The real Sauber-Mercedes C9 race car is not road legal. This replica, however, is and it lives in South Africa.
Johan Ackermann started the project in 2011 before finding a buyer by the name of Mark Burger. Ackermann could not just hand over the keys and wish him luck because he had to modify the interior and even drop the chassis so Berger would fit in the cockpit.
The real car was fitted with a turbocharged 5.0-litre V8 but this replica houses a 3.2-litre V6 with two turbochargers added to produce 370 horses (276 kW) and 434 Nm of torque. The chassis and architecture, meanwhile, are all the work of the skilled Ackermann. The body features a thin cardboard skin covered in fiberglass. Ackermann said the toughest part was getting the roof profile correct.
While the looks are good, they don’t quite match the real thing. Specifically, the headlights and lower part of the fascia are a tad off. Even though there’s no confusing this car for the real C9, we have to tip our hats to Ackermann. Very few people could pull off building a replica that looks as good as this, and fewer still could do it by themselves.