964 3.8 Restomod
It’s the £140,000 964 enhanced for fast road and track driving, but is it worth the money? Total 911 assesses the merits of RPM Technik’s most comprehensive air-cooled build yet
Our sole narrow-bodied car of the issue is a thrilling 3.8-litre hot rod from RPM Technik – is it better than a factory RS?
Aroad car. A race car. An engineer’s car. The 911, more than any other car, is a product of continual automotive evolution. Porsche’s enhancements have kept it relevant for the road, competitive on the track and have cemented its reputation as the enthusiast’s car of choice. That evolution isn’t just limited to Porsche itself; an entire industry out there takes 911s backwards and forwards in time, improving, re-imagining, personalising.
The 911 is an eminently adaptable basis upon which owners can build the car they want from it.
With this 964, that’s exactly what RPM Technik has done for its owner Ian Humphris. The idea was for a fast road car that could be track driven, adding contemporary performance while being respectful to the classic feel and engagement a 964 brings. Using a Carrera 2 as its basis, the build process has been meticulous, seeking improvements in every area, this now a 964 that can run with its more recent GT department relations, yet offers a driving bandwidth that enables it to be enjoyed on the road, too.
Of all the many branches of 911 evolution and sub-species, this visceral, exciting 964 arguably represents the most appealing opportunity for perfecting and personalising, taking a tired Carrera and reviving it as a car that can be enjoyed. Its performance absolutely eclipses a 964 RS that you’d be too scared to drive. What RPM and Humphris have created is the perfect riposte to a zeitgeist where vehicular value takes president over the value of driving itself.
PART 1: on TRACK
It’s a sunny day at Bedford Autodrome, our track time exclusively reserved for RPM Technik’s 964 3.8. Owner Humphris likes his cars too: there’s a 997
GT3 RS in his garage, alongside some other special machinery, but it’s the 964 he’s animated about.
It’s obviously not standard, but to the uninformed could just be a neat, small, red Porsche 911. Its lowered stance could be missed, its split-rim BBS alloys less so. Humphris admits that they’re his road wheels, having a set of Cup 17-inch wheels with some cut slicks for serious track work. There are subtle hints to its revisions visually then, the black-rimmed headlight surrounds an RSR nod, the small lip splitter a neat addition under the front bumper.
There’s no surprises seeing the brake intakes on the front bumper, though they’re framed by darker indicator lenses. These, like those headlight surrounds, contrast perfectly with the red bodywork. Around the back the build follows the same understated enhancement route, this 964 retaining a single exhaust pipe, though the engine cover suggests that single pipe is attached to something a little bit different from the norm. The sticker, not badge, says 3.8 R, a model that’s entirely of its owner’s making, and justifiably so. Specification or naming purists be damned, this is a car that defines purity, a car built for an individual, with their – and only their – ambition and goals for it driving the entire project.
That’s what’s so special: a car that’s personal in concept and execution. Sure, Humphris isn’t alone in wanting a fast road and track car. Indeed, RPM is making a business out of making exactly that with its 996 CSR, such cars creating an undeniably interesting pool of ownership expectations and use. Let’s refrain from calling it market, because this 964 is the antithesis of that. It’s not been built with an eye on potential monetary value, it’s not a commodity, its worth being in the ownership, build process and enjoyment when you get in and actually drive it.
There’s a track out there, and Humphris chucks us the keys and says to go and give it everything. We’re not about to argue. Getting in, it’s apparent the level of detail and considered enhancements outside have been echoed in the interior. It’s beautifully finished, Alcantara covering most surfaces to give it a competition feel, but fitted more precisely than it would ever be if it were a car built solely for chasing the chequered flag and podium places.
Pole Position Recaro bucket seats, the go-to and, frankly, unsurpassed MOMO Porsche Motorsport three-spoke steering wheel with a yellow top marker stitched into the Alcantara rim, Schroth Racing sixpoint harnesses hung off a half cage, Rs-style door cards with red door pulls and a fire extinguisher underline the focussed, track vibe. There’s Porsche Classic Nav for the drives that don’t involve painted curbs, one-way traffic and those cut slicks. Likewise, Humphris points to the cupholder, where the cassettes would once have been stowed, as useful, particularly as the engine build necessitated the deletion of the air-conditioning.
That engine! RPM’S Ollie Preston talks us through its build, retaining the same block as the base Carrera, but the internals have been revised. The bottom end has been lightened and balanced with custom rods, while forged Mahle 3.8-litre pistons and cylinders, a big valve flowed head and 964 Rsr-style inlet with throttle bodies and a magnesium plenum chamber now form the spec. Carbon fibre ducting, a serpentine belt conversion, coil packs, a custom RPM Technik loom and Motec engine management system also feature. The net result? 351hp and 381Nm of torque, that peak power delivered at 7,000rpm, peak torque fairly high up the rev range, but not to the detriment of drivability. Both Preston and Humphris say they could have put on a more aggressive cam, but that would have detracted from the engine’s flexibility, making it too hardcore and compromised for use away from the track.
The suspension uses KW Variant 3 dampers. Preston admits that they work beautifully here, offer real longevity too, and provide the right balance for the mixed use that this 964 was built for. The shell should be stiffer, thanks to the fitment of that cage, and the re-skinning of the roof with a carbon fibre panel when RPM took out the sunroof during the strip back to bare metal. There’s no power steering, but this is no hardship with so little mass, and with more of it at the rear than the nose, the steering’s no effort even at slow speeds. It’s alive, that Alcantara rim conveying all the detail of the surface, available grip and the sharpness of the turn-in.
