Safari cars have been all the rage in the past few years, with Porsche 911 leading that charge for decades. Now fully mainstream, with the 911 Dakar and Lamborgini Sterrato sold directly from the factory, Safari cars are only growing in popularity.
These sports cars with ground clearance, suspension travel, all-terrain tires, and skid plates make for a good time on a wide range of driving surfaces. The most useful of these driving surfaces is around town, where they can tackle pothole-littered city streets with just as much ease as gravel and dirt forest roads.
Today I want to talk about the latest Safari 911 builder to hit the market, Werks Gruppe, and its first full build, which is up for auction on Bring a Trailer right now. Let’s dive into why this new company and this car stand out from the crowd.
Werks Gruppe
Werks Gruppe was started as a side hustle in 2021 by Tom Floyd and Sam Um. Floyd is a longtime active member of the Porsche Club of America (PCA), Porsche owner, and cycling industry veteran. Floyd’s connections and background and Um’s technical expertise led to the development of TIG-welded and hand-built Porsche Safari parts by talented bike frame builders in Portland, Ore.
The other product the duo came up with and brought to market is ChargeSafe. It is an adapter cable for trickle chargers that uses a magnetic connector, making it extremely quick and easy to keep vehicles charged.
In 2024, Um took an early retirement from Intel, where he’d been for 24 years, and Floyd left Avant Guard Collection, one of Bring a Trailer’s premier auction partners, to pursue Werks Gruppe full-time.
Werks Gruppe now operates out of 1,500-square-foot building with two lifts. The space is actually rented from and adjacent to the famous Rothsport Racing in Sherwood, Ore. This location not only makes getting world-class Porsche motor work convenient but also means there is now even more Porsche knowledge and custom work being done under one roof.
On top of selling ChargeSafe adaptors and an ever-growing list of 911 Safari parts, Werks Gruppe also now does restorations, hot rod 911 street car builds, and in-house Safari 911 builds.
This brings us to today’s subject, the company’s first full build, which is now listed for sale on Bring a Trailer.
Werks Gruppe 1982 Safari 911SC
It’s a 1982 Porsche 911SC coupe with 148K miles on it. But, it has been fully gone through, upgraded, and modified in a resto-mod safari style.
Let’s dive straight into the Safari-style upgrades from Werks Gruppe on this car. These include a rear spare tire carrier, front and rear bumper guards with skid plates, auxiliary rally light pod with Hella lights, roll bar, and a strut tower brace/winch mount.
Other integrated Safari upgrades include a Warn winch and white 16-inch Braid Winrace T wheels with 215/65 BFG KO2 all-terrain tires. The impressive lifted suspension system on this car includes the following:
- Motion control 1WNR shocks
- 30mm H&R wheel spacers
- 19mm front and 26mm torsion bars
- ERP bump steer kit
- Decambered ball joints
- Turbo tie rods
- Adjustable rear spring plates
- Elephant Racing suspension bushings
While the 3.2L flat-six in this 911SC was installed in 2020, it was fully overhauled by Rothsport Racing in 2025. This included rebuilding the connecting rods and installing replacement pistons, ARP rod bolts, and Dilivar head studs.
The power from this upgraded powerplant is sent to the rear wheels through a 915 five-speed manual utilizing a new Sachs clutch and with the help of a Wavetrac limited-slip differential.
Interior upgrades include fixed-back scheel-mann 101 seats with Pepita cloth inserts, a 370mm MOMO Prototipo steering wheel, RS-style carpets, a Continental stereo, and Carbone door panels.
The car was repainted in Pacific Blue, and the hood and decklid were wrapped in white vinyl. As you might expect after seeing the teaser video for this car, touched-up paint was used to take care of some rock chips earned during about 200 miles of shakedown on this car.
The Rothsport massaged motor should sing through a new Dansk sport muffler. And, a Chase Bays Hydro handbrake should make easy sideways fun in this car.
For more details on this impressive car and/or to buy it for yourself, be sure to check out the Bring a Trailer listing.
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