All is not as it seems under the skin

This the Autoart 993R by Porsche specialist Paul Stephens. But you knew that already because you’ve read our review. Quick recap if clicking a link is just too much: it’s based on the narrow-body 993 and the mission statement was ’25 per cent better… everywhere’. The main aim is driving machine, not glamourpuss, to imagine how a 993R would have performed if Porsche had done it themselves back in the mid-90s.

Now, what isn’t immediately clear and we didn’t have room for in the review is just how much work goes into the car both underneath and hidden in plain sight. Simply put there were too many corking little details and cool snippets, so here’s a highlights reel.

It’s everywhere, from the Porsche motorsport aluminium bonnet to the bespoke composite engine lid (8kg including the spoiler). The door mirrors weigh just 250 grams per side, and the list of deletions is long and includes electric windows, central locking, door grab handles, the glovebox, airbag, audio and even the interior roof courtesy lights. Plus all the associated wiring. It weighs just 1220kg, and that’s a wet weight, full of fuel and 50kg down on an original 993 Carrera RS.

The rims are from the 996 GT3 RS. They’re fitted over the 993 RS brake discs and calipers, so it wasn’t the diameter that made Paul Stephens use them. It was the width. He wanted the bigger tyre contact patch (10mm wider front and rear) and wider offset. However, in order for those wheels to have clearance inside the arches he needed more space, so the arches were rolled. And yeah, the resulting stance is perfect. Don’t like the wheels? They can fit others.

“Porsche door pulls are a bugbear of mine,” Stephen tells me, “the plastic rosettes the fabric loop is mounted in always come off.” So he’s replaced the plastic with aluminium. But it’s hard to tell, as he wanted it to look like the original. Yes, machined aluminium designed to look like plastic.

Almost all the switchgear that was plastic in the original is now aluminium, from the heater controls to the window winders. Just one thing about that. Stephens insisted the aluminium parts couldn’t be heavier than the plastic he was throwing in the bin. So the aluminium has all been milled out. The only place you get a sense of this is the column stalks, which are hollow backed. Aluminium is not only tactile, it’s also stiff, so the controls operate with more precision. And of course they’re anodised black so it all looks original.

Lovely cabin, isn’t it? Pure and driver focused. Aluminium pedals, natch. But see the little lip on the side of the throttle? That’s been put there to make it easier to heel and toe. And look how clean the footwell is. No dangling wires – partly because a lot have been removed, but mainly because Stephens has ensured it looks cleaner and tidier in out-of-the-way spots than it ever did when it left the factory. The knee-level dash roll across the cabin? Yep, that’s all new and bespoke to help maintain that clean aesthetic.

“We could have done a carbon roof, and it might have saved a little more weight, but I was more interested in stiffness, and a bonded carbon insert doesn’t add stiffness.” So the steel roof panel is seam welded to the monocoque. The rain channels are removed (a trick used on the Porsche 959) for a smoother finish, which also happens to reduce wind noise.

Paul Stephens will also offer a Touring version without the rollcage. It’s why the rear of this car is so beautifully trimmed, with the seat pads in place and (near-invisible) slots left if you want the integrated seatbelts fitted. The front seats tilt, even though they’re carbon Recaros, and “because the driving position is absolutely fundamental, we’ve modified the seat rails, so you sit lower in this than the standard RS”, says Stephens.

It’s air-cooled, and very trick. Little known (though quite obvious) fact about the Mezger engine. Because it was around for a long time and used for both road and competition, many parts are interchangeable. So this uses RSR pistons, solid lifters, a 997 oil pump and 997 GT3 crank. Running on throttle bodies and with bespoke cams (a rare non-Porsche part as Stephens wanted a particular profile) it could rev to 8,500rpm, though this one is aimed at road use so has a torquier mid-range, 330bhp instead of 360 and runs to 7,400rpm. “It depends what the customer wants, really – the standard [993 Carrera] RS is a lovely car, but this is quite a bit further up the road.” Similar power and torque to the first 996 GT3, but 130kg less weight to cart about.

One more on the engine. By the time the 993 came along, the air-cooled engine needed assister fans, but Stephens wanted the purity of a single cooling fan. So he redesigned the fan shroud. Same fan, but the new shroud has been designed to improve airflow across the flat six. “We could have easily done it in carbon,” he says, “but again I wanted it to look original and Porsche wasn’t doing carbon fibre at the time.”

The Autoart 993R uses adaptive dampers, but they’re electrically controlled rather than manually adjustable. So instead of having to open the bonnet or reach into the rear arches, you control the TracTive dampers via a dial tucked surreptitiously down the footwell. “We could have had a screen in there for full adjustment control, but I didn’t like that, it wasn’t in keeping, so we’ve got five pre-programmed settings.” If you want to change the presets it’s just a matter of plugging in.

Little hidden-in-plain-sight secret for you. See the little crest in the steering wheel? Same shape as Porsche’s emblem, but cleverly and discretely displays the initials ‘PS’.

“You’ve got to go looking for what we’ve done,” says Stephens. “It’s easy for people to look at the spoiler and the wheels and think that’s all that’s gone on. But this is like a pair of handmade shoes. They’re not immediately obvious to others, but you can really feel the difference. If you know you know and if you don’t, you don’t need to know.”

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