The front end on this 964 is more accurate than any other I’ve driven, RSS included, the faithfulness of its response, the weighting and communication from the steering one being one of the biggest draws. It’s offered up whether you’re turning it into a fast third or fourth gear corner, or negotiating the slow entry into a first gear hairpin. That alone would be interesting enough with stock levels of output, but the 3.8 R offers so much more.
Retaining the traits of any well-sorted 964, only elevated and enhanced further, the traction on offer is fantastic, which when allied to the ample power and torque on offer makes this a wickedly quick car. Its compact dimensions only increase that feeling, the cabin filling with a gloriously evocative flat-six sound, liberated by its freer-breathing M&M exhaust, the thinner RS carpeting and the lack of back seats.
Humphris says he loves that it’s so alive, that it wriggles when you push it and that as a driver you can make a bigger difference than in his more modern cars. He’s not wrong: the 964 rewards
smoothness, revelling in being well driven, each input getting a corresponding, unfiltered output, its faithfulness to your inputs meaning even if you get it wrong there’s the opportunity to sort it out.
Fast enough too, that you don’t need to go any quicker to have more fun, the reward here being in exploiting what you’ve got. This engages and demands in equal measure, which is an enormous part of its appeal. A car you learn, each lap being exploratory, revealing each time where you can make gains, that part of the input to reward ratio that’s skewed in more modern machinery, but so perfectly balanced here. It’s little wonder that in the 3,500 or so miles it’s covered since it was built a good number have been on the track, but the brief demanded more, so we’re off for a drive on the road, and we’ve got some stellar company to help us.
PART 2: on the ROAD
As driving companions go, we’ll happily take Porsche’s first Le Mans winner, Richard Attwood. That’s a decent pay-off for the change in seasons, August morphing into December since I last drove the 3.8 R, with a corresponding shift in temperature and conditions with it. If we were already slightly concerned that the 3.8 R might prove a little bit compromised on the road in the summer, the cold, damp roads around RPM Technik’s HQ make for a tough challenge for any car, let alone one that’s got track driving in its expansive brief.
Attwood’s visiting RPM, and his curiosity in the 964 3.8 R build gets the better of him. He’ll join us, and given that Le Mans win was in a 917, a 351hp
964 should be a cinch. He’s inextricably linked with Porsche since his Le Mans success, having worked with Porsche customers for over 40 years. Not many drivers with CVS like Attwood still take the time to work with drivers, but between classic races and suchlike Attwood can be found at the Porsche Experience Centre, Silverstone, sat alongside customers on driving experience days.
Attwood admits it’s about being “swift and smooth,” that being evident when he gets into the 3.8 R. Despite his preference for automatics, he’s a big advocate of heel and toe shifting, regaling a tale as we drive for pictures of being surprised by a customer at Silverstone who did exactly that. Curious as to why, Attwood asked, only to be told he’d suggested it to him a few years earlier. With Porsches and various other road and race cars at his disposal, Attwood’s preferred road wheels are depreciation-hit motors, winding galactic miles onto cars and running them forever. His current Audi A8 is as far removed from the 3.8 R, then, but he admits to liking it: “I think this’ll be more fun on the road than the track.”
Attwood’s got a point. Even if on track the 3.8 R was hugely entertaining, here the 964 feels even more rapid. Part of the 964’s appeal, and those 911s before it, is its width. Its narrow, 1,650mm width is tiny in comparison to modern 911s, and is 200mm narrower than Humphris’ 997.2 GT3 RS. The 964 might be 100hp shy of its newer relation, but it’s got so much more road to play with, and shifting around 150kg less bulk doesn’t hurt, either. Those KW Variant 3 coilovers prove their worth, demonstrating that the taut control they allowed on track doesn’t come with big compromises on the road.
That’s not to say it’s perfect, but any car would struggle to manage on the bucking, underfunded
surfaces that pass for roads around RPM’S base. That the 3.8 R is able to use its power here is testament to the sophistication of the wheel and body control that suspension brings, but the nastiest crests do see the Pilot Sport Michelins relinquish their traction as the rear lightens under acceleration exiting a dip. That it’s so easily collected reveals that the car’s limits aren’t to be feared – respected, yes, given the lack of any electronic stability or traction aids, but only as might be prudent given the slick, undulating tarmac and a 3.8-litre flat-six developing 351hp.
If the steering and the front axle’s response was the defining factor on the track, it’s the engine that dominates more on the road. Yes, there’s delicacy to the steering here, delivering the same fine weighting, quick faithful turn-in and rich feel, but without the expansive openness of a track the engine’s performance feels so much more impressive. There’s more opportunity to explore the a wider spread of its performance, using lower revs, being lazy with the shift in traffic and having it lug from in a high gear, the linear urge that it delivers surprising given the rather racer-like specification its build sheet suggests.
There’s real tractability, it giving ample urge at low revs, building strongly through and above 3,0005,000rpm before offering a crescendo to the top end that’s as rich in its voice as it is forceful in its urgency. It’s a special engine, with appeal at every point in its rev range, the gearbox the means by which to pick your point and enjoy it. The shift’s good – better, as Attwood favours, when applied with some fancy footwork and blipping for downshifts. Rolling off the brake is no issue either: they’re 964 RS items, with an additional 12 volt pump in the engine to help the servo assistance under more extreme track work.
That it’s so good on the road comes as a surprise – I had expected greater compromises, particularly as it was so capable when pushed hard on track. That’s a difficult balance to achieve, but one that’s been done masterfully. This or a 964 RS? I’d have this car hands down, not least because by being built to a personal specification it’s not considered a treasure. If that’s not what the 911 is all about then I don’t know what is. It’s a shame that the opportunity to undertake such builds is diminishing, as it’s to the detriment of why we all love these cars in the first place.