British Alternative to Singer-Modified Porsches

From Road & Track

It's often forgotten.

Long before Rob Dickinson moved to California to create Singer Vehicle Design, a guy called Paul Stephens was already gaining a reputation in England with his Porsche 911 restomods. Perhaps his best work, the PS Lightweight R, is a 964 with an aluminum hood, mirrors, trunk lid, lightweight bumpers and a thinner rear screen for a weight figure of 2,689 lbs. Powered by a 330 horsepower 3.8 liter flat-six with a performance exhaust, it uses aluminum wishbones all round, as well as RS brakes and other go fast parts from the big boy part of Porsche's catalogue.

Over a decade later, Singer seems to be on a whole different level, coming up with cars such as the Williams-tuned, 500 horsepower Lightweight. But it's also worth noting that by the time one of Mr. Dickinson's reimagined 911s gets registered in a country other than the United States, the bill gets almost as long as Singer's waiting list:

With that in mind, a new British startup called Theon Design decided to go for a piece of that pie, mostly by coming up with carbon fiber 911s in England for less than half of Singer's base price. And this is its first "reimagined" 964-based prototype:

Theon will also do standard Porsche restorations, but if you opt for their upgraded line, your engine choices start with a stock, but fully rebuilt 3.6 with 285 horsepower, or 400 if you go supercharged. If screaming naturally-aspirated flat-sixes are your jam, there's also a mildly tuned stroked 3.8 with 350 horses, or a full blown four-liter with an RS crank producing 400 hp.

As usual, the donor cars required are 1989-94 Porsche 964s. They retain their VINs, but not much else, as Theon will strip them down to the pure metal. And once the body was got sorted, steel parts such as the fenders, the bumpers, the hood, the spoiler and the roof gets replaced by pre-preg carbon fiber panels.

Optional ceramic brakes, fully adjustable Öhlins dampers, a modified wiring loom for all the gadgets, double-stitched leather interior, or stereo delete and manual windows. Your choice, as always in this niche.

Too bad Tiff isn't a fan of vintage cars, even when they happen to be brand new.

Watch the video on YouTube here.

And from now on, just for legal reasons, please call it the Porsche 911 Reimagined by Theon Design.

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