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This Cayman-engined 914 might be all the retro Porsche you need

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This Cayman-engined 914 might be all the retro Porsche you need | Top Gear

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This Cayman-engined 914 might be all the retro Porsche you need

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This Cayman-engined 914 might be all the retro Porsche you need

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There's a kind of involuntary tic that comes with anyone mentioning a restomod Porsche these days, yet another 911 claiming to be honed, reimagined, bespoke. Money and ideas thrown, sometimes quite randomly, at an above average base, aiming to elevate. And they all seem to cost the kind of cash that would see most of us homeless a couple of times over. At least.

But for all the myriad companies messing with 911s, Fifteen Eleven Design caught the TG eye, simply because it decided to turn its attentions to the 914. A choice that’s interesting in itself, the 914 being the mid-engined, targa-topped, budget co-production between VW and Porsche back in the late 1960s and 1970s. A car that hasn’t been on the most wanted list for quite a while. So, interest piqued, with the backstory of the company that produces it the elevator pitch, but more on that in a minute.

First, a quick jaunt into this funny looking little 914. This is a car that’s not so much been restomodded as completely rebuilt. What remains of the original donor is sparse, consisting of A- and B-pillars, floors and bulkheads. There’s now a strengthening central tunnel filled with the bits that didn’t fit anywhere else. Mainly because the guts of the thing are now brand new Cayman S. So that’s 3.8-litre flat six, 6spd manual box and the looms to support it.

Photography: Rich Pearce

The doors are steel, the rest de rigueur carbon fibre, all subtly and not so subtly reworked with a modern twist, although always with a lot of sympathy. Arches are widened and flared, the new turret on the front wings housing LED headlights, replacing the original 914’s pop-ups. Which is a shame (pop-up headlights rule), but the replacements look good, and the arches themselves are much more elegant than some of the faster in-period Porsche 914/6s used for racing, which look like they’ve been stuck on with chewing gum.

There’s a more modern bumper and a cut through bonnet for extra cooling, the rear similarly cleaned up and modernised, driving lights that echo those on the 1978 935 ‘Moby Dick’. It’s still very small compared to modern stuff, which makes it immediately attractive, and the purity of a well trimmed but sparse interior, complete with wooden gearknob like Porsche’s 917 racers, appeals to drivers bored of being bathed in the sickly glow of big touchscreens. There’s a radio though – it’s not a complete desert. And all this with an output of something like 375bhp.

Underneath it’s pretty full on, with motorsport spec springing and damping, big brakes, modern wheels in the Fuchs style and up to date rubber, the stiff chassis giving the suspension something solid from which to push. And to drive you can feel it, the car singing along like a later Lotus Elise, all dart and fingertip steering, the 975kg kerbweight (plus fuel) the dancing shadow to every input. It’s fast and noisy, alert and slightly sketchy, but above all, huge amounts of fun.

It seems like the best restomods really do offer that joyous balance between style and driving interest, without the inherent hassle of a classic car that might vomit oil all over your driveway overnight. Thing is, even when the irony of Porsche’s cheapest ever car emerging half a century later as a £350k+ re-model weighs heavy, you find it hard to doubt the execution.

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Which brings us to that execution, because Fifteen Eleven Design is not a company that has emerged fully formed from the ether. It’s actually a restomod offshoot of Mellors Elliot Motorsport of Bakewell. A sleepy, touristy market town in the Peak District that harbours a tasty motorsport secret at its heart.

And Mellors Elliot is the reason that the 914 feels so sorted, because there’s 40 years of rally car prep and build experience bled into the making of it. So the 914 feels like a familiar Porsche outline filled in with unfamiliar colours, because Mellors Elliot and Fifteen Eleven know a thing or two about essentially building a car from the ground up.

Owned and run by father Chris Mellors and his two sons Ben and Ollie, plus a cadre of skilled support, it’s a proper old school family business. A business that’s been going since the 1980s when Chris was competing (BTRDA Champ, National Rally Champion for Ford Motorsport in 1994, 1995 and 1996), through the glory years of rallying. There are Production World Rally Championships secured in MEM cars, Asia Pacific Championships, WRC2, USA Pro Rally, and they’re now prepping Proton’s Iriz R5 plug ’n’ play rally car.

