Complexity in each part, not in the manufacturing task
In a Melbourne workshop, a small team of fourteen is quietly redefining what it means to honour a classic machine. Zeigler/Bailey's Z/B 4.4 takes the beloved Porsche 911 of the 1970s and 80s not as a relic to be preserved, but as a foundation to be reimagined — rebuilt from bare shell to bespoke engine at a cost of $1.6 million. It is a meditation on the tension between heritage and progress, asking whether the soul of a beloved object survives its complete transformation.
- A fourteen-person Melbourne team is charging $1.6 million to completely dismantle and reconstruct a classic Porsche 911 — not restore it, but remanufacture it from the ground up.
- The restomod market is crowded with prestigious names like Singer, but Zeigler/Bailey escalates the stakes by cutting away the original chassis floor entirely and replacing it with a purpose-engineered steel tub.
- At the heart of the disruption is a handcrafted 4.4-litre air-cooled engine — over 1200 bespoke parts, machined from aluminium billet, producing 300kW — designed entirely in Australia and unlike anything in the original car.
- Each build takes twelve months, must comply with Australian Design Rules, and layers in modern safety technology including ABS, blind-spot monitoring, and live 4G telemetry — bridging five decades of automotive evolution in a single vehicle.
- With six cars already completed or underway, founder John Zeigler Jr is targeting ten builds a year locally, fifty for export, and up to 1000 engines annually — signalling that this is not a boutique curiosity but a serious industrial ambition.
In an inner Melbourne workshop, a team of fourteen is doing something unusual: taking one of the world's most iconic sports cars apart and charging $1.6 million to put it back together — differently. The Zeigler/Bailey Z/B 4.4 is built around a 1975-to-1989 Porsche 911 body, but the resemblance to a conventional restoration ends there. The original floor is cut away entirely, replaced by a seam-welded steel tub that boosts torsional rigidity by around 15 percent and can be converted between right- and left-hand drive in roughly a day.
The engine is the project's centrepiece. Designed by mechatronics expert Greg Bailey, the 4.4-litre flat-six is machined from aluminium billet, draws on over 1200 purpose-designed parts, and produces 300 kilowatts and 500 newton-metres of torque. It is managed by a Haltech ECU, features a largely 3D-printed stainless steel exhaust with selectable Quiet and Track modes, and meets Australian emissions standards. The electrical architecture eliminates traditional fuses and relays in favour of solid-state modules on a CAN-bus network.
The suspension borrows from the 997-generation 911 up front and uses an independent multi-link arrangement at the rear, with Brembo four-piston brakes and Bosch ABS. Inside, buyers choose from Porsche or carbon-fibre GT3 seats trimmed in Nappa leather and Alcantara, alongside a 9-inch touchscreen, analogue-style digital instruments, and a full suite of modern safety features including blind-spot monitoring and live 4G telemetry.
Each car takes about twelve months to build. The $1.6 million price excludes the donor vehicle. Founder John Zeigler Jr plans to produce ten cars annually in Melbourne and up to fifty for export, alongside as many as 1000 engines per year for other applications. The philosophy, as Bailey describes it, is to place complexity inside each individual component rather than in the manufacturing process itself — producing something that feels simultaneously of its era and entirely new.
In a workshop in inner Melbourne, a team of fourteen people is methodically dismantling and rebuilding one of the world's most beloved sports cars—and charging $1.6 million to do it. The Zeigler/Bailey Z/B 4.4 is not a restoration in the traditional sense. It is a complete remanufacture of a 1975-to-1989 Porsche 911, stripped to its bare shell and reconstructed around a new steel platform and a handcrafted 4.4-litre engine designed and built in Australia.
The restomod market has been dominated for years by companies like Singer and Icon, which graft modern technology and performance into classic frames. Wiedergeboren, another Australian outfit, recently entered the space. But Zeigler/Bailey is pushing the concept further. Rather than modify an existing chassis, the company cuts away the original floor entirely—along both rails and across the dashboard and rear shelf—and replaces it with a seam-welded steel tub that increases the shell's torsional rigidity by about 15 percent. The new platform is designed to meet Australian Design Rules from 1986 and can be converted from right-hand to left-hand drive in roughly a day. The donor cars themselves come from a series that sold nearly 200,000 units globally and introduced fully galvanised bodies, meaning many of the originals are still roadworthy.
