Porsche 911 gets McLaren-inspired central driver's seat

There are many custom jobs we've seen performed on a Porsche 911 that are unimaginably hideous, but this Centro 911 is not one of them. The Florida owner of the above 997 Carrera S Cabriolet tasked Trinity Motorsports Group of Lima, Ohio with transforming the car from its standard two-plus-two layout into a unique, single-center-seat driver.

In a phone interview, Shawn Bayliff, owner of Trinity Motorsports Group, told Autoblog that the car was built for a customer who wanted a McLaren F1 driving experience, and instead of chopping up his Lamborghini Gallardo, he decided to have this 911 modified. Creating this centralized driver's seat position meant not only shifting the seat, steering wheel, shifter and pedals over to the right, but also the gauge cluster, center stack and center console. As it turns out, keeping the dash looking as factory as possible proved to be the most challenging aspect of the build, but fortunately, the shop also does carbon composite work which made it a bit easier to custom fabricate many interior pieces. Like the McLaren F1, the Centro 911 features a center driving position but retains the 911's rear seats for a truly unique three-passenger interior which Bayliff says actually opens up added space for rear passengers (more so on the left).

Bayliff, who has a history driving Indy and Daytona Prototype cars, said driving the Centro 911 feels very similar to these racecars, and it also has what he calls a "motorcycle experience" as well. Overall, the cost to build the Centro 911 was around $85,000 – on top of what the donor car cost – and it took about nine months to complete.

A coupe version of the car with a manual transmission, the Centro Track Day 911, is under construction now and should be finished in the next 30 to 45 days, and one of the challenges of this car is getting the shifter in a more stock location since the Centro 911's PDK shifter is placed further back on the center console.