Restoring and reimagining Porsche 911s has grown from a cottage industry to a global industrial undertaking. There are shops all over the world, from Germany, the UK, South Africa, and the US. The idea is always similar: Take the 964-era 911, which everyone seems to love, and fix it up. Some do it better than others. Singer seems to have risen out of the recycled metals bin to be the gold standard of the class. But others do it well, too. We’ve driven Singers (yes, they are fantastic), and RUF (ditto). Gunther Werks is strong, and Rod Emory’s shop has made many artistically complex and cool creations. Even LA Workshop 5001 has turned out some nice 911s. Now comes a new-to-us firm from the soggy UK to brighten our mornings: Theon Design from Oxfordshire, UK.

Theon is the dream of Adam Hawley, whose curriculum vitae includes senior design positions at BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Lotus. He was a designer, but he also had some mechanical skills, enough to refashion his own 911s so well that others noticed his work. He started Theon Design about eight years ago and has made about 16 911s since. The beautiful blue creation you see here is his first American commission. As he describes it, he uses terms a designer would, like radii, proportion, and ennui (the latter to describe a particular line that faded off into oblivion on a certain shape.)

“I’ve always loved the 911, always wanted to do a restomod of one,” he said when we met him in Southern California recently for a drive. 

“I built my own for myself. My favorite car Porsche ever made was the original (911) ST. I just thought that was a super-cool car. I mean, the radii I didn’t like on the wheel arches, and there’s a few little bits and details, but that was probably my biggest inspiration.”

So rather than simply tolerate those radii, he fixed them. And then some.

“I mean, for instance, the wing mirrors on our car are taken of inspiration from the 991 speedster concept. And you know that our whole ethos is to do things in a Porsche way and have a design that is just as coherent as possible and looks as Porsche as possible. That’s it.”

Nothing on the car departs from the original Porsche design. Not too much, anyway. You have to look at it for a while.

“You kind of want people to almost think it is a car that Porsche made. You know, it’s kind of the hope that if Porsche could have made something with the technology to make this in their day, this is the kind of thing they would have made. Obviously they didn’t have all the carbon fiber and all the technology. I mean, this has got a 997 GT3 crank in it, things like that. And a 993 RS gearbox, an original gearbox from a 993.”

Theon Design prefers the 964 911, those made between 1988 and 1994, just 63,762 cars. This is one of those.

“It was a 1990 964. And then it’s all completely re-shot in carbon fiber. So all the body panels are carbon fiber, partly stripped back, and redone.”

Only the windshield surround and the drip rails remain. And the doors, for side-impact protection. Everything else is Theon.

“A stunning 4.0-litre F1-grade carbon-bodied Coupe, finished in gleaming ‘Midnight Blue’ metallic paint,” is how Theon describes it.

The commissioner is a Texas resident, who collaborated on the build every step of the way.

“The guy that owns this car was hugely involved. He lives in Texas, but he came over (to the UK) to see us three times. And we spoke every week throughout the process, just me sending him design ideas, him kind of loving some, hating others, but resolving and getting where we wanted to go.”

Apparently both sides have excellent taste. In the end, the owner was so happy with the build he applied for the personalized license plate, “PERFECT.” Sadly, that was already taken, no doubt by a Lancia Appia owner, so the plate reads, THEON. No one else had that since, as we said, this is the first one in the country.

And by the way, how does Hawley finance this endeavor?

“When we started the company, obviously we were completely unknown, and we 100% realized that for somebody to spend this sort of money, they kind of need some reassurance. So the first car we actually built, we’d already built three early 911s back to concours and near-concours series, straight restorations, but it was to kind of just show what kind of quality we could do. So we did those. And then we were amazingly lucky to have somebody quite hot, I can’t name him, but he's quite high up in the automotive world (trust us with a commission).” Whoever he is, we’ll never know. But we already know he has good taste.

“So many British car enthusiasts are just content to take what is there, stock, and hang on to it. That’s the British way.”

