Vehicle Lab Zone

VLZ-P-002

Project Badak

Porsche Cayenne GTS (957) · 4.8 V8 · In build

A 957-generation Cayenne GTS, taken back to bare panels for paint and given a wheel and tyre package that changes its character rather than decorating it.

The wheel decision on this project is the interesting one. A classic five-spoke face on an all-terrain tyre is a coherent idea, but only if the consequences are accepted deliberately: ride, road noise, effective gearing, load rating and how the vehicle sits.

A Porsche Cayenne GTS with its front bodywork removed in a workshop, suspension and radiator exposed.
Stripped for bodywork. Everything ahead of the bulkhead is off.

Body preparation

Paint is the last visible step and the first place shortcuts show. Taking panels back properly is slow, unglamorous, and the reason a finish still looks right several years later.

The rear of a stripped SUV in a workshop, bodywork removed, quad exhaust tips visible.
Stripped at the rear.
A Porsche Cayenne engine bay with the cover carrying its 4.8 V8 plaque, intake ducting alongside.
The 4.8 V8, still in the car.
The side of a vehicle in grey primer, door and sill prepared, glass still fitted.
Flank in primer.
A bonnet in grey primer leaning against a workshop wall beside a tyre.
A panel in primer, off the car.
A vehicle in primer with its glass masked using sheets of newspaper.
Masked for paint.
A rear quarter panel and bumper area in primer.
Rear quarter, prepared.

Wheels and tyres

A wheel and tyre package is a chassis decision wearing a styling decision’s clothes. Diameter, width, offset, load rating and tread pattern all change how a vehicle rides, steers, stops and uses fuel.

A five-spoke black wheel with a polished lip, mounted on an all-terrain tyre.
Five spokes, polished lip, all-terrain tyre.
A tyre sidewall showing the size marking LT265/65R18.
The sidewall marking. Size and load rating are decisions, not details.
A hand holding a black wheel centre cap carrying the Porsche crest.
The centre cap. The crest stays, the rest of the wheel does not.
Two people fitting a tyre to a wheel on a tyre machine in a workshop.
Fitting. Execution by USJ 4x4 Garage.

Lighting

Auxiliary lighting is easy to get wrong: too much output in the wrong beam pattern is worse than none, and every lamp added is an electrical load and a mounting problem before it is a light.

Two Baja Designs LP6 auxiliary lamps and a light bar on their packaging.
Auxiliary lamps and a light bar, as delivered.
Close view of an LED light bar showing its lens elements.
Light bar detail.

Documentation

This project is in build. The full write-up follows on completion.

Each project is written up the same way once it is complete: the brief, the constraints, the governing idea, the key decisions by system, what was deliberately retained, the trade-offs, who executed what, and how it was validated. That needs the owner’s agreement and a proper record, so it follows the work rather than leading it.

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