From Spark To Summit
BBI Autosport races to the clouds
STORY | RHYS Haydon
PHOTOGRAPHY | Larry Chen & JD Short
Everything in life revolves around racing — the glorious pursuit of being first in the field. You can engineer speed, and Betim Berisha has spent the last 20 years dedicated to chasing tenths of a second that others don’t find worthy of pursuit. His passion was forged at eight years old when he first saw a grey-market Porsche 959 at Park Place LTD in his hometown of Seattle, Washington. From that smoldering beginning, the flames caught fire while working at Fordahl Motorsport, dedicating his growing skills to an IMSA campaign and learning the ropes from some of the greatest race engineers of the time.
Porsche was always at the forefront of his journey. The brand’s legacy of domination
in every motorsport discipline it enters deeply appealed to young Betim. But his connection wasn’t the typical enthusiast’s love, it was the recognition that, even in victory, Porsche was leaving speed on the table. That realization became his obsession. While others admired perfection, Betim sought to improve it. The wheels were in motion.
MAKING THE MOVE
It soon became clear that a classic “Southern California speed shop” was needed. So, packing up his life in Seattle, Betim moved to the epicenter of American speed: Huntington Beach, California. From a single roll-up door, he began building some of the fastest Porsches ever produced. Founded in 2005, the BBI Autosport name exploded onto the Porsche tuner scene. But that speed wouldn’t stay on the streets for long. Racers, seeking any edge, started reaching out, looking to turn this pursuit of perfection into more… looking for someone willing to reinvent the literal wheel if that meant lower lap times. Horsepower can be easy generate, but the question is, “for how long?” An uncanny ability to build reliable dominance pushed BBI Autosport into the rarified (turbocharged) air where it and its product’ were seen as the modern day Andial. Many of those racers had one goal in mind: the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
TAKING ON PIKES PEAK
Pikes Peak is daunting. 156 turns. 12.42 miles. An ascent to 14,115 feet. Flat out —machine and driver versus The Mountain. Pikes Peak is the kind of race that defined entire racers careers, that took hold of drivers’ souls. Pikes Peak requires a driver that can adapt to not only the changes in the course, but the changing terrain, the weather, the elevation, and the changes in the car over this distance. The mountain focused war-machines BBI sends to this battle had to be tailored.
Betim got to work. His goal was clear: the racer “has to be comfortable from the first time they touch the brakes.” A Pikes Peak racer is not built and then then simply set free, it requires ongoing development. With the race only being held yearly much of the time is spent on continued development with no promise that the mountain will cooperate. Betim needed some ground rules. This led him to become the first test driver for every car he builds. Each one is an uncompromised, task-tailored machine. Constantly developed. Actively refined. The result? An untiring pursuit of perfection in what others consider perfect. The transcended race car.
The 2025 Pikes Peak event marked an all-out effort for BBI. On the starting line stood five cars, each built and prepped by the team to win on June 22. These were not spec cars. Not production-based builds. Not even in the same class. Let that sink in. These one-off race cars took every detail into account and showed up to Pikes Peak ready to dominate. The car is always only part of the story. The drivers of the BBI cars represent some of the most talented drivers on the mountain. Undeniable pedigree, unwavering skill, uncompromising in their expectations.
LONI UNSER MEETS THE MOUNTAIN
Loni Unser has Pikes Peak in her blood. She tried to resist the pull of The Mountain, where her father Johnny Unser made his own legend, but destiny eventually caught up with her. A fateful drive up the mountain with her dad only deepened her resistance, until 2022, when an opportunity to pilot a Porsche GT4 pulled her into the challenge, the gravitational pull of The Mountain finally winning the day. Since then, she’s returned each year, determined to test her mettle against the immovable object.
In 2025, Loni piloted a BBI-prepped 992. Originally a Cup Car, it was transformed by BBI, turbocharged, something even Porsche hasn’t dared to do. A full engine rebuild and extensive mechanical engineering allowed the mounting of Garrett turbos to the Cup engine, all completed in-house in Huntington Beach. The result? A rocket ship producing 944 horsepower and more than 700 lb-ft of torque, routed through specially designed wheels that created so much downforce they collected dead bugs in the barrels. Loni became the fastest woman to climb Pike Peak in 2025 and secured third in the fiercely competitive Open Division. She’s not done, but credits part of her success to Betim’s “big ideas” and believes BBI is the only team capable of building the car that will take her to the top step. “There is no one doing what Betim is doing.” Her tenacity as a racer, willingness to be part of a build at the limit of possibility, and her passion for The Mountain were showcased this year and left no doubt that The Mountain has a hold of her just like it has on the rest of the Unser clan.
THE TYPE 99: BETIM’S GRAIL CAR
Type 99 was the internal name Betim gave to his ultimate project — his grail car. Years were spent dreaming, designing, and developing what he envisioned as the purest expression of the Porsche 911 platform. Staying true to the BBI ethos, it was a no-compromise machine. Think GT1, not Carrera GT — raw racing prowess, heavy on power, with zero regard for fitting into conventional categories. The mission: build an elegant beast that showcased the full spectrum of Betim’s life’s work.
As one would expect the development began with nothing but a blank sheet of paper, a passion fueled idea, and the culmination of what BBI and Betim have stood for. What better platform for this masterpiece then the fabled 993 chassis. The ‘skunkworked’ Type 99 debuted at Pikes Peak in 2024, placed into the hands of legendary Porsche racer Jeff Zwart.
Beyond his decorated racing career, Zwart is known for producing many of Porsche’s most iconic ads, branding that inspired generations of enthusiasts. He’s conquered The Mountain and mentored countless racers. There was no better person to unleash Betim’s fire-breathing creation. Type 99 stormed the hill, but 2024 ended in heartbreak.
Redemption came in 2025. Zwart and Type 99 returned, taking sixth in the Open Division. Zwart praised the car as “an incredibly engaging air-cooled car… ask it anything, and it can do it.” Bringing a car from 1997 to Pikes Peak might seem like bringing lemonade to a whiskey tasting, but the results, and the buzz, speak volumes.
BBI’s Type 99 represents a philosophical shift for Betim. The RPMs are rising, the turbos are spooling, and the focus is narrowing. While bespoke production-based cars have become common, the formula has grown stale: reworked chassis, prettier interiors, and mild performance gains passed off as revolution. Type 99 is different. A purpose-built track weapon, meticulously refi ned from the 993 platform, it represents the evolution of BBI’s mission. Over 1,900 new or individualized parts were designed and crafted, each developed with the precision of a surgeon. The Type 99 will be limited in production and a quiet line is likely already out the door. While BBI Autosport has been building dedicated racers, this is the company’s foray into bringing a taste of their competition-bred recipe of proven success to the street as a road-worthy package.
Betim has never wavered in the pursuit of perfection. From the wide-eyed boy captivated by a 959 to the visionary behind some of the most capable Porsche-based race cars ever built, his story is a testament to his relentless passion. With BBI, he’s not just tuning cars, he’s crafting legacies. Type 99 isn’t just another project; it’s the distilled essence of his life’s work. And as long as there are corners to carve, mountains to climb, and seconds to shave, Betim and BBI Autosport will keep pushing the limits — one extraordinary creation at a time.