No, we said, hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way. Hawley laughed. All this talent and he still listens to Pink Floyd.

The donor 964 for this first US commission was stripped down to a bare shell then rebuilt from the ground up using a reinforced chassis—seam welded for torsional rigidity and greater strength. The revamped platform was then fitted with an all-new F1-grade carbon and kevlar body, blending what Theon describes as aerospace and F1 composites technology “to deliver a car that’s super light and rigid, with a fully wet kerb weight of just 2,540 lbs.” To get the body shape just right, the body was meticulously styled by designer Hawley in CAD, “tailored to deliver a purposeful yet pretty, timeless 911 shape.” To guarantee the new panels fit perfectly, Theon 3D scanned every element of the chassis to ensure precision alignment. The body was then finished in the distinguished shade of Midnight Blue Metallic, with contrasting Porsche Grand Prix White stripes, and PORSCHE script, all complemented by classic brushed brightwork. 

For power, the client chose a “comprehensively overhauled and modernized air-cooled 4.0-liter engine—a flat-six marvel that is also Theon’s most flexible, thanks to the all-new switchable mapping system.” It’s a blend of Porsche internals that combines to make 405 hp at 7,500 rpm and 324 lb-ft of torque at 5,800 rpm. And it’s not all up at the top of the tech, either. The engine mapping system, controlled by a steering column-mounted switch, is Theon’s take on a modern engine management and a drive-by-wire system that Hawley says tailors throttle response and engine power, giving the driver “total control over the character of the car.” This one took a couple years to make, but yours could be built in about 18 months, Theon says. All that work and they handed me the keys! When they asked where I wanted to drive it, I said, “Angeles Crest Highway.” And they agreed. The fools! Off we went, Hawley riding shotgun and the PR guy thrashing the hell out of a Nissan Altima rental car. First thing I noticed was that it was loud. Many people like that. I commented on it and Hawley said, like Crocidile Dundee, “That’s not loud, this is loud.” He flipped a switch and it got a lot louder. They’ll tune it to make whatever sound level you like.

The 993 RS six-speed was far better than the original 964 transmission. It was far more precise. The floor-hinged, drilled aluminum pedals were easy to use and far enough apart that you don’t need racing shoes to step on them one at a time. The power was properly fitted to the application. It wasn’t overwhelming and it didn’t overpower the suspension setup. Everything was well-balanced. Theon has three settings for the adaptive suspension: Town, Sport, and Sport+ for the road and a Race mode for the track, giving you full power and immediate throttle response. You can even order a blip shift for the transmission and engine.  The brakes were also from the 993 RS, stuffed inside 17-inch Fuchs wheels. It was nice to get 17-inch wheels instead of those gigantic tractor wheels that so many designers insist on nowadays. Restraint can be best in some cases. Tires were Michelin Pilot Sport 4s, 235/45ZR-17 front and 275/40ZR-17s rear. Narrower tires make turn-in easier, and these didn’t give up any grip I needed on ACH that day. A Wavetrac Torsen limited-slip differential combined with the gearbox to deliver what Theon calls signature, unwavering Porsche traction and control. Combine that with the car’s switchable, five-stage TracTive Active Controlled Electronics (ACE) damping system, and you will agree with Theon that the setup offers “exceptional performance and resolute traction on all manner of surfaces, from super smooth tarmac to pockmarked canyon roads.”

Is it better than a Singer? A RUF? A Gunther Werks? Each of those has its own character. This one is just a little more raw than the Singer, less constricting than the G-werks, less overwhelmingly powerful than the RUF, but felt perhaps the best balanced of all those. Though the Singer still holds a special place in the brainstem of anyone who’s ever driven one. 

Can you drive one of these? You must provide the donor 964 and a briefcase containing $590,000 to start. But it’d be worth it. Life is short. Stop hanging on in quiet desperation and get out there and have some fun while you still can!

PUBLISHED APRIL 25, 2025 BY AUTOWEEK

Comments (0)

There are currently no comments.