Thornley Kelham European RS | PH Review

In the restomod world generally and most certainly the 911 sphere, you have to stand out. Something has to make your painstakingly re-engineered Porsche unique among the pack, to make it more worthy of spending hundreds of thousands on than the rest. Because let’s be honest: everyone from Kamm to Theon will make rear-engined Porsches that look fantastic and drive even better. For a company like Thornley Kelham, entering the arena with its European RS as restoration specialists rather than dedicated Porsche people, the task was a tough one. The solution? Performance. 

An existing client came to TK during lockdown with an idea, the sort of mad ones we all had during lock-in but precious few of which came to fruition. He had a 997 GT3 RS 4.0, and wanted an old 911 made just as fast. But not just with silly short gearing; same sort of ratios, just with a lot less weight and not very much less power. Hence the European RS weighs little more than a tonne with just about 400hp. More than four hundred is possible, too. To hell with the delicate, dainty old 911s – this thing is a proper hot rod build.

It definitely looks it, evoking the old school but with a more modern take on proportions. It’s so wide, so low, so aggressive, almost square in its stance, really channelling the RSR and various wild 911s from back in the day. However, this being a restomod rather than pure race car, there are some lovely details as well, including underbonnet bracing, the carbon skinned doors that feel as light as hymn sheets and the titanium rocket launcher finishers for the Inconel exhaust. The engine bay itself is a complete masterpiece. There will always be those that prefer the narrow-bodied look, this being perhaps a bit too SoCal for them; nevertheless, there’s no doubting the enormous effort and craftsmanship that’s gone into it. Each detail works with every other, and the considerable body modifications are first-rate. If you’re buying into a European RS, you’re buying into this hand-built expertise, and it really is just as impressive up close. Even if it is possible to have too much dish on a wheel. 

The inside of this example is glorious, devoid of pretty much anything – buyers can have infotainment and air con – bar a pair of fantastic sports seats, a Momo Prototipo wheel, a windscreen still a bit closer than feels comfortable and a nicely exposed gear mechanism sprouting from the floor. As this sub-niche of backdated sports cars becomes more associated with monogrammed floormats or cashmere-lined gloveboxes or whatever else is being conjured up this week, to have such a basic but beautiful interior is welcome. This European RS has been designed with early morning blasts up the Alps in mind, and the driving environment looks perfectly catered to it, with no distractions and all the important stuff done well. A bit like the windscreen, the driving position is slightly offset, but an old 911 without that would almost be like having one without a flat-six.

Such is the attention to detail of the build that even the wub-wub-wub of the idle has been designed, ensuring a motorsport feel from the off. And where later 911s ensure that feeling ebbs away fairly quickly, the RS seems like every inch the road racer with unassisted steering and a tricky clutch. You don’t have to concentrate on every mile so much as every manoeuvre. That being said, the European RS never feels gratuitously hard work; it’s just a raw and unapologetic old sports car, albeit one that’s now faster than many new ones. Relax into the inputs a little more and it comes to you, the steering fairly joyous (if always weighty) above walking speed as it reacts to surface and load, the immediacy of the engine addictive when feet and hands are timed properly. 

Like so many great cars of this genre, the Thornley Kelham car is vividly alive at distinctly ordinary speeds. The flat-six is ever present, chuntering and gurgling and buzzing away, the steering always saying something and the ride on JRZ coilovers taut to say the least. This is actually fully rose-jointed now, with no rubber in the bushings, so it’s definitely a busy road experience, though one that just stops short of overwhelming. More a Sunday Service car than a Sunday lunch one: effervescent, keen and athletic even in situations that are anything but. 

Opportunities to drive the RS a bit faster are utterly absorbing – there can’t be much with a roof and supposedly less than 400hp more thrilling. The engine maybe doesn’t scream like a Mezger flat-six, but the metallic, raucous, booming howl as it nears 8,000rpm is almost as exciting. To feel a car this compact and light accelerate so ferociously is addictive, too, hurled along by the torque at middling revs and feral by peak power at 7,700rpm or so. If the front end loses purchase, the steering has already told you; a G50 ‘box that’s not as cooperative as later Porsche manuals is better and better with work; the firmness of the coilovers means this 911 changes direction like it’s mid-engined. If you drive well (or as well as you can), the TK will just keep on rewarding; that initial torrent of sound and immersion merely gives way to proper depth and resolve. That there seems so much to learn about how to get the best from it is what will keep owners occupied and hugely entertained for years to come.

One or two things weren’t quite perfect, however. Personally, the ceramic brakes fitted here were a tad too sensitive; there wasn’t the feel to confidently judge smaller inputs on the road. Probably those who tried it on track – or indeed for its intended use as a weekend warrior – will find it less of a concern. Similarly, having Michelin Cup 2s on what is still an old 911 feels a tad like overkill. Maybe a car that looks fit for a historic Porsche championship should prioritise grip at all costs; for road use of any kind, the standard Pilot Sport 4 would likely be just fine to get a bit more of that old 911 experience back. Here you simply don’t worry about weight distribution and turn in, coaxing the best from the layout – this Porsche just does it. 

A suspicion therefore lingers: how far can you go in overhauling a classic 911 while still keeping the old 911-ness? Particularly when working with Carreras and the like from before the 964; this is another universe from those standard cars. The flat-six still yowls and the steering still wrestles you on occasion, but there are elements that begin to feel like modern tech made to work with an old car rather than being the most subtly integrated improvements. Surely a risk with a 997 4.0 as the target. And there’s no denying it’s flippin fast. On the other hand, there’s no reason every European RS has to be the same; this one is very deliberately hardcore, and delivers uncompromising, undeniable, unforgettable thrills. A slightly softer approach – this still has RS in the name, after all – would likely appeal to the more traditionally minded. Either way, the quality of work on display here from Thornley Kelham is second to none, and there won’t be a day on PH where 8,000rpm, sub-1,100kg 911s aren’t celebrated. The European RS is another fantastic old Porsche hot rod – the owner’s lockdown dream is even more exhilarating in reality.

Engine: 3.8-litre flat-six
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 390@7,700rpm
Torque (lb ft): 290@6,000rpm
0-62mph: c. 4.0secs
Top speed: N/A
Weight: 1,070kg (with full tank)
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
Price: ‘in the region of $750,000’ (currently £583,000; exact price depends on spec)