Porsche does a pretty good job at building cars, and usually, the end product is at least great, if not better than that. That’s why it might look suspicious to see someone putting a new twist on a brand-new 2024 Porsche model while calling it ‘Retro.’ Unless, of course, said someone is Rezvani Motors, the designer of exotic vehicles mostly known for its apocalypse-ready off-roaders. The company has announced a new series – the Rezvani Retro.
Just when I thought we didn’t need another Porsche custom build, Rezvani proved me wrong with a triad of Porsche 911 992-based creations. Dubbed the RR1 (as in Rezvani Retro 1), the lineup consists of customized sportscars with upgraded engines, suspensions, bodies, and a short list of optional extras. The California-based car customizer will take a basic 2024 platform and build on it, so it’s not a restoration of older models.
The retro-looking RR1 cars entwine the best of both worlds – the classic looks and nostalgic tenure of past models with modern creature comforts, performance, and safety. The inaugural model (designed in-house by Rezvani) will take the Carrera, GT3, GT3 RS, and Turbo S iterations of the current Porsche 911 and add some bespoke touch-ups, according to the customer’s preference.
The racing livery from the 1970s strongly hints at the RR1s’ intents and purposes—to go fast, on and off the road—by which I mean racetrack. I should point that out since this is Rezvani we’re talking about, and they have rugged overlanders in their regular inventory.
Photo: Rezvani Retro
There are three basic versions of the RR1, each centered around the powerplant and distinguished by the numeral termination of the nameplate: 550, 565, and 750. That’s the horsepower index of the respective engine powering the Rezvani Retro 1s.
The entry model is the 550-hp RR1 atop the Carrera S Turbo. With enhanced throttle response and a lightweight carbon fiber body (minus the doors), and suspension fine-tuning options, the RR1 550 comes in two variants: the street brawler (with a diminished punch of ‘just’ 520 hp / 527 PS ) or the full-blown track-attack predator cracking the whip on the 550-strong (558 PS)stud.
The three-liter flat-six turbocharged powerplant is pushed beyond the factory upper limit traditionally found in mainstream Porsche Carreras. The iconic twin-turbo horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine’s factory-determined powerband range goes from the 385-hp rating in the base 911 Carrera to 480 hp in the Carrera 4 GTS, the fastest-accelerating model in the lineup.
Photo: Rezvani Retro
The RR1 550 shaves two-tenths of a second from the stock vehicle's 3.3-second zero-to-sixty time, getting to 60 mph (97 kph) in 3.1 seconds (according to Rezvani’s official data). The retro-speed enterprise doesn’t offer a detailed specs sheet for its new series (yet).
It’s safe to assume that the end results will go faster, harder, sharper, and all-around better than the donor cars on which the RR1s are built. The rear-wheel drive platform also kept the two transmission options offered by Porshe themselves – a seven-speed manual gearbox or a dual-clutch automatic with eight speeds to mesh through.
Rezvani Retro's middle-of-the-road option is the RR1 565, a spin-off from the GT3 and GT3 RS bad boys from the Rearing Horse House of Blitzkrieg Motoring. Ranging between 503 hp (normal GT3) and 518 hp (GT3 RS) - 510 to 525 PS - the 911 GT3 brothers now look up at the 535/565-hp (542/573 PS) output of their four-liter flat-six.
Photo: Rezvani Retro
The 9,200-RPM naturally aspirated powerplant received only a minor bump in horsepower, and the Rezvani derivative isn’t performing any better in the acceleration test (3.0 seconds for 0-60 mph). Six-speed with a clutch pedal or eight-speed PDK (that’s Porsche Doppelkupplung – literally Double Coupling) would be the ways forward (and reverse, in times of dire need).
Since it can’t go any quicker or faster, it compensates with looks. Not that the Porsche styling ideas would be dull or dated or virtually unchanged for more than half a century - one can’t improve perfection (too much), even if the family name is Porsche – but the body of the RR1 is simply in a class of its own.
Speaking of classes, the upper segment of the Rezvani Retro 1 family is the RR1 750, and guess which founding father this chip was chiseled from? Wrong, it’s not a portable Large Hadron Collider, but the next best Porsche thing available, the Turbo S.
Photo: Rezvani Retro
With a 750-hp (760 PS) punch in track guise (715 hp/725 PS for grocery duties), it’s the only all-wheel-drive RR1 across the board. The 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged RR1 750 leaves nothing for the human error factor and does away with power-transfer democracy: only the automated speed box is offered.
With 110 extra horses over the base Turbo S, the RR1 750 plants the go-fast flag straight at the border of the hypercar realm. Zero-to-sixty in two seconds flat is a powerful statement from Rezvani, and it’s not for everyone to enjoy. For comparison, a standard 911 Turbo S of the 992 generation covers the same performance in 2.7 seconds.
Precisely fifty examples of the RR1 will be crafted and delivered throughout Planet Piston (the order list is open), and the first five customers will get a discount price of $149,000 (on top of whatever they pay for the base Porsche). Once the handful of early birds get their RR1 treats, the price for the builds will go up (by an unspecified amount).
Photo: Rezvani Retro
According to Rezvani Motors, the timeframe for building an RR1 example is between three to six months, but it can vary depending on the customer’s requests. ‘Each project kicks off with an approximate timeline for completion provided upfront to set expectations accurately.’
There is a short list of options, as I’ve mentioned before, and includes Ohlins Motorsport TTX-Pro Coilovers ($6,500), a steel roll cage ($5,500), a set of racing harnesses ($750), Brembo brakes ($7,500), weight-saving polycarbonate windows ($2,700), and custom graphics ($2,500).
That's $25,450 for the all-you-can-buy buffet rolling on Retro Turbofan-style wheels shod in 275/35 R20 rubbers on the front and 335/30 R21s at the back. All things considered, an RR1 with all extras will cost almost as much as the American-market entry-level 2024 911 Turbo S (which starts at $198.850). Add them all up, and we're looking at $400,000, or thereabout.
Photo: Rezvani Retro
The carbon fiber body should shake off some weight from the basic 911 platform, but Rezvani Retro doesn’t provide that specific detail. All we have learned for now is the RR1’s overall dimensions: 4,700 mm long by 1,296 mm tall by 1,962 mm wide.
That’s 185 x 51 x 77.2 inches, with a wheelbase of 2,450 mm (96.5 inches). Put side by side with a regular Porsche 911 Turbo S 992, it’s almost the same (4,535 x 1,900 x 1,303 mm / 178.5 x 74.8 x 51.3 inches), but it’s worlds apart in terms of looks. Scroll through the gallery and see which angle is the best-looking side of the RR1.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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