If you know your Porsche 911s, then you’ll know that lifting the engine cover of an Eighties or Nineties 964 model will reveal a crammed assembly of pumps and pipework rivalled only by the likes of the plumbing found in the depths of a Cold War-era Russian submarine.
So when former Jaguar and BMW designer Adam Hawley lifts the lid on a 964 subjected to his self-confessed design OCD to unveil a beautifully minimalist engine bay, you take a step back. And then two paces forward, as if closer examination will answer the question: ‘Where has everything gone?’
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Hawley is founder of bespoke Porsche restoration and enhancement specialist Theon Design; he, his wife Lucinda Argy and their team re-create Porsche 964s in an Oxfordshire barn. Hawley’s objective since he set up shop in 2017 has been to build the ultimate iteration of the air-cooled icon.
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Prices start from £410,000 (plus local taxes), but the one I’m sitting in, a stupendously detailed 1991 Targa model in Signal Yellow, was to cost its new owner closer to £700,000.
The noise, handling and overall sensation of driving both original and ‘restomodded’ 964s has been well chronicled. I know ‘turned up to 11’ is a well-worn phrase so, if this is a new benchmark, perhaps it’s 12.
Modernise its dynamics, give it around 400bhp depending upon engine size – 3.8 or 4.0 – and tune, then mash that accelerator pedal and unleash not just the power, but also the unique growl-turn-howl of that flat6 engine. If the noise weren’t so glorious, ear defenders would be essential. Its urge is relentless, the driving feel kart-like.
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Each car produced will be as close as possible to the buyer’s idea of perfection. First contact to delivery is around 30 months. But it’s Hawley’s attention to detail that creates the unseen platform for perfection.
‘There are so many things about the original 964 that made me angry,’ he says. ‘Then you remember how old these cars are, and that back then they didn’t have the knowledge or capability.’
Small touches include a carbon fibre cabin ‘tub’ insert that makes Targa and convertible models as bodily stiff as the coupé. Weight and clutter nuisances around the engine – air conditioning unit and power-steering pump – are removed, replaced by modern versions and relocated to the ‘frunk’ (the front luggage compartment). The battery is moved mere centimetres for weight balance reasons.
While the 964 might epitomise the ‘analogue’ sports car, 2025 tech has the last word here, correctly deployed: ‘Visceral.’
This article first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 96. Click here to subscribe
