There are cars you drive, and then there are cars that drive straight into your soul. When we came across this Theon Design Porsche 911, we knew we had to create an editorial about it. This is the first car ever produced by British Theon Design for the U.S. market and is numbered USA001. Theon’s Porsche 911 restomods aren’t just cars; they are philosophical statements about what happens when British engineering expertise meets the air-cooled perfection of a German Porsche.
This particular car is finished in midnight blue, features a 4.0-liter flat-six engine that produces 410 horsepower, and is equipped with a 993 RS six-speed transmission, which channels fury to the rear wheels. This amplifies everything brilliant about the classic 911 without losing that visceral analog character.
Where it All Begins
Theon Design joins an exclusive club of Porsche reimaginers who've elevated restomodding—restoring and modifying—to what we can only call art. This is how you transform a 1990 964 C4 3.6-liter air-cooled Porsche into a vintage-looking car unlike any other.
Singer Vehicle Design pioneered this movement, transforming air-cooled 911s into million-dollar masterpieces with obsessive attention to detail, albeit in a more extravagant manner. Gunther Werks pushes performance boundaries with carbon-intensive builds, while RUF—a manufacturer since 1981—continues creating ground-up interpretations. Danish Kalmar Automotive focuses on lightweight design, and numerous others, including Paul Stephens and Tuthill Porsche, contribute unique perspectives.
Restrained Aesthetics: Every Detail Counts
What distinguishes Theon Design is its British approach: motorsport-derived engineering wrapped in restrained aesthetics, creating cars that are equally at home attacking Welsh mountain roads or Texas FM Roads in the middle of the Hill Country. Every aspect and detail of this car, from the red fuel cap to the grey rubber splash guard on the fuel tank door flap, and even the leather finishes on the trunk and engine compartment, go beyond anyone’s imagination and show how far Theon Design can go.
From the moment you settle into the car cabin, you realize this isn't just a restored 911—it's reimagined. Even the smell of its all-leather interior and sports touring seats—in midnight blue and Ibis white—is simply captivating. The carbon-kevlar wide-body panels—and even the sideboards—, except for the doors, which retain their original metal construction, create weight savings that transform the driving dynamics.
Most components, including the air conditioning and power steering, are relocated to the front under the trunk space. The brushed aluminum accents in the interior extend to the pedals, dashboard, and interior door handles.
The Power Within
As you start the engine, you feel the 4.0-liter engine erupt to life with a growl that sends shivers and goosebumps all over your body. This isn't the fine-tuned sound of modern turbocharged engines; this is raw mechanical boost—the sound of individual throttle bodies gulping air, of precisely machined components spinning at impossible velocities.
The transformation becomes visceral when you engage first gear in that magnificent 993 RS transmission. Every input translates immediately into action, every squeeze of the throttle met with an urgent surge. The gearbox is a work of art—each shift perfectly weighted, each gate defined with mechanical precision, begging you to extract every last revolution before snicking into the next gear with precision that sounds like Swiss watchmaking feels when you activate the chronograph on that Rolex Cosmograph Daytona.
Currently mounted on 18-inch wheels, the car hunkers down with an aggressive stance that hints at the performance lurking beneath that carbon fiber skin. But like any proper enthusiast's car, there's a second set waiting—seventeen-inch alternatives that pay homage to classic Fuchs wheels while allowing for slightly taller sidewalls, providing more compliance without sacrificing razor-sharp handling.
What makes this build special is the philosophy embedded in its creation. While ABS keeps you from stepping over the edge when braking hard, beyond that singular safety net, you're on your own. No traction control, no stability control. This is a driver's car in its purest form—a machine that demands respect, rewards skill, and punishes complacency.
The 4.0-liter engine represents the perfect balance between displacement and character. This motor delivers 410 horsepower with linear power delivery that builds relentlessly as the tachometer needle sweeps toward redline. There's no turbo lag—just progressive acceleration that rewards commitment. The engine breathes through individual throttle bodies, providing immediate response, and the exhaust note produces a mechanical symphony that ranges from a burbling idle to a full-throated wail at 7,500 rpm, evoking the sound of racing history come to life.
The 993 RS transmission is more than just a gearbox—it's critical to the driving experience. Lifted directly from Porsche's homologation special, this six-speed manual represents the pinnacle of naturally aspirated 911 development. The ratios are perfectly spaced, the shifter mechanism precise enough to make double-clutch downshifts an absolute joy. Working through the gears, matching revs on downshifts, squeezing every last moment from each ratio before the engine note rises to that urgent pitch—this is deeply satisfying analog interaction.
If You Know You Know
This is a car for the serious enthusiast who understands that the best machines aren't necessarily the fastest or most technologically advanced, but those that create the richest driving experiences. Like a perfectly crafted mechanical watch, this Theon Design restomod represents the pinnacle of analog engineering—thousands of precisely machined components working in perfect harmony.
Paired with something equally purposeful, like a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 116500LN, this car, makes a statement about values. It suggests that you value craftsmanship over convenience, involvement over isolation, and the journey over the destination.
In an era when even sports cars isolate drivers behind layers of electronic intervention, this Theon Design 911 restomod stands as a defiant reminder of what we're losing. It's not perfect—it's loud, requires skill to drive quickly, and offers none of the conveniences we've come to expect. But when the road opens up, when the engine is singing at seven thousand rpm, when you're perfectly balanced mid-corner—this car delivers something no modern supercar can match: pure, unfiltered joy.
This is automotive art as functional sculpture. Like the finest mechanical watches, it's a celebration of human ingenuity and craftsmanship. Every time that 4.0-liter flat-six roars to life, you're reminded why we seek out these special machines—why the pursuit of pure, analog perfection is worth whatever it costs. And most likely, if you are a Porsche enthusiast, you are also a mechanical watch enthusiast.
This restmod typically takes approximately 18 months to complete, with 6,000 hours of that time dedicated just to the cabin. The starting price for the project is USD 590,000, to which you must add the costs of the donor car, shipping, and taxes.
More info on Theon Design here.
