The $1.6 Million Australian Coupe Built for the Driven

In a quiet workshop in inner city Melbourne, one of the most ambitious performance cars in Australia is being built by hand.

Limited to just 10 cars a year and priced at $1.6 million, the Zeigler/Bailey Z/B 4.4 is not designed to chase mass appeal.

It is built for a very specific kind of driver. One who wants feel over flash, engineering over hype, and a car with soul as well as speed.

The Z/B 4.4 takes visual cues from the classic air-cooled Porsche era of the late 1970s and 80s, but beneath the familiar silhouette sits an entirely new platform.

Rather than restoring or lightly modifying an old chassis, the team has replaced the floor and structure with a clean-sheet, motorsport-bred tub, engineered to modern Australian safety standards and designed to work in both right- and left-hand drive.

The result is a car that looks nostalgic, but behaves like a thoroughly modern performance machine.

Power comes from a bespoke 4.4-litre air-cooled flat-six engine, designed and assembled in-house and machined from solid aluminium billet.

With 300 kilowatts of power and 500 Newton-metres of torque, its output slightly surpasses that of today’s Porsche 911 Carrera, while retaining the raw sound and character of classic air-cooled engineering.

Much of the car’s suspension architecture is inspired by Le Mans prototype racing, with push-rod actuated dampers and a multi-link rear system designed to deliver both comfort and precision.

The electronics have also been built from scratch, using a solid-state CAN-bus architecture that allows for digital instrumentation, remote diagnostics and ongoing software updates.

Every Z/B 4.4 begins life as a donor Porsche 911 from the 1975 to 1989 G-series era. From there, almost everything mechanical, structural and electronic is reimagined. More than 3,500 bespoke parts go into each finished car.

Despite the engineering depth, this is not a track-only machine.

Owners are involved in the personalisation of colour, trim and finishes, with many choosing to take part in selected phases of the build itself. Seating, ride settings, digital displays and even engine tuning can all be adjusted to suit the driver.

Behind the project are entrepreneur and Porsche collector John Zeigler Jr and automotive engineer Greg Bailey.

Together, they have created not just a car, but a global low-volume manufacturing model, using advanced CNC machining and 3D printing to produce parts that would once have been impossible to fabricate locally.

The business now employs a specialised team of designers, engineers and assemblers, and has plans to scale internationally through engines, components and licensed assembly.

For collectors, the appeal is as much about rarity as performance. Only 10 cars a year will be built for the Australian market. Six are already sold. Delivery from order is about 12 months.

In a world where hypercars increasingly blur into one another, the Z/B 4.4 stands apart as something deeply personal and proudly Australian. It is not designed to dominate social media feeds or sit under velvet ropes. It is designed to be driven.

As the creators like to say, you do not buy cool. You build it.