Kamm Manufaktur 912c review

As it is, there are carbonfibre-backed seats, carbonfibre components that you can either leave with visible weave or have clad so it still looks period-authentic, which is what Kázmér says he’d do: he wants it to feel like a 1960s/1970s track/race car (which shows in the way the car was set-up early on). Ditto the exterior panels and, inside and out, they’re all fitted beautifully. At a glance, you wouldn’t know they weren’t original, which is why there aren’t LED headlights or anything like that. Kamm is asking £311,000 including the donor car and taxes paid at today’s exchange rates, and I’ve seen more asked for less visual quality. You can tell the wheels aren’t quite to original spec but that’s personal choice, and they wear fairly racy Yokohama AD08RS rubber in 195/55 (front) and 205/50 (rear) R15 size, which is the first clue as to what this car is like.

The original 912 engine has been modified to take it from 1.6 to 2.0 litres. The engine case and crank are the same but there are bigger bores, it has bespoke throttle bodies, and overall power is 190bhp and 168lb ft. The redline's at 7200rpm. It drives through a five-speed manual gearbox with a dog-leg first and what I’m told is a tight limited-slip differential. There are coilovers front and rear, and TracTive of the Netherlands is Kamm's go-to suspension partner, who bring five-stage adjustable semi-active dampers. There are unassisted AP racing brakes.

The 2.0-litre size and 190bhp look like relatively sensible outputs and ultimately we’re talking a similar power-to-weight ratio to an Alpine A110, a car that feels light on its feet but is a good third heavier. If you’re expecting something similarly delicate in its control weights, though, think again. For its first iteration I was told to treat the 912c like a go-kart. It had short springs and harsh bump stops, plus steering at 1.7 turns lock-to-lock. As a 'short Saturday morning blast' sort of car, it was terrific, but it was exceptionally urgent, with heavy steering. I loved it, but it was full-on.

Kamm has since developed both the suspension, for more compliance, plus fitted a slower (2.4 turns) steering rack. It remains a physical car to drive but it's now more habitable on UK roads. The suspension no longer bottoms out and crashes over bumps, so it rounds and absorbs the worst of things, and yet body control remains nicely tight. I picked a middle-firm setting for the dampers via the rotary dashboard switch, but all settings are quite well controlled. The steering filters out kickback too, yet weights up pleasingly with feel and response as cornering speeds build.

The seating position is good and pedals great, because they’re an aftermarket Tilton floor-hinged set. All are positive but heavy. The gearshift has a moderate throw and is mostly fine, but I still found I occasionally mis-selected. It's less slick, perhaps understandably, than a modern 'box.

There’s more. The engine fires to a positive bark and has a really strong response. Kamm could seek more power still - it had 170bhp when we first tried it, and 190bhp now - but in either form I'd say the response is about right for this kind of road car. It pulls well even from the lower mid-range and it makes a pleasing noise that suits the rest of the 912c's character. You don't have to rev it out to make progress, and it's quite long-geared, but it's fun, and loud, if you do hold on to a lower ratio. Flick a switch and it turns the volume up a bit and pops on the overrun. Flick it back and it's well-behaved in town.

With the classic looks and specification, I was almost expecting a ‘drive to the theatre’ sort of car when I first tried the Kamm 912c, but it’s not that sort of vehicle, even in this later, more steady setup - and if you want, you can still have the hyper-urgent 1.7 turns rack and harder suspension that Kázmér liked early doors. Either way, it's a purer sports car than it is a tourer. It's immersive like a Caterham or an early Lotus Elise. I’ve not driven an original Porsche 912, so I don’t know how authentic that feeing is or whether, actually, that matters: there are a lot of restomods these days, and a lot of restored original cars, and there’s something lovely about the fact that this Kamm doesn’t seem to do what other cars do. In a niche but busy market, that feels important.