V8-Swapped Porsche 911s Shine at SEMA Vegas
The two builds are on the SEMA floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center through November 6.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Performance Vehicles
Las Vegas car enthusiasts visiting the 2026 SEMA Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center can see two Porsche 911s running V8 engine swaps. One is a 1978 911 SC powered by a 4.3-liter Ferrari/Maserati F136 V8, and the other is a 2007 Porsche 997 GT3 running a 6.0-liter LS2.
Why it matters
The displays show how far custom builders will go to put non-Porsche V8s into the 911, a car Porsche has never fitted with a V8 in production. For a valley where the SEMA crowd fills the Convention Center and the surrounding corridor this week, it is a close look at the performance-build scene that happens here every November.
The two cars put a 4.3-liter Ferrari/Maserati V8 in a 1978 911 SC and a 6.0-liter LS2 in a 2007 GT3, with the F136 reportedly spinning to 8,000 rpm. Builder-reported specifications are the only source for those figures, and no independent dyno or track results are given.
The players
SEMA Show
The Specialty Equipment Market Association's annual trade show, where the two V8-swapped Porsches are on display at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Porsche
The automaker that has fitted V8s to the 928, the Cayenne and the 918 Spyder, but never to a production 911.
Maserati
The Italian automaker whose 2007 Quattroporte donated the F136 V8 used in Oakes's 911 SC, and which shared engineering resources with Ferrari until 2023.
The details
Oakes's 1978 Porsche 911 SC uses a 4.3-liter F136 V8 pulled from a 2007 Maserati Quattroporte, paired with a Porsche 996 transmission through a Kennedy Engineered Products bellhousing and a custom clutch and flywheel. Throttle response runs through a Link ECU G5 Voodoo Neo 6 engine management system, with throttle bodies adapted from BMW E90/E92 M3 S65 components and custom Stainless Bros headers. Kugay's 2007 Porsche 997 GT3 runs a dry-sump 6.0-liter LS2 with LS3 cylinder heads, replacing a Subaru STI EJ25 flat-four, and was built for sideways drifting.
Timeline
2007: model year of the Maserati Quattroporte donor car and the Porsche 997 GT3.
1978: model year of Oakes's Porsche 911 SC.
2023: Maserati and Ferrari's shared engineering arrangement ended.
November 4, 2026: the story was published as the SEMA display opened this week.
November 6, 2026: the SEMA Show closes at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Beyond the Strip
The F136 comes from the Maserati-Ferrari engineering partnership that ended in 2023, so these builds draw on a shared powertrain whose makers no longer collaborate. The source also notes Porsche has put V8s in the 928, Cayenne and 918 Spyder but never in a production 911, which is what makes these swaps notable.
If you're heading to the Convention Center this week, the SEMA floor is open through November 6, so the V8 Porsches are worth a stop on the way to the Strip traffic. Expect crowds and plan parking around the convention corridor.
The takeaway
The V8 swaps show that a 911 can carry a very different engine when the builder is willing to fabricate the mounts, transmission and electronics. If you plan to see them, the show runs through November 6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Further reading
For more performance-build coverage, see our Performance Vehicles section.
