensor, and an electronically controlled throttle body. The throttle itself is a Porsche part, but the pedal comes off an E90-generation BMW 3 Series. KC Performance has a big BMW