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Retro

This is a 400bhp lightweight, air-cooled restomod 964 Porsche 911

Theon Design restores an old Porsche for a new customer in Italy. Grazie mille

Published: 22 Mar 2023

Buona giornata, amici, for today we get to see yet another fully restored classic Porsche 911. It is the work of Oxfordshire-based outfit Theon Design; an old car transformed for a new customer in Italy. And long story short, it is piuttosto stupendo.

Dubbed ‘ITA001’, it takes the 964 as its base. We’re told the donor car was stripped right back to bare metal before being fully restored and replenished with a full carbon body. Indeed each panel was digitised and 3D-modelled for a perfect fit.

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Perfect weight as a result, too. TD tells us the ITA001 weighs just 1,152kg, or about the same as a fully laden American breakfast. Which means the reworked 4.0-litre air-cooled flat-six should make mincemeat of the traffic-light GP.

Said flat-six has been treated to a drive-by-wire throttle promising a “razor-sharp response”, along with independent throttle bodies, a high-performance intake plenum lifted from the 997 GT3 and a dual mass flywheel for a piccolo segno of civility.

As such, the car makes a mighty 400bhp and 315lb ft of torque, sent to the rear wheels via an original 993 RS-spec limited slip diff and six-speed gearbox. The exhaust is a ‘switchable’ ceramic-coated setup. Should sound… fruttato.

Theon has fitted five-stage adaptive dampers to the Italian 964, along with a hydraulic nose-lift system to help out over kerbs, along with other goodies like an “aerospace-grade” wiring loom, modern air-conditioning compressors and a new electric power-steering pump. The latter two have been moved to the front of the car, positioned low down.

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It’s been finished in black, set off by 18in Fuchs wheels, while inside there’s ‘tobacco’ brown leather and Recaro ‘touring’ seats up front and the rear bucket seats for the Porsche 928. Big Bluetooth stereo too.

Obviously this is a totally bespoke one-off, so there’s no mention of the exact price, but we know that Theon Design’s commissions typically start from £380,000, or what you might simply term grande.

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