I believe that many car enthusiasts who don’t know much about the aftermarket industry basically think that only those family cars with relatively weaker power and handling performance than high-performance cars or sports cars need to be upgraded and modified later to increase vehicle personalization and improve related performance. But this is undoubtedly wrong, because as long as it is a vehicle that can obtain legal road certification, even if it is a sports car or a high-performance car, it will definitely make certain “compromises” in vehicle performance or optimization for road use. If you want to get the most extreme performance and don’t want to upgrade or modify it later, then I’m sorry, the simplest and most direct way is to buy a racing car and run it as you like on the track.

Image: The Ferrari 488 GTB, first launched in 2016, is fast enough on the street, right? But if you really want to “run it”, in terms of lap time and endurance, it is definitely not as fast and durable as the upgraded Honda Civic.

We have introduced many aftermarket upgrade brands for general civilian cars and entry-level sports cars before, such as: HKS, Mine’s, SARD, Hamann, G Power, AC Schnitzer, Manhart, etc. However, when you think about it, we have not introduced much about aftermarket upgrade brands specifically for the sports car market before. Taking this opportunity, today we will introduce to you the next well-known sports car and luxury car aftermarket upgrade brand from Germany, Novitec Group (hereinafter referred to as Novitec).

Picture: Two very representative Ferrari models designed by Novitec, the F8 N-Largo and the 812 GTS N-Largo.

Photo: Novitec’s showroom and development workshop.

Photo: Photo copyright belongs to Auto Gespot.com.

Novitec’s story can be traced back to 1989, when founder Wolfgang Hagedorn founded the brand in Stetten, Bavaria, Germany. At the beginning of the brand’s establishment, its business scope was not as broad as it is now, but a brand that focused on the research and development, design, and production of upgraded rims for the automotive aftermarket. Fortunately, the rim products launched by the brand received a very good response in the market, so the founder Wolfgang soon decided to expand the brand’s business scope. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it happened to be the period of rapid rise of the German automotive aftermarket. Considering people’s pursuit of automotive performance and exterior aerodynamic kits, it was decided to develop automotive performance upgrades and exterior aerodynamic kits while retaining the rim business.

Photo: Wolfgang Hagedorn, founder of Novitec Group.

Although Novitec is a German car upgrade brand founded by Germans in Germany, when Novitec started to upgrade car performance and exterior aerodynamic kits, the models it targeted were not German local models, but Italian cars. For example, Alpina, Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, etc. The reason why they targeted Italian models for upgrades is very simple, that is, there were already many very well-known car upgrade brands in the German market at that time, including BMW AG’s official modification factory Alpina, Mercedes-AMG, Hamann, Manhart, G Power, AC Schnitzer, etc. In the case that the market is already quite saturated, the emergence of an aftermarket upgrade brand targeting German cars or mainstream European cars will undoubtedly not get much “cake” from it. At this time, Italian brands that have not been noticed by many people are a very good opportunity to enter the market, at least there is not much competitive pressure.

Although Novitec has decided to start a new business since the mid-1990s, its first vehicle project was officially launched in 2004. Novitec’s first project is a model based on the upgraded Ferrari 360 Modena/Modena Spyder. In terms of power, Novitec added a dual supercharger unit (Novitec Supersport) to the original Tipo F131 3.6L V8 naturally aspirated engine of the 360, which greatly increased the engine’s intake volume. It is also said that the impeller of the supercharger has been specially optimized, and the dual carbon fiber air box, enlarged water tank, dry oil sump, exhaust system, high-flow fuel injector, etc. have also been upgraded. The engine torque has been increased from the original 372 Nm/4750 rpm to 562 Nm/6250 rpm. The maximum horsepower has been increased from the original 400 horsepower to 565 horsepower, which is quite amazing.

Photo: Novitec has an exclusive series of Ferrari modified cars called Novitec Rosso.

Picture: The Larry 360 Modena, which was manufactured by Novitec, has a nameplate in front of the classic gear lever. The nameplate clearly states that the vehicle was manufactured by Novitec and that it is Made in Germany… Can you stand this?

Around 2010, Novitec followed the 360 ​​Modena model and produced a Ferrari F430 Scuderia, with the engine’s torque increased to 722 Nm/6250 rpm and maximum horsepower increased to 717 hp.

Figure: Dual mechanical superchargers (boost pressure constant 0.48Bar), water-cooled, carbon fiber bellows, dry sump, large-flow fuel injectors, improved intake pipes, etc., which we can see on the 360 ​​Modena, are also available on this F430 and are even more complete.

Photo: Photo copyright belongs to Team-BHP.com.

Later, Novitec also established the Novitec Tridente (Trident) department for Maserati models, the Novitec Torado department for Lamborghini, the Novitec Spefec department for Rolls-Royce, etc. Let’s talk about some well-known modified products under Hyundai Novitec, such as its N-Largo series (limited production). The N-Largo series is a modification series under Novitec that specializes in body reshaping as its main selling point. It is not only involved in Ferrari, but also includes Lamborghini, McLaren and other brands.

Unlike previous modified products, the N-Largo series of products will be more extreme in aerodynamic kits and power performance. In addition, the N-Largo series of products also invited many well-known German “godfather-level” figures to assist in design and research and development, including Vittorio Strosek.

Vittorio Strosek’s strength in car exterior modification is aerodynamic design. He pursues low wind resistance, so many Porsches modified by him at that time have unique body shapes or lamp designs, such as Flatnose projection headlights. There is a brand that is a collection of his masterpieces, and that is the Strosek brand established in 1982.

Let’s briefly talk about Strosek’s story here. If you are interested in this “godfather” figure in the German automotive aftermarket upgrade, you may wish to read the stories about the characters that our Auto Magazine editorial department has written before.