Classic Porsche drops in on Workshop Seventy7 to learn what makes them tick
Based within the hub of the UK’S automotive industry, Workshop Seventy7 is tailor-making world-class 911 hot rods with an eye for preserving a classic character. Having outgrown their original unit, word of mouth is spreading quickly…
Strategically placed as far from Britain’s coastline as possible, out of reach of invading forces, the weathered brickwork of the Royal Ordnance Depot in Northamptonshire is a site steeped in history. Built in 1802, it was a storage and manufacturing base for arms and equipment during a period spanning the Napoleonic conflict and two World Wars, and was even earmarked as a safe haven for the Royals should the worst happen. Today, it’s finding a new significance; an arsenal of bespoke resto-mod builds executed within new tenant Workshop Seventy7. It’s an everbroader church, with an ever-broader reputation.
For co-founder, David Lane, the founding ethos was simple: ‘We only work on cool cars for cool people,’ he tells us, over the workshop bustle behind us. ‘I’m not in this to make a ton of cash, the idea was we’d have a good time and enjoy coming to work. Sometimes I’ll be here on a Saturday and the guys will be in the workshop – they’ll say they were bored, they wanted to come down. Dan always says it’s like Lego, for big kids.’
Although the business stemmed from a life-long love of cars, it’s a new departure for David. Born in South Africa, he’d founded a shop racing and selling parts for motocross bikes before moving to the UK as a management consultant working with blue chip companies. But his creative side really came out with a new venture restoring old houses, fostering a connection and appreciation for the character of the buildings he was working on. Looking back, it’s perhaps unsurprising that there’s an architectural significance to where he’s based now.
Workshop Seventy7 came about almost by chance, he says. Stopped in his tracks by a Singer-style 911 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, David suddenly found himself with a Porsche hot rod-shaped hole in his life and began
hunting for the right partners to help fill that gap. The process was one he’d been familiar with restoring houses, but the relationships behind it opened some new doors. Exposed to the style and culture of the air-cooled Porsche scene, and suddenly finding himself with a couple of trusted motorsport technicians in need of new jobs, they decided to set up on their own.
The Depot was ideal. Sympathetically converted to offices and workshops, there’s a thriving and diverse community of businesses now resident on site. Not only would it put
David’s fledgling venture within easy reach of good transport links, but it sited the company right at the heart of Northampton’s motorsport and automotive hub, nurtured by the nearby Silverstone circuit. In other words, it would put a network of useful contacts on its doorstep to keep prospective clients’ projects moving.
‘There are only a few buildings here suitable for cars, so I put my name on the list,’ he says. ‘I spoke to a guy who had a nearly 1000 square foot unit and asked him if it would be possible to rent it on a temporary basis, month by month. He obliged, and we opened a week later doing a few jobs on classic cars. It happened really quickly.’
The business didn’t take long to outgrow its original home: Unit 77, if you’re wondering where the name came from. The full spectrum of work is undertaken in and via the workshop, from bolt-on upgrades through to bespoke builds involving bare metal bodywork, the latter coming under the ‘Oshe Design’ moniker. Pronounced ‘osher’, after the
African god of thunder, Oshe builds are ground-up reimaginings of classic cars adopting modern technology to suit their owners’ requirements. But, David stresses, they’re also carefully preserving as much of the original character as possible.
‘A friend educated me on the whole culture of Porsche, and I’ve tried to borrow some of those ideas while also working with what I’ve got,’ he explains. ‘That’s always been my design ethos, I think, with houses it was to use what’s there as opposed to just completely reinventing it and breaking it down. With this, it’s taking what’s there fundamentally, using that and building something unique.
‘To be perfectly honest, I didn’t like the backdate element as much as some people do. It’s very popular, I can see why people do it, but I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to engineer that classic element out of it.’
It’s clearly resonated with the community. Having reached its original capacity, Workshop Seventy7 now resides in Building 14 at the Depot, offering 4500 square feet of floor space and the flexibility to take on more projects. There is enough space for 14 cars in the glossfloored unit, with three ramps, a mobile lift and a ‘dirty bay’, which can be enclosed behind curtains. Nearby former munitions stores allow for spare parts to be stored securely to keep the workshop itself clear. In turn, it’s brought more of the outsourced work in-house – most recently adding an on-site trimmer to the list.
Porsches are a recurring theme here, but it’s not a onemarque shop. There’s an obvious classic German car bias to the customer base, with a stacklight Mercedes-benz on air suspension and a Mk1 Scirocco lined up alongside multiple air-cooled 911s when we visited. But visitors are becoming more diverse, with a 1948 Jaguar Mark IV and an in-progress Oshe Design Alfa Romeo GTV build sharing the shop floor, while social media has brought in enquiries from as far away as South Africa.
Word of mouth counts for a lot, but David stresses that the bigger workshop isn’t just about numbers. ‘(Clients) need to gather a level of trust, there’s hundreds of horror stories where people have had cars built and it stalls, then they’re under a dust cover with a couple of wheels on the roof and it
hasn’t moved for two and a half years… It’s important that every project we build has a continuous degree of momentum,’ he says.
Trust is crucial behind the scenes, too, given that not everything takes place on site. The build is a consultative process, and cars are stripped and reassembled in-house, with the myriad jobs and partners involved co-ordinated by Workshop Seventy7. A reputation for high quality means third-party companies such as Cobra are happy to supply bespoke seats, leather is coming from Muirhead, while bodywork is often diverted to spend time among the priceless cars at Normandales, and engines are overhauled at David Knight Engineering. Built to a brief, no two builds are alike, but David’s input and a like-minded client base means there’s a common thread running through them.
‘I’ve had a few people inquire about building an Oshe 911 project for them, and they’ve asked the price,’ he says. ‘We don’t have a price list – that depends on what they want, the budget, their requirements and desires, but also the state of the base car. These cars have been around for 40–60 years, so they’ve got a lot of road wear on them.
‘There are some design elements I would like to put into any Oshe car. It’s probably more of a hot rod, I don’t think an
Oshe build is stock. They’re light weight to a certain degree and need to be very ‘streetable’ – a catchphrase everybody says now, but I think it’s important. Have you driven race cars on the road? They’re some of the worst driving experiences of my life…’
Of course, it’s a creative process with its own challenges. David says ‘difficult’ is easy to accommodate, and mid-build changes to the spec are common as the client’s ideas evolve. If anything, it’s an expected hurdle for a team who have all built their own projects, and David believes it’s a reason why good relationships with the customer are vital. If they’ve got new ideas to bring to the table, he’s only too happy to discuss them out of hours. It’s a perk of sharing his hobby with the people he builds cars for – after all, that’s the seed of the whole venture.
‘There’s a purity to a classic cars, I suppose, there’s no fussiness,’ he says. ‘If you see someone in a supercar – someone pitches up in a 720S or something, it’s cool, but it’s something they’ve just bought. There’s something very distinctive about being in a classic car; they smell a little bit of petrol, they leave grease on your jeans, and I love that. When you see a guy in a classic car, you think he’s a cool guy. It’s different,’ he explains. We’d be inclined to agree.