Gemballa turns out a stove-hot 911 Turbo

Porsche's 911 Turbo just isn't fast enough for some, is it?

Well, it mustn't be because seemingly every second month, a purveyor of go-faster vehicles trundles out a tweaked version of Porsche's rear-engined sporster with Space Shuttle-rivalling launch capabilities.

Here's the latest instalment in the saga -- the Gemballa Avalanche GT2 550 Evo. Based on the current 997 Series 911 Turbo, the low-volume special scores a host of cosmetic and functional mods to raise performance to an even higher plane than the already rapid 'cooking' model.

Power is bumped up from the donor car's 353kW to a Carrera GT-rivalling 415kW. Result? Its 0-100km/h split drops from 3.9sec (for the manual 911 Turbo) to a neck-snapping 3.4sec. Meanwhile, the 0-200km/h increment is dispatched in just 10.8sec (compared with 12.8sec for the donor car).

Top speed also rises by five clicks to a claimed 315km/h.

How did Gemballa's labcoats extract the extra grunt? The answer lies in an 'AVALANCHE EVO' exhaust system and reprogrammed ECU.

Complementing the engine upgrades is an in-your-face bodykit comprising carbon front skirt, bespoke bonnet and rear diffuser and OTT spoiler.

The Gemballa rocket dispenses with the 911 Turbo's standard 19-inch rims in favour of a fat set of 20s. There's also lightweight suspension components and adjustable stabilisers and dampers.

Inside, there's a two-tone leather interior, carbon trim, a 340mm sports steering wheel, alloy pedals and various other fruit.

Naturally, all these goodies don't come cheap as the GT2 EVO costs $456,000 -- and that's in Germany.

The rest of the package is fundamentally standard 911 Turbo, which means drive from the 3.6-litre twin-turbo flat-six is channeled to all four wheels by Porsche's AWD system.

The bad news (apart from the telephone-digit price tag)? The Gemballa only comes as a left-hooker, mein lieblings...