While a normal Mooney M20 would be quite a bland aircraft for the list, this one is different. Rather than the “common” engine options this was spiced up with a with a specialty engine from Porsche
Porsche famous for its flat 6 configuration engines spanning decades of production took on a new engine, directly intended at the general aviation market with the PFM 3200. Being developed in the mid 80’s. A few airframes where tried out but the Mooney M20L was the only one with a small production run of 41 units in 1988-1989. Small by car numbers but common in the GA industry. Porsche ran into significant financial troubles in the late 80’s and exited the GA powerplant industry.
I’ve seen one a few times at KAPA centennial before, with its unique pointed nose.
I got to fly a standard issue Mooney once, they where extremely cramped inside but had stunning performance.
An excellent in depth article can be found in: https://www.pca.org/news/porsche-powered-airplane-the-story-of-my-mooney-porsche-pfm
Another: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2024/history/porsche-aircraft-engine-pfm-mooney-35243.html
Excessive general aviation law suits of the late 80’s / early 90’s also did not help. Still one what have wondered what could have happened if conditions where more favorable.
Working on Corvair auto to aero engine conversions for WW back in the 2000’s I was amazed at how much push back there is in aviation community for anything Auto going into Aero. Take the identification stickers off the M20 shown in this article to the naysayers and they would likely not have a clue the engines genesis was automotive based. Particularly if you said it was a standard, un modified certified Mooney model.
Quite a few YouTube Videos
With 41 units produced one may come up for sale from time to time but would take a real die hard to take the project on as the PFM 3200 was mostly unique part’s requiring one off custom builds to keep it flying beyond basic M20 airframe hardware.
No true M20 plan hits on outerzone for an RC option.
Amazon does have a few generic Mooney options
Gould Aero 