Marc Philipp Gemballa is the son of late Uwe, well-known creator of some crazy Porsche-based machines. It seems the apple didn’t fall from the tree. The younger Gemballa has made his very own Porsche-based creation called the Marsien 911 Turbo S. BTW Marsien is French for Martian. Just 40 units of the Marsien will be produced and all are already spoken for.

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The Marsien is an off-road capable supercar that is a modern-day homage to the Porsche 959 which competed in the grueling Paris-Dakar Rally (racecar pictured above). It is not dissimilar in concept to the Singer ACS which we covered here.

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Modern-tech and Lightweight

The starting point for the Marsien is the current generation (992), Porsche 911 Turbo S (similar to the car we drove and reviewed here). That base provides MPG and his team of partners with a high-performance base that is already fitted with an all-wheel-drive system on which to work their magic.

Check out Porsche’s Top 5 rally cars at this link.

A full carbon-fibre body replaces the standard car’s metalwork on the Marsien 911 Turbo S. As a result the Marsien weighs 50 kilograms less that the donor car. The body underwent extensive CFD analysis by a company that has expertise in developing aerodynamics for sportscar and Formula One cars. The shape was chosen as a nod to the 959. It was designed for adequate cooling in the high desert temps, where it is expected owners will take the Marsien to enjoy. 

Powered by RUF

For the powertrain the new company turned to old Porsche tuners RUF. The speed meisters worked their magic on the 992’s 3,8-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six. Owners can spec the unique creations with up to 620 kW of power and 930 N.m of torque. On road biased tyres the Marsien 911 Turbo S is said to sprint from rest to 100 km/h in 2,6 seconds and has a top speed of 330 km/h.

Click here to find out how quick a new 911 Turbo S is in independent testing.

Off-road Prowess

Marc Philipp envisions that owners will take the Marsien 911 Turbo S off-roading. As a result the company has spent a great deal of time and effort developing a suspension system to make that a reality. The standard MacPherson front suspension arrangement has been replaced by a specially developed double-wishbone set-up. Additionally, the car has also been tested in a wide array or climatic conditions. Prototypes were tested in -20 deg C of Scandinavia to 50 deg C of the UAE. The team also covered 3 000 km of testing at the Nurburgring.

The whole thing was designed in conjunction with suspension specialists KW. The company developed active dampers as well as an adjustable ride height system. In its lowest setting it has 120 mm of ground clearance. This can be increased to 250 mm at the touch of a button. An automatic tyre pressure system has been installed, allowing the driver to adjust the tyre pressures on the go.