Celebrating The Urban Outlaw, 10 Years On

10 years ago today, Speedhunters published one of its biggest feature stories of all time. You Build Your Own Luck was a candid glimpse inside Magnus Walker’s world, with a behind-closed-doors look at his Downtown Los Angeles warehouse space and amazing early Porsche collection, followed by an unforgettable ride across LA’s original – and since demolished – 6th Street Bridge in ‘277’.

Ben’s feature set the wheels in motion for a close relationship with Magnus, and over the past decade we’ve been fortunate to share a number of his cars and stories across Speedhunters’ channels. The Need for Speed faithful among us will also remember Magnus’s appearance – and his 1971 Porsche 911T’s important role – in the 2015 NFS game release.

How did this all come about? Well, anyone immersed in car culture back in 2012 will surely remember a film titled Urban Outlaw.

Directed by Tamir Moscovici, the award-winning, half-hour-long documentary was posted online in October 2012 after its debut screening in London at the 2012 Raindance Film Festival in September that year.

Within days of Urban Outlaw‘s internet release, Magnus went from someone only really known to hardcore air-cooled Porschephiles and readers of Total 911 magazine, to an icon for the wider automotive hobby.

Press play above if you need to learn why. In fact, even if you already know, now’s probably a good time to revisit this wonderful film.

While it’s easy to think that Magnus became an overnight hero, anyone who’s familiar with the ex-pat Brit’s story as a Porsche collector and outlaw modifier, knows that it was decades in the making. Magnus purchased his very first 911 – a 1974 car – 20 years before Urban Outlaw, and at that time, ownership had been his dream since early childhood.

Magnus has lived and breathed Porsche his entire life, and it shows in his passion for the brand and the inimitable custom cars he’s created out of it.

Now Magnus’s passion is being celebrated on Urban Outlaw’s 10th anniversary with a special retrospective exhibition in the Petersen Automotive Museum’s underground Vault. Darrien headed along to the ‘Outlaw Gathering’ opening night event with his camera for these images.

The UA10 (Urban Outlaw 10) exhibition is a look into Magnus’s amazing Porsche collection, with 10 cars selected for display. Of course, they were all driven to the Petersen from Magnus’s Downtown LA warehouse – he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The exhibition is not just cars, but a huge number of parts and memorabilia from the last decade too.

Magnus’s ‘277’ 1971 Porsche 911T build is his most well known, so naturally it heads up the exhibition – and this post in the header image. The nine other cars on display all showcase Magnus’s trademark outlaw style across various Porsche models.

His 1965 car is one of the first 911s ever built (chassis #310, from late ’64), which you can read more about in our feature from 2016 here.

Parked alongside the ’65 is Magnus’s 1978 Porsche 911 SCHR, running IROC bumpers and a hot 3.0L engine. If you remember our 2014 feature on this car, you’ll know it was put together as more of a budget build, but with no less impact and numerous signature design cues.

Magnus’s 1967 Porsche 911 SRT featured in Urban Outlaw alongside 277, but a decade on it’s now completely finished, running a 2.5L twin-plug motor good for 271hp on pump gas, and backed up by a close-ratio gearbox with LSD. It looks a little different to when we featured it in 2013.

Of all Magnus’s 911 outlaws, this 1990 Porsche 964 is his most performance-orientated, running a 3.8L RS-spec 993 engine. This build also features numerous custom body mods, including louvered fenders and a channeled hood and roof. We featured this one in 2016.

It’s not just air-cooled stuff in the collection. Picked up in 2016, this 2004 996 GT3 is the first water-cooled Porsche 911 Magnus has owned.

Here’s another first – Magnus’s 1976 Porsche 911 Turbo was the very first 930 Turbo sold in US, and it’s been an LA car all of its life.

Rounding out the exhibition are two ‘Art Cars’ – Magnus’s 1972 Porsche 914 and 1995 Porsche 993, and finally his 1980 Porsche 924 Carrera GT.

A decade on from Urban Outlaw, Magnus still embodies everything great about car culture; from building cars the way he wants to, to driving them the way they were designed to be. From all accounts, UA10 perfectly embodies the ethos.

So if you’re in Southern California or headed there between now and January 31, 2023, you might want to book a Petersen Automotive Museum Vault tour, which includes access to the Urban Outlaw 10 exhibition.

If you can’t make, the next best thing is to take a tour with Magnus in the video above.

Me? I’m off to re-read Urban Outlaw: Dirt Don’t Slow You Down. Like the film and now the UA10 exhibition, Magnus Walker’s 2017 book shouldn’t be missed

Brad Lord
Instagram: speedhunters_brad
Email: [email protected]

Photos by Darrien Craven
Instagram: _crvn_