The £1 Million Revival of the Porsche 959 Spirit
Marc Philipp Gemballa has revealed the Marsien GT, a road-biased sibling to its off-road Marsien that TopGear.com tested in 2024. Where the original car was designed to jump dunes, this GT version sits lower, wears new clothes and targets the asphalt-hungry Porsche 959 buyer of the 2020s.
The conversion uses a 992.1 Porsche 911 Turbo S coupe as a donor. Only the doors and roof are carried over from the standard car – everything else is new. A giant roof scoop now feeds an intercooler, the full-carbon body gets reprofiled flanks, a central fuel filler and a diffuser, and there’s a quad-exit Akrapovic exhaust. Suspension is completely bespoke but retains a 100mm nose-lift system.
All 40 buyers of the off-road Marsien opted for the optional power hike from 750hp to 830hp, so MPG made 830hp standard for the GT. A further upgrade, taking output beyond 900hp, is in the pipeline. MPG claims 0-62mph in 2.4 seconds and a 205mph top speed. Inside, the centre console is angled more steeply than a standard 911, the PDK selector is replaced by a manual-style lever, and the unpopular pop-out door handles are deleted – details that nod to the Carrera GT and 918 Spyder.
The price is equally extreme. The GT conversion alone costs €770,000 (about £650,000), before taxes. A suitable donor Turbo S starts at around £120,000, and the average options spend on previous Marsiens was €227,000. The total reaches roughly £1 million, and only 30 examples will be built.
Why Tuners Are Filling Porsche’s Supercar Void
Filling the Supercar Gap
Porsche’s line-up currently lacks a true supercar – the 918 Spyder’s successor is missing. That void has been eagerly exploited by Porsche-adjacent tuners. Singer, Kalmar, Tuthill and RML all offer 911-based hypercars, and Marc Philipp Gemballa is now firmly in that club. By creating both an off-road and a road-focused version of the same architecture, MPG gives wealthy buyers two distinct flavours of the same 959-inspired dream.
The Business of Ultra-Exclusivity
The GT’s pricing strategy is built on scarcity and personalisation. With a conversion fee of €770,000 plus a donor car and a typical options bill of over €200,000, the final sum competes with the most exclusive hypercars from established marques. MPG’s decision to make the 830hp engine standard reflects what customers actually choose, while the planned >900hp upgrade will create an after-sales revenue stream. The 30-unit cap ensures demand outstrips supply, strengthening the brand’s cachet and likely guaranteeing a sell-out, much as the 40 Marsien off-roaders already did.
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