But that’s not all: during the pandemic, there were skills at stake and time aplenty, so the garage started doing projects. Concours restorations, light improving and restomodding of classics, from Morris Travellers to Maserati 3500 GTs from the early 1960s. Aston DB series cars with all the screwheads pointing in the same direction. Even the full recommissioning of a 1980 Williams FW07/04 F1 car driven by the Aussie Alan Jones. But Ben, an alumnus of the Coventry Automotive and Transport Design school, decided on another focus: a 1972 Ford Escort MkI that had been lounging around the back of the workshop. And like the best kind of projects, it quickly spiralled out of control.

Off came the roof, the chassis was strengthened and shortened, the rear Atlas axle and arches migrated as the perspectives annoyed Ben’s designery eye. The front pair of seats are now where the rears should be, there’s a 320bhp 24-valve V6 up front and a five-speed manual Getrag. It’s a Speedster – there is no roof – but the tonneau cover is actually tweed encased in polymer, like upper class, Scottish carbon fibre. The interior is similarly divisive, full of roll bars, bare metal and saddle leather.

Honestly? It’s weird. But it’s the kind of fascinating weird that has you debating whether you love or hate it, the perfect conversation piece. Or advertisement for a business that handles the projects to the left of centre. The next project is a roadgoing Mitsubishi Evo VI series built in conjunction with Tommi Mäkinen, low numbers in total, pretty much WRC spec but for the road. Something slightly closer to MEM’s heartland than the 914, but a delicious idea nonetheless. A car that hits people of a certain age square in the nostalgia, teeing up a head to head of restomodded roadgoing, heyday rally cars with the Prodrive P25. Though the prices involved will be eye watering.

All of this is why that little Porsche 914 feels so keen. This is not a design company that’s thrown cash at a set of mechanicals, but an engineering and motorsport company that’s allowed some freedom for its creative alter ego. You’re paying for over 40 years of experience, rather than fancy quilted leather. Although you can have that, too. And the best bit? The people at Fifteen Eleven Design, and by proxy Mellors Elliot, are warm, funny, welcoming. They’d make buying a car from them feel like being adopted by a slightly bonkers rally family. And that’s worth more than cash alone.

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There's a kind of involuntary tic that comes with anyone mentioning a restomod Porsche these days, yet another 911 claiming to be honed, reimagined, bespoke. Money and ideas thrown, sometimes quite randomly, at an above average base, aiming to elevate. And they all seem to cost the kind of cash that would see most of us homeless a couple of times over. At least.

But for all the myriad companies messing with 911s, Fifteen Eleven Design caught the TG eye, simply because it decided to turn its attentions to the 914. A choice that’s interesting in itself, the 914 being the mid-engined, targa-topped, budget co-production between VW and Porsche back in the late 1960s and 1970s. A car that hasn’t been on the most wanted list for quite a while. So, interest piqued, with the backstory of the company that produces it the elevator pitch, but more on that in a minute.

First, a quick jaunt into this funny looking little 914. This is a car that’s not so much been restomodded as completely rebuilt. What remains of the original donor is sparse, consisting of A- and B-pillars, floors and bulkheads. There’s now a strengthening central tunnel filled with the bits that didn’t fit anywhere else. Mainly because the guts of the thing are now brand new Cayman S. So that’s 3.8-litre flat six, 6spd manual box and the looms to support it.

Photography: Rich Pearce

The doors are steel, the rest de rigueur carbon fibre, all subtly and not so subtly reworked with a modern twist, although always with a lot of sympathy. Arches are widened and flared, the new turret on the front wings housing LED headlights, replacing the original 914’s pop-ups. Which is a shame (pop-up headlights rule), but the replacements look good, and the arches themselves are much more elegant than some of the faster in-period Porsche 914/6s used for racing, which look like they’ve been stuck on with chewing gum.

There’s a more modern bumper and a cut through bonnet for extra cooling, the rear similarly cleaned up and modernised, driving lights that echo those on the 1978 935 ‘Moby Dick’. It’s still very small compared to modern stuff, which makes it immediately attractive, and the purity of a well trimmed but sparse interior, complete with wooden gearknob like Porsche’s 917 racers, appeals to drivers bored of being bathed in the sickly glow of big touchscreens. There’s a radio though – it’s not a complete desert. And all this with an output of something like 375bhp.

