Meet the Florida Man Who Tows His Welding Equipment Trailer With His Bumper-Less Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 line has endured for so long, in part, because of its versatility. Some 911s make great daily drivers, even the ones that were notoriously fickle. Others are exceptional track weapons, record-setters that put on-course performance over everything else. A few can even serve as off-roaders, capable of navigating beyond where even many SUV drivers would dare to go.
And one particular Porsche 911 out there is even prepared to serve as a tow vehicle for mobile welding rig.
alex norman's 991 generation porsche 911 towing rig for mobile welding
The welder's choice in Porsches is the creation of Alex Norman, owner of Storman Performance Welding and Fabrication out of Orange City, Florida. His company built both the mobile welding trailer and the hitch to affix it to his 991-generation 911 Carrera, and the whole setup is more than just a show piece; Norman tells Road & Track that he has taken the setup out to use at worksites on multiple jobs.
Norman says that the rig came together after the shop was commissioned to build drag-and-drive trailers for a large drag racing company. The original plan was to build three such rigs, but the custom axle supplier would only supply the part in a batch of 10. His shop ended up selling nine of the drag-and-drive setups, leaving one to be repurposed into the rig seen here.
the custom towing hitch installed on alex norman's 991 generation porsche 911 with a mobile welding trailer
The trailer built for the 911 includes "a generator, a TIG welder, and a couple of hand tools," according to Norman. It's attached to the 911—Norman's personal car—by a custom steel trailer hitch that was built into the aluminum rear bumper support. He regularly drives with the trailer attached, a setup that is part guerilla marketing and part mobile welding solution.
"We have trucks for stuff like that," Norman says, "that we send out for mobile welding, but my personal vehicle is the Porsche. I really just wanted to have that wow factor of the trailer and the Porsche, because you don't really see that often."
alex norman's 991 generation porsche 911 towing rig for mobile welding
The shock of seeing the trailer and car together have made the setup a surprising site for drivers around central Florida, including in a TikTok with thousands of likes shared by the shop itself. Norman says he's actually used the setup for mobile welding, too. The clients, he says, "were like, 'What in the world? I've never seen that a day in my life.' They really loved it."
