Paul Stephens Autoart 993R review

The car’s switchgear looks standard but reach for something like the indicator stalk and you find the cool, hard tactility of metal. What’s more, if you feel the back of the stalk you find it has been hollowed out to save weight. There are gaps elsewhere in the cabin too, with the deletion of the glovebox, centre console, electric windows and interior roof lights. Those absences lend it a feeling that’s lightweight, yet not austere.

Twist the key and the 3.8-litre flat-six starts easily with a nice amount of fanfare. In fact, sitting at traffic lights you’ll have just as much noise from the lightweight clutch and flywheel, the familiar rattly beat ramping up the RS ambience. Yet as you pull away, there is a surprising ease to the control weightings. Not a lightness – there is oodles of feedback – just nothing that feels too hardcore. Nothing that would make you question taking it out of the garage to pop into town or drive to a friend’s house a few hours away. A pure track day warrior it is not.

The bare figures are 330bhp and 265lb ft of torque in a car weighing 1220kg (wet). That’s about 60bhp up and 150kg down on a 993 Carrera 2 and 30bhp up and 50kg down on a 993 RS. The resultant power-to-weight ratio is just a fraction shy of a 996.2 GT3’s, a useful ballpark in which to frame the performance of the 993R. Plenty for the road. Certainly the Welsh roads I was on.

You can potter or you can press-on and the naturally aspirated engine will adapt its character to suit, adding a pleasing, rasping edge and volume when you crack the throttle wide open. The suspension too can be adapted to your mood too, thanks to the Tractive dampers with five settings, adjusted via a hidden switch down by your left knee.

It all comes together to feel very natural. Despite the myriad changes, it drives without any quirks or irritations. There is a lovely solidity to the whole build that means you soon feel at home and simply enjoy the drive. You can trust the car over bumps and feel the grip at the front end as you commit to corners. There is no slop or slack and yet there is also a polish to the whole experience.

I confess that initially I was expecting something more racy, perhaps because of the seats, wheel and those wing mirrors. I was thinking it would be more RS, but the longer I drove it the more I realised that I wasn’t going to uncover that ultimate RS rawness in any facet.

At first I thought there should have been a slightly shorter final drive to add a little more verve and allow me to use the sublime gearshift (with a bespoke, slightly longer lever) more frequently. But again, that wouldn’t be true to this particular car’s character. It would make it just that little bit compromised in its intended use.

And that’s the intriguing thing about all restomods; each one is someone else’s dream. This 993R is a particular customer’s vision. I would swap its 996.2 GT3 wheels for some more period BBS split rims (Paul later sent me a photoshop mock-up of what that would look like and it definitely improved the car, at least for me). I’d probably have the Tractive suspension configured so that the current softest was actually the middle of the five options, to give me an even more compliant range. You might want the rear seats left in. Or you might want normal mirrors. Or perhaps you’d long for the stronger 360bhp engine that Stephens is also offering. Or something at a different price point to this car’s £400k. Higher or lower, as Brucie used to say.

I’ve loved driving a lot of 911 restomods, but I don’t think I’ve ever driven one I wouldn’t want to tweak at least slightly. And that’s a large part of the appeal. Everyone’s idea of a Goldilocks variant of Porsche’s iconic rear-engined sports car is slightly different and, unlike a new GT3, where the decisions are basically trim, Touring and gearbox, the options for a restomod are essentially endless.

I still don’t know what I’d do if I had the money. The raw, raucous 1972 hotrod I drove from Workshop 5001 sticks in my mind as utterly glorious, but even there I’d have gone with skinnier tyres and a more playful set-up. And maybe it would be too much of a high days and holidays car? This 993R is appealing, but so is something from Tuthill Porsche. Having driven the Gunther Werks Speedster on a sunny day in California I can absolutely see why that might be someone’s ultimate.

And of all the restomod 911s I’ve tried, I’ve never got the impression that anyone is trying to copy anyone else. No one is trying to simply hop on a beautiful bandwagon driven by an ex-band member. A cursory glance might make it appear so in some cases, but dig deeper and actually none of them would be satisfied with another’s interpretation. The 911 is many things to many people, and there’s room for multiple visions of perfection.