What makes the Z/B 4.4 distinctive is its engine. Greg Bailey, a mechatronics expert, designed the car's electrical architecture from first principles, eliminating fuses and relays in favour of solid-state power control modules linked by CAN-bus technology. The flat-six engine itself displaces 4388 cubic centimetres and is machined from aluminium billet, with billet cylinder heads and a compression ratio of 11.5 to 1. The crankshaft and camshafts are billet steel, engineered with an ultra-low-jerk lobe design. More than 1200 parts were designed specifically for this engine. It produces 300 kilowatts of power and 500 newton-metres of torque, managed by a Haltech ECU and drive-by-wire throttle. The exhaust system is largely 3D-printed in stainless steel and offers driver-selectable Quiet and Track modes. Zeigler/Bailey says the engine meets Australian emissions standards comparable to Porsche's final air-cooled 993-series engine from the late 1980s.
The suspension is equally considered. The front uses a MacPherson strut layout inspired by the 997-generation 911, with aluminium dampers offering ride-height adjustment and optional four-way damping. The rear employs an independent multi-link arrangement with double wishbones and height-adjustable coil-over dampers actuated by titanium pushrods. Braking comes from Brembo four-piston calipers and ventilated steel discs with Bosch ABS. The car rides on 17-inch forged aluminium wheels with carbon-fibre centres and centre-lock nuts.
Inside, the new platform accommodates occupants up to 204 centimetres tall. Buyers can choose from Porsche electric seats, GTS sports seats, or optional GT3 carbon-fibre seats, all trimmed in Nappa leather and Alcantara with machined aluminium accents. The dashboard features analogue-style digital instruments in billet housings and a 9.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, navigation, Bluetooth, and data-logging. A six-speaker sound system is standard. Safety equipment includes anti-lock brakes, an electric parking brake, parking sensors, a reversing camera, blind-spot monitoring, GPS tracking, and live telemetry over 4G.
The build process takes about 12 months from commissioning. The $1.6 million price excludes the donor vehicle, which Zeigler/Bailey can help source if needed. The company currently has six cars either completed or in production at its Melbourne facility. Founder John Zeigler Jr has ambitious plans: ten cars per year locally, up to fifty annually for export, and up to 1000 engines per year for other projects. The company is careful to note that it restores and modifies existing Porsche vehicles and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Porsche itself. What Bailey emphasises is the philosophy behind the engineering: putting complexity into each individual part rather than creating complex manufacturing tasks for humans. The result is a car that feels both utterly modern and rooted in the DNA of a machine that has been refined for fifty years.
Citações Notáveis
If I was going to design a whole new electrical system for a vehicle, what should it entail? We've now got a car with no fuses, no relays. It's all solid-state PCMs with CAN-bus technology.— Greg Bailey, mechatronics expert and designer of the Z/B 4.4's electrical system
For me, it's all about reducing man-hours… Putting complexity into each part, as opposed to making complex manufacturing tasks for humans.— Greg Bailey
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why strip a car down to the shell and rebuild it? Why not just modify what's already there?
Because the original platform was designed in the 1970s. The new steel tub increases rigidity by 15 percent and lets you meet modern safety standards without compromising the look or feel of the original. You're not fighting the car's bones anymore.
And the engine—4.4 litres, air-cooled, 300 kilowatts. That's a lot of engineering for a car that's fifty years old.
More than 1200 parts designed from scratch. The crankshaft is billet steel. The cylinder heads are billet. They even 3D-print the exhaust in stainless steel. It's not nostalgia—it's precision.
But why air-cooled? Isn't that a limitation?
It's a choice. Air-cooled engines are simpler, lighter, and they sound like a Porsche should sound. And this one meets emissions standards comparable to Porsche's final air-cooled engine from the late 1980s. You're not sacrificing the future for the past.
Twelve months to build one car. That's a long time.
It is. But you're not assembling parts. You're machining billet, welding chassis, integrating electronics that have no fuses or relays. That takes time because it has to be right.
And the price—$1.6 million. Who buys this?
People who want a 911 that feels like a 911 but drives like a modern car. People who understand that complexity in the engineering means simplicity in the driving experience. It's not for everyone. But for the people it's for, there's nothing else like it.