Criollo was made in 1978 as a classic 911 SC Targa.
Important car models era. A lot of game-changing inventions and events. New pope, Jan Pawel II, a year of Kobe Bryant born, Miroslaw Hermaszewski as a first Pole in space, LaserDisc player, BMW M1, FSO Polonez and Grease movie.
Criollo is a classic SC Targa bored to 3.2. There’s a lot of genius technical upgrades and a story behind them.
The heritage.
The car was used and rebuilt in the past by William Bruce “Billy” McNair, a Porsche specialist from the San Francisco area. He rebuilt the engine and stroked it from a stock 3.0 to a very strong 3.2. The suspension works brilliant. Billy modified it using Elephant Racing components. I found a lot of super smart upgrades that made that car strong, stiff and great handling.
Billy passed away in 2019. I wanted to get this car to continue this story. Billy built a car that is perfect technically. I wanted to put my energy and my strong part – styling.
Style.
This car is not correct in accordance to the original. But it’s 100% correct with my feelings about the car. I wanted to keep the dark color code outside of the car in the meaning of replacing silver parts with black matt or gun metal ones.
No factory signs, logos. I wanted to keep it clear.
Do you know what Unism is? That’s an art movement from my city, Lodz, Poland. I designed some parts that were inspired by Unism. Pattern on the Targa bar, grill, floor boards, shifter coupler cover, headrests and the crest on the hood. They are unistic.
The exterior.
The car is painted to the original and correct Mocha Brown. The clear coat is matt to emphasize a new way of using the original color.
CarBone BiLED lights fill up the dark look of the car. They work amazingly well, too.
The rear light cluster was tinted.
Campagnolo wheels in a dark, matt, gun metal shade. Toyo R888 tires. They are beautiful and the grip is amazing even on wet roads.
The two pipes bypass muffler is radio controlled by a switch on the dashboard. The muffler is combined with SSI manifolds. Why is it controlled remotely? No need to put any wires through the car. The switch “borrows” power from a lighter. The tunnel icon on a switch is a small detail that makes everybody smile.
The interior.
The interior is made using cognac leather combined with dark brown alcantara on the targa bar and boucle brown carpet.
Do you remember the pasha pattern from the late ‘70s? I referred to that pattern designing the theme going through the whole interior. Perforation and stitches. I wanted to keep it subtle, less visible.
Recaro Rally II seats are extremely rare. These two were made in 1972. The back parts are upholstered by boucle carpet.
The steering wheel I used is a Momo 1968 series limited to only 999 pieces. I was happy to get a number 550. The wheel was reupholstered using correct for that car brand cross stitching. It’s a little thicker for a better grip. The horn button has a pressed logo of the car.
The lights, wipers and cruise control levers were upholstered the same way as the wheel.
Half Redrum floor kit. That one covers just the central tunnel. We upholstered it by Alcantara.
The dash trim refers to the F model. Anodized black aluminum looks amazing. The ignition switch bezel is aluminum, anodized black with alcantara in the decorative section. The side wall is knurled.
The gauge bezels are aluminum anodized to black. The side walls were knurled. They refer to the vintage rally stopwatches. The glasses are spherical. That’s something new in that case.
Blaupunkt SQR46 is correct for a classic Porsche. The used audio system works amazing. 6 speakers combined with two subwoofers and the amplifier just do the job. The radio was relocated to the glove box. It’s controlled by a remote controller that was upholstered to make it look like the rest of the interior. The radio sensor was installed under the glove box to make it work with the controller without opening the glove box.
The rear shelf has a perforated holes in the speakers area. As subtle as possible but still workable.
3rd generation of CarBone door cards. The big pocket to keep a big bottle of water. The small pocket for a wallet of smaller things you want to keep in the car. An arm rest that is necessary for longer trips. Factory installation holes make it fully reversible. Brown leather RS style straps open the door. Window switch frames keep the switches in a perfect position.
Criollo displayed at TOYO Tires tent at Rennsport 7 in 2023.
Criollo in LA area at Magnus Walker, Bisimoto, Oskar Bakke places.
Criollo displayed at Wunderground, a Porsche Museum at Santa Clarita.
