bodywork, boxster concept, boxster shooting brake, custom bodywork, custom POrsche, Custom porsche boxster, custom shooting brake, porsche 986 997, porsche boxster 997, porsche boxster conversion, porsche boxster shooting, porsche front end, porsche shooting brake, project car, shooting brake, shooting brake concept, shooting brake conversion, van thull development - February 29, 2020

Porsche Boxster 986 Shooting Brake by Van Thull Development

porsche boxster 986 conversion shooting brake

I've been hooked on this build since I first came across it on the explore page of Instagram. It looked great, I was intrigued but usually the projects that pique my interest like this rarely get completed. So I followed, shared the build and thought nothing more for a while. I was very wrong. There has been a constant stream of updates from the team at Van Thull Developments, and within a year its completed to a high standard and an eye popping fresh coat of paint.

The following was written by L.W DeWinter from the Van Thull Developments team giving a more in depth detial of the past and future of the project. Enjoy.

The idea of the Porsche Boxster 986 Shooting Brake started when Erik Groenendijk de Laat
from the Fontys Hogeschool (University) Eindhoven came up with the challenge to create a Shooting
Brake on a Porsche base, for their Minor Motorsport Engineering. We already did a lot of
projects together with them. When Erik asked Arno and Angelo van Thull, they were
enthusiastic about the idea, because they are always in to do something new and outstanding.

The project started as a Minor of half a year (6 month project). The students Bram, Dennis, Thom and Yori
were supervised and assisted by the team of van Thull Development. For advice in some
design issues they had contact with van Berlo Design in Eindhoven. The group of these four
students started this project without any experience in bodywork and designing.

The choice for a 986 series Porsche Boxster was quite easy. The Boxster is a very reliable and
affordable Porsche. The mid-engine layout would make it more usable, compared to a
Porsche 996 for example, and it is well balanced. Because the Boxster is designed as a
convertible, the stiffness of the car is very great and makes it a better base for conversion.

Our intention from the beginning was to make this project feasible. When we searched for
inspiration we came across a lot of sketches and Photoshop’s renderings of modern
Porsche Shooting Brakes. To design a nice looking Porsche Shooting Brake is not the
challenge, but to make it a real concept that could go in production, is something different.

porsche custom shooting brake build thread

Because of this, we had to make some compromises in the design. We decided to use as
much as possible parts that already exist. When we had to develop our own windows for
example, this project would get way too expensive. That’s why we have chosen to use
Porsche 996 door windows and side windows and a rear hatch from a Peugeot. To give the
Shooting Brake a more up-to-date look we used several Porsche 997 and 991 elements.

The front conversion to Porsche 997 we had already in our program. The complete roof, rear
hatch, rear fenders, door sills and rear bumper were developed from scratch, or partly used
from different Porsche models. To make the rear side windows fit more into the Shooting
Brake roof line we designed some air intake parts to cover the windows partly.

Of course a minor of a half year was too short for the students to finish this concept.
Because they were so enthusiast and exited to see some end result Erik decided to give them
another assignment for a half year so they can spend more time to this project to a concept.

When we have molded the complete roof, rear hatch, rear fenders, door sills and rear
bumper we can offer this conversion for other Boxster 986 owners who would like to have a
Porsche Boxster Shooting Brake

For further details : https://www.vanthulldevelopment.com/