We like the Kamm Manufaktur 912c - it’s raw, it’s exciting and it looks great. Fast enough to be huge fun without being another old Porsche that’s quicker than a GT3, it’s a novel take on the ever-growing niche of modernised classics that didn’t feel like it had much left to give. Now its range has been added to with a smart new Targa variant, the ‘ultimate lightweight 912c sports car with classic looks, incredible dynamics, and daily driver usability.’
Much is familiar from the coupe, with the same 2.0-litre air-cooled flat-four that’s built from the original 1.6; it produces 185hp at 6,500rpm, revs past seven and snorts through individual throttle bodies. While torque is a modest 151lb ft, Kamm reckons 125lb ft of that is available from 2,000rpm, ‘in line with its everyday character’. Remember, too, that Kamm uses carbon extensively in a 912c build, so this Targa is less than 800kg. Even with a roof rack surfboard on, it’s a very, very light sports car.
There’s a five-speed dogleg gearbox, which Kamm upgrades for a more positive feel, a choice of gearing dependent on customer use case - short, long and touring - plus a ZF LSD and Porsche hydraulic racing clutch. Despite the Pasha seat inserts and aluminium wheels meant to look like steelies, this is a pretty serious little Porsche. Again as with the hardtop 912c, there’s Tractive semi-active suspension and Brembo brakes to really bring the driving experience up to snuff. The really committed can get carbon seats, harnesses and a cage to further bolster Kamm’s reinforcement measures, though that might spoil the Targa aesthetic just a tad.
Because let’s be honest here, any Porsche Targa from the '60s is a wonderful-looking thing. Fully restore one with a host of new factory parts (lights, fixings, rubbers), paint it in Tangerine and fit a set of Cibie spotlights to one and you’re a long way to classic rear-engined Porsche perfection. A Kamm build is arguably more about the driving experience than the design, but it’s very easy to imagine a customer speccing a car just like this and leaving it at the beach house to admire.
As per pretty much every restomod yet conceived, the sky’s the limit when it comes to Kamm customisation. This first Targa has been commissioned by Kamm themselves as a demonstration of what it’s capable of, including its own surfboard and carbon roof rack. All Kamm builds will be ‘soft-window’ Targas, the cars produced up until 1967 before a glass alternative became an option. When the result is a car that can look like this, the decision makes sense.
This first Kamm 912c Targa, built from a Belgian car and fitted with just about every extra possible - the carbon seats, the integrated modern audio, all the surf goodies - is available for €395,000. With delivery to anywhere on the planet. Given Kamm now has customers from the USA to Australia, there will likely be plenty of interested parties in sunnier climes. Expect a little less money for the next builds, though the Targa will surely carry a premium over the equivalent 912 coupe because of how much rarer - and therefore expensive - donor cars are. There are 912s out there right now in need of restoration for €20,000, but no Targas for less than €60k.
Not that that’s likely to unduly bother those who want one, because the Kamm promises the best of both worlds from a drop-top Porsche that has seldom come from the factory: the style and the wind in the hair joy, with a properly reengineered chassis to appreciate as well. It sounds like a heady cocktail.
Kamm founder Miklos Kazmer said of the new model: “As with all Kamm cars, the 912c Targa will be equally at home on the street as it is the track, and what better way to enjoy life than a fast drive to the beach in a soft-window KAMM 912c Targa, ready for a day of fun and relaxation.” Sounds pretty good to us. Best get hunting down a donor car…
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