911S WITH PASSION
PS Autoart retromod 911 shootout
The greatest hits from 15 years of Hot Rod Porsche perfection
Paul Stephens has been building his own take on hot-rodded Porsches for 17-years now. From a quick SC backdate, to full, bespoke builds of the very highest quality, he has moved the game to new highs. We bring together the very first, the very latest and the highlights inbetween
Time flies, does it not. A chat with Porschephile Paul Stephens on all things aircooled and rear engined and he reminded me that I was the first journo to ever drive one of his eponymous PS Autoart cars. Indeed it was the first PS Autoart machine. 'How long ago was that' I mused? Cue some collective head scratching, pondering and basic number crunching. “It was 2005, so 14 years ago, although the first car was built in 2004” cried Paul triumphantly. “I remember the front cover: white PS 240C and blue PS 280R (later renamed 300R). That was the second car based on a 964, But it was actually 2002, when I first ran the idea past you, that we were considering the possibility of backdating a 964.” Sure, I remembered, but 17 years ago? Really?
Yes, really, and there's no point in fighting it. Driving the two PS cars for that front cover feature in 911&PW was my first gig for the mag, but I had met Paul a few years earlier purely as a Porsche buying punter. He sold me a lovely Carrera 3.2 – a lefthooker Swiss import – for £11,995 in 2002. Read that and weep. I know I am.
But hey, that's all in the past. What about now? Paul is still building amazing Porsches. He's a brand even, and his latest Le Mans Classic Clubsport is the current culmination of his Porsche obsession. And
then the penny drops. Why not get the band back together? Get that very first car and a few in between for a group test and top it off with the very latest Le Mans and Clubsport Series cars? Why not indeed.
Fast forward to mid-october and the last day of an epic summer, when temps will nudge 70deg. Outside Paul's Suffolk/essex border emporium in the still chilly early morning and six Porsche hot rods are pumping white heat into the cold atmosphere against a clattering, chuntering flat-six soundtrack. This is going to be a fun day. I'm at the wheel of that first car, at the back of the queue and best placed for the noisy departure as we head out on to the road. Clutches drop, revs rise, rear's squat and the show hits the road.
Car No1? It's exactly how I remember it. Low slung retro bucket seat, thick-rimmed Mota-lita steering wheel, four-point harnesses, ankle biting, floor protruding pedals, twangy 915 gearshift and raucous, rabble-rousing noise from the 240bhp rear. Resto mods, retro rods, backdaters – there have been many monikers over the years, and for sure the market has evolved and matured, but this 240C captures what the market was all about in 2005. Which was? Well, ostensibly it was about taking largely unloved, undateable and unsaleable 911s of the impact bumper generation and giving them a new lease of life and image. Under the white and orange of hot rod No1, there was once a bronze 911SC with a brown Pasha interior, that was worth about £7000 of no one's money.
240C is the distant ancestor to the Le Mans Classic Clubsport. Its ethos was all about less is more, the ease of the conversion and making it cost-effective for a very formative market. Just how much were folk willing to pay? Now, we know there is effectively no upper limit for this sort of stuff, but back then £40,000 was the figure that I scribbled and that was all in. But it's all relative, when a donor car was £7k. Now, of course, folk wouldn't think twice of spending £40k on a donor car. The market has moved on. Indeed, there is no real talk of donor cars, just complete cars. New cars even, because that's what we're talking about now.
PS Autoart build No1 has passed through a few hands, but it has always remained local. Its current owner has an impressive collection of Porsches, but this is the car he uses the most, and largely for track days. Its underpinnings and mildly modded engine remain much the same as when I first got behind the wheel and it feels tough, unburstable and endearingly rough around the edges.