Gemballa Mistrale Kicks the Panamera Turbo S Up to 700 HP

MONACO — Longtime Porsche tuner Gemballa, rebuilding in the wake of founder Uwe Gemballa's murder last year, marks its 30th anniversary with the Mistrale, a bespoke conversion of the Porsche Panamera Turbo S that is being unveiled here at the annual Top Marques Monaco show.

Based outside Stuttgart in Leonburg, Germany, Gemballa first unveiled the Mistrale at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show. At Monaco, the company said it plans to build no more than 30 Mistrales, each one uniquely created to the customer's individual specifications.

Gemballa starts with the Panamera, strips away most of the steel body panels and replaces them with carbon fiber — hood, front fenders, doors, front and rear bumpers and valances all are replaced with bespoke designs.

The tuning house then fits its own multispoke 22-inch forged alloy wheels and a Brembo high-performance brake system, with cross-drilled, vented discs, six-piston monoblock calipers in front and four-piston calipers in the rear.

Gemballa offers customers a choice of two engine-upgrade kits, the first of which nudges output to 610 horsepower and torque to 627 pound-feet.

The full-house Stage 2 kit pumps output to 700 hp and torque to 738 lb-ft, thanks to the addition of larger turbos with high-efficiency intercoolers, modified intake, remapped ECU and sport exhaust with free-flow catalytic converters.

Inside Line says: If a Cayenne conversion better suits your fancy, Gemballa also is offering a similar conversion package with its latest Tornado. — Paul Lienert, Correspondent