Theon glow

Adam Hawley keeps a green 1:64 scale Porsche 930 on his desk at work. He’s had it since he was a child. It’s different to every other model car he had when he was young because it isn’t scratched, scuffed or dented, its roof hasn’t been caved in, it isn’t missing a wheel and the windows are still in place. While Adam’s other toy cars were used, abused and played with, this one was cared for.

‘I’ve loved 1970s Porsche 911s ever since,’ he tells me. ‘It’s such a great shape.’ As far as origin stories go, then, Theon Design has a good one. Adam founded the company with Lucinda Argy in 2016 to restore and modify 964-generation 911s, backdating them to look as though they belong to the same dreamy era as Adam’s little toy car.

But who is Adam Hawley, what is Theon Design all about and what are its restorations like to drive? To find out, I spent a morning at the company’s facility near Deddington, Oxfordshire, quizzing the founders and driving its most recent build before it was shipped off to its owner in Chile. As air-cooled 911 restomodding specialists emerge in the UK, Europe, California and beyond seemingly every week, Theon Design is starting to make a good name for itself.