Underneath it’s pretty full on, with motorsport spec springing and damping, big brakes, modern wheels in the Fuchs style and up to date rubber, the stiff chassis giving the suspension something solid from which to push. And to drive you can feel it, the car singing along like a later Lotus Elise, all dart and fingertip steering, the 975kg kerbweight (plus fuel) the dancing shadow to every input. It’s fast and noisy, alert and slightly sketchy, but above all, huge amounts of fun.

It seems like the best restomods really do offer that joyous balance between style and driving interest, without the inherent hassle of a classic car that might vomit oil all over your driveway overnight. Thing is, even when the irony of Porsche’s cheapest ever car emerging half a century later as a £350k+ re-model weighs heavy, you find it hard to doubt the execution.

Which brings us to that execution, because Fifteen Eleven Design is not a company that has emerged fully formed from the ether. It’s actually a restomod offshoot of Mellors Elliot Motorsport of Bakewell. A sleepy, touristy market town in the Peak District that harbours a tasty motorsport secret at its heart.

And Mellors Elliot is the reason that the 914 feels so sorted, because there’s 40 years of rally car prep and build experience bled into the making of it. So the 914 feels like a familiar Porsche outline filled in with unfamiliar colours, because Mellors Elliot and Fifteen Eleven know a thing or two about essentially building a car from the ground up.

Owned and run by father Chris Mellors and his two sons Ben and Ollie, plus a cadre of skilled support, it’s a proper old school family business. A business that’s been going since the 1980s when Chris was competing (BTRDA Champ, National Rally Champion for Ford Motorsport in 1994, 1995 and 1996), through the glory years of rallying. There are Production World Rally Championships secured in MEM cars, Asia Pacific Championships, WRC2, USA Pro Rally, and they’re now prepping Proton’s Iriz R5 plug ’n’ play rally car.

But that’s not all: during the pandemic, there were skills at stake and time aplenty, so the garage started doing projects. Concours restorations, light improving and restomodding of classics, from Morris Travellers to Maserati 3500 GTs from the early 1960s. Aston DB series cars with all the screwheads pointing in the same direction. Even the full recommissioning of a 1980 Williams FW07/04 F1 car driven by the Aussie Alan Jones. But Ben, an alumnus of the Coventry Automotive and Transport Design school, decided on another focus: a 1972 Ford Escort MkI that had been lounging around the back of the workshop. And like the best kind of projects, it quickly spiralled out of control.

18 minutes 2 seconds

Off came the roof, the chassis was strengthened and shortened, the rear Atlas axle and arches migrated as the perspectives annoyed Ben’s designery eye. The front pair of seats are now where the rears should be, there’s a 320bhp 24-valve V6 up front and a five-speed manual Getrag. It’s a Speedster – there is no roof – but the tonneau cover is actually tweed encased in polymer, like upper class, Scottish carbon fibre. The interior is similarly divisive, full of roll bars, bare metal and saddle leather.

Honestly? It’s weird. But it’s the kind of fascinating weird that has you debating whether you love or hate it, the perfect conversation piece. Or advertisement for a business that handles the projects to the left of centre. The next project is a roadgoing Mitsubishi Evo VI series built in conjunction with Tommi Mäkinen, low numbers in total, pretty much WRC spec but for the road. Something slightly closer to MEM’s heartland than the 914, but a delicious idea nonetheless. A car that hits people of a certain age square in the nostalgia, teeing up a head to head of restomodded roadgoing, heyday rally cars with the Prodrive P25. Though the prices involved will be eye watering.

All of this is why that little Porsche 914 feels so keen. This is not a design company that’s thrown cash at a set of mechanicals, but an engineering and motorsport company that’s allowed some freedom for its creative alter ego. You’re paying for over 40 years of experience, rather than fancy quilted leather. Although you can have that, too. And the best bit? The people at Fifteen Eleven Design, and by proxy Mellors Elliot, are warm, funny, welcoming. They’d make buying a car from them feel like being adopted by a slightly bonkers rally family. And that’s worth more than cash alone.

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This is what happens when you take Porsche's old school entry-level model and give it a not very entry-level upgrade