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“Influencer” is probably technically the correct term for fashion and Porsche icon Magnus Walker. Although, if you spend even a moment with the dreaded Sheffield lad, calling him an influencer is kind of like calling John Lennon a guitar player; it’s technically accurate, but it isn’t right. Magnus Walker has built quite an enviable career across multiple industries, but, as many a car dork would likely agree, none of his many past lives are quite as cool as his stint as the shaggy godfather of all German go-kart (Porsche). Walker uncharacteristically just sold one of his fabled Porsche 911s, the “STR II,” for nearly $400,000 – My feet are shaking, and my shift hand is empty. 

Magnus Walker’s Porsche 911 “STR II”

Magnus Walker's Porsche
1972 Porsche 911 STR II | Collecting Cars

This now famous car originally left the factory as an ordinary 1972 Porsche 911 T. By the time Walker got his hands on it, the car had fallen deeply into disrepair. As with many of Mangus Walker’s other Outlaw Porsches, this 911 T underwent an extensive restoration. Although, if you are familiar with Walker’s automotive milieu, you’ll know that “restoration,” like “influencer,” isn’t exactly the right word. This 911, like many of his others, wasn’t handled with white cotton gloves; the restoration (build) process was more likely done in the spirit of fingerless leather gloves exposing tattooed fingers. 

The car was forced to expel anything that wasn’t essential (or cool-looking) to drop weight. After all was said and done, the Porsche 911 STR II now only weighs 2,197 lbs. He modified the bodywork with all steel panels, including reprofiled front wings, Turbo-style rear wings, R-style bumpers and taillights, and louvered polycarbonate quarter windows for weight reduction.

Although these Outlaw builds focus heavily on Mangus’ impossible-to-miss aesthetic, these cars can still rip like bible pages. Aside from the incredibly cool bodywork and custom paint scheme, Magnus also set it up with Bilstein Sport shock absorbers and Elephant Racing torsion bars with adjustable spring plates, giving this little car all the chops it needs to handle the Porsche’s heavily modified 3.2-liter 911 flat-six. It was rebuilt with 9.5:1 compression ratio JE pistons, high-lift Mod S camshafts, Aasco Motorsports valve springs and titanium retainers, stainless-steel valves, and Bosch mechanical fuel injection. The 911’s rear-mounted powerplant now makes a jaw-locking 275 bhp at 6,500 rpm. 

How much did Magnus Walker’s 1972 Porsche 911 “STR II” sell for?

1972 Porsche 911 STR II belonging to Magnus Walker just sold
1972 Porsche 911 STR II | Collecting Cars

If I continue to attempt to share the details of the build, I will quickly tell on myself for not being a born-again member of the Church of the Porsche Apostles, igniting a digital conflagration at the hands of the faithful. To learn more about this completely badass build, check out the finished Collecting Cars listing. 

Magnus Walker’s 1972 Porsche 911 STR II sold for an astounding £315,000 ($386,000). Not only has the market for these cars exploded over the past 10 years, a large part of which Mangus Walker is directly responsible, but it is also just the right car with the right look. 

Who is Magnus Walker?

I’ve never been a Porsche guy and don’t foresee it happening. That said, there are people in this world who love something with so much passion, dedication, and joy that hearing them talk about the thing they love makes you appreciate the joy it brings them. That convoluted and clumsy string of words is how I, and many others, feel about Magnus Walker and, in turn, Porsche cars. 

Walker’s eye for car design is one of the things that makes his cars so special. Taste is everything. People without taste – of which the car world claims a few – cannot build great cars. I’m sorry, but if it isn’t exciting to look at, it won’t be exciting to drive. Walker understands this at its very primal level. Walker began his understanding of this truth as a fashion designer. He understood the value of taste and aesthetics so well, in fact, that countless actors, rockstars, and otherwise radical people chose to drape Walker’s creations around them on red carpets, arenas, and wherever else famous be go and do famous people things. 

This detail matters because Magnus didn’t become a notable tastemaker in the fashion world because he could recite stitching facts (excuse my lack of fashion vocabulary). Likewise, we don’t love his cars because he can recite the compression ratios, hp specs, or whatever else car-nerd crap – There are millions of others who can do the same parlor trick. He knows the facts because he loves the cars. People love his cars and his take on cars because they love his taste. Magnus Walker builds the cars he thinks are cool, not for others to think they are cool. And, in fact, that is part of what makes them so cool.