The Pace Museum is one of those places you can visit ten times and still spot something you missed before. The collection changes constantly, and there’s always a good mix of cars. I’ve been here plenty of times over the years, and it never really disappoints. Previous visits have resulted in features on cars like the Pink Porsche 964 and the BMW X5 V12 Le Mans, among others.
This season the spotlight is on the cars from Jean Pierre Kraemer’s personal collection. By now, most people in the car world will have heard about the allegations surrounding JP. But this isn’t the place to get into that discussion, so I’ll leave it there. What I can talk about are the cars. The museum remains open, Big Boost Burger is still serving food a short drive away, and yes, the cheeseburger is still worth ordering.
Anyway, back to the cars.
My first stop is the top floor, where this black Porsche 964 immediately caught my attention. I have actually featured this car before, but back then it looked completely different. Different colour, different vibe, and even a different engine setup.
What you’re looking at is a backdated Porsche 964. Visually it takes inspiration from the earlier air-cooled cars. It’s also considerably wider than stock thanks to the work of Akira Nakai, the man behind Rauh Welt Begriff. As with most RWB builds, subtlety wasn’t exactly part of the brief.
Power comes from a 3.6-litre flat-six producing 265 horsepower, paired with a six-speed manual gearbox. The wheels are Rotiforms finished in a classic Fuchs-inspired design, measuring 10×18 inches up front and a massive 12×18 inches at the rear. The stance is exactly as dramatic as you’d expect, but seeing the car in person, it’s the proportions that really stand out. Photos don’t quite prepare you for how wide this thing actually is.
Another favorite is this immaculate Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R that has been completely overhauled. I featured this car before from the Essen Motor Show floor, but I can’t help posting more photos of this incredible car.
Beneath the Ultimate Silver paint lies a strengthened chassis, KW Suspension V3 Racing coilovers, R35 GT-R brakes, 19 inch Nismo LMGT2 wheels and a heavily upgraded RB26DETT producing an estimated 700 to 800 horsepower.
This Mazda RX-7 is one of the newer additions to JP’s collection, but it’s already far from stock. The first thing that grabs your attention is the wheel setup. Black 18-inch Volk Racing TE37s are rarely a bad idea, but against the bright yellow paint they work especially well. It’s a simple combination, yet seeing the car in person makes you wonder why more owners don’t go this route.
Around the back you’ll spot a detail that tells a bit of the car’s story. The rear bumper has partially melted, most likely from excessive heat or an engine running too rich. Whatever caused it, the damage is still there. Rather than hiding it behind fresh paint, the car wears the scar proud. And honestly, it suits the RX-7. A car like this looks better with a few battle scars than it does pretending it’s never been pushed hard.
If there’s one car currently stealing the show, it’s this Mercedes-Benz SLC V12. The idea sounds simple enough on paper: take one of Mercedes’ most legendary V12 engines, bolt on a pair of turbos, and somehow make it fit under the bonnet. In reality, it was anything but straightforward. Finding a manual gearbox capable of dealing with 950 Nm of torque was a challenge on its own.
Standing next to the car, you quickly get the feeling this wasn’t built for casual drivers. It’s the sort of machine that demands respect from the person driving it. The rear tyres are impressively wide and do their best to keep everything pointing in the right direction, but with this much torque on tap they’re fighting a losing battle. Even the fattest rubber doesn’t last long when a twin-turbo V12 is trying to turn it into smoke.
What I like most is that nothing about it feels sensible. It’s excessive, slightly ridiculous, and completely unnecessary. Which is exactly what makes it so good. For good measure, the wheels and tires in the rear are 20″ with 345/30 width tires 🤯
This Volkswagen Mk2 Golf takes the familiar hatchback silhouette and turns it into something completely different. Built by JP Performance together with Prior Design it’s one of those cars that instantly pulls a crowd.
The most radical change sits behind the front seats. Instead of the traditional front-mouted setup, the Thunderbunny uses a mid-mounted VR6 engine, transforming the Golf into a purpose-built performance machine. It has twin turbos, pushing output to around 1,200 horsepower.
Visually, the car is impossible to ignore. The massive Prior Design widebody, deep front splitter, huge rear wing and aggressive stance make it look more like a time attack car than a classic Volkswagen.
What stood out most in person was the scale of the build. Photos make it look extreme, but seeing it up close really highlights how much wider and lower it is than a standard Mk2. It still resembles a Golf, yet almost every detail has been reimagined. That’s exactly what makes the Thunderbunny one of my highlights of the current display at the Pace Museum.
This Porsche 993 has the X51 Powerkit. Porsche’s factory-engineered upgrade transformed the 3.6-litre flat-six into a sharper, more eager engine, delivering 300 PS and giving the final air-cooled generation an even greater appetite for revs. In today’s market, genuine X51-equipped cars remain among the most sought-after non-RS 993 variants.
The perfect stance has been achieved with BBS LM wheels and what appeared to be a KW suspension. A Wiechers roll cage hinted that this wasn’t a car destined for climate-controlled storage.
The Mercedes-Benz 500E is already a legend in its own right, famously developed with help from Porsche. But this one takes things several steps further. Underneath sits a naturally aspirated 6.0-litre V12 producing around 470 horsepower, sending its power exclusively to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. Getting a manual transmission to work behind a big Mercedes V12 wasn’t exactly straightforward, which explains why a BMW gearbox ended up being part of the solution.
The setup is completed by KW suspension and Rotiform wheels measuring 9×19 inches up front and 10.5×19 inches at the rear.
That’s the thing about the Pace Museum. Whether it’s a twin-turbo V12 Mercedes, a mid-engined Golf or a RWB built Porsche, every corner seems to offer another reminder that automotive enthusiasm comes in many forms.
