The $460,000 Kamm 912C Is Porsche’s Underdog at Its "Less Is More" Best
When you don’t want to be just another face in the 911 restomod crowd, the 912C is a balanced, fun, and equally expensive alternative.
Can less give you more? Unlike the swarm of 911 restomods currently buzzing around on enthusiast wish lists, the Kamm 912C eschews Porsche’s iconic air-cooled flat-six in favor of its lesser known and rarer little brother, the four-cylinder 616 engine. Forget big horsepower numbers, too: The Kamm 912C has just 182 horses nestling under its rounded rump. But it’s propelling a Porsche that can weigh less than 1,541 pounds depending on options. Physics is on its side.
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Kamm was founded by Hungarian film and documentary producer Miki Kázmér, a lifelong car enthusiast who grew up in Soviet-era Budapest, Hungary, when sports cars were a rarity. Kázmér worked on cars at a local shop during high school but “diverted away from physics,” as he put it, to focus his studies on the creative arts. He still got his hands dirty, though, restoring a couple of 911s as his movie production career took off, even building a race car for himself.
“I realized that I'm not a race car driver,” Kázmér said of his decision to found Kamm. “I enjoy the passion of building something, but I have too much loyalty to the engineering to beat the shit out of the machine.”
Kázmér likened his role as CEO of Kamm to that of being a movie producer. “It’s my idea, but it's our collaboration,” he said of the 912C. “I’m the one that has the vision, but I’m not the master of it.” He pointed out that Kamm’s team includes engineers and craftsmen who have worked on special projects for Porsche, Aston Martin, and McLaren, among others.
How Kamm Creates Its Super 912s
Kamm offers four versions of the 912—the 912C, which comes with either a full or partial carbon-fiber body and the 182-hp engine, and the 912T, which has carbon front fenders and hood and a 163-hp engine as either a coupe or a Targa. All cars are based on the four-cylinder Porsche 912 built from 1965 through 1968. Why the 912? “It’s simply a better-balanced car,” Kázmér said. “The four-cylinder engine is shorter and lighter, so the weight distribution is better. The first time I drove a 912, I was amazed how much better it was than a short-wheelbase 911. Obviously the 911 has more power, more torque, and a different sound, but driving-wise the 912 is a better car.”
The Kamm 912C we’re about to drive, a full carbon-bodied car built for a Hungarian client, is a testament to the courage of Kázmér’s convictions. Its base price is more than $460,000, plus shipping and taxes and the cost of a donor car. Surely folks with that sort of money to splurge on a Porsche 911 restomod are going to want the full monty rather than an underdog? “The 911 is irrationally loved by so many people, so you can't really argue,” Kázmér said. “But the 912 deserves the same. And we are not for everyone.”
Kázmér’s two automotive heroes are the legendary British automotive designers and engineers Colin Chapman and Gordon Murray, and it only takes a few minutes poking around the Kamm 912C to see their influence. This little Porsche is simple, light, and beautifully finished. Both the engine bay and the front loadspace have exquisitely executed carbon-fiber panels and fixtures. The bespoke alternator, located high above the engine ahead of the carbon-fiber shrouding and between the carbon-fiber air cleaner covers, even has carbon-fiber cooling fins. Inside is a dash with bespoke Kamm-branded instruments from Smiths, plus seats and a steering wheel by Fusina, an original Porsche supplier.
In addition to the carbon-fiber front fenders, front hood, and rear deck lid, bumpers, and door skins of the semi-carbon 912C, the full carbon version gets carbon rear fenders and a carbon roof, the panels attached to structural elements of the original 912 body-in-white that have been strengthened with chrome moly steel tubing. Other weight-saving measures include 15-inch, P917-style carbon-alloy wheels that weigh just 10 pounds each, Lexan windows, carbon seats, and a lithium battery that weighs just nine pounds. Lightweight options include an ultra-cool full carbon wheel that looks just like an old-school steelie but weighs less than eight pounds, a 30-pound exhaust system made from titanium and Inconel, and a lightweight AP Racing brake system.
Kamm 912C customers don’t have to be performance-chasing spartans, though. The options list includes air conditioning and a Bluetooth audio system with speakers tucked away under the dash. In addition to these, our test car’s owner has ordered comfort seats, full glass windows, and a transmission with taller gearing, as he wants to use his 912C for more than just the occasional Sunday morning blast along a quiet country road.
Turning the Key of the 912C
Twist the key, and the 912C’s little flat-four clatters into life. In its original form, the Porsche 616 engine displaced 1.6 liters and produced 90 horsepower. The 2.0-liter Kamm version shares the original engine’s architecture, but it's essentially a new engine that has been developed in conjunction with high-performance powertrain specialists BDN Automotive. More than 200 virtual iterations of the Kamm 616 were tested before the chosen physical version was put through more than 10,000 hours of dyno testing. Apart from bigger bores, the Kamm 616 features redesigned cylinder heads, a new camshaft, bespoke throttle-by-wire fuel injection, and a redesigned exhaust. Its 182 hp is developed at 6,500 rpm, with peak torque of 180 lb-ft arriving at 4,500 rpm.
The engine drives through an upgraded version of the 901 dogleg five-speed manual transmission actuated by a tall carbon-fiber shifter. Depress the floor-hinged clutch pedal on the state-of-the-moment AP Racing pedal box and pull the shifter across and back to select first gear. Ease in the clutch, and the 912C moves smoothly away. Despite its racy demeanor, with 110 lb-ft of torque on tap from 2,000 rpm, the lightweight Porsche is easy to drive at low to middling speeds—2,100 rpm in fifth gear is 50 mph—while you to get to know its idiosyncrasies.
The gearshift is notchy, but there’s too much friction in the action to make it feel like a well-oiled rifle bolt, a result of the stiffer springs and bushes fitted to make the notoriously sloppy 901 transmission feel a little more concise. Kázmér says the springs and bushes can be changed to suit your tastes. And while we’re picking nits, the brake and gas pedal heights need adjusting to make heel-and-toe downshifts easier.
The Kamm 912C’s 15-inch wheels are shod with Yokohama Advan Fleva tires, 195/55 at the front and 205/55 at the rear. Those generous sidewalls, combined with the adjustable semi-active coil-over Tractive shocks set to the softest of their five settings, deliver a good low-speed ride. The front suspension features control arms from the later G50 911, but the rear geometry is old-school 912. And you can feel it when you start to push the Kamm 912C.
Driving the 912C Like Crazy
Twist the knob adjacent to the ignition key to stiffen the Tractive shocks. There’s a knob next to it cryptically labeled DMC. Pull it to activate what Kázmér calls “Drive Me Crazy” mode to open flaps in the exhaust system, which helps the engine breathe better. And make more noise. The little flat-four likes to rev, the clattery chatter from behind you becoming a calico-shredding snarl as the tach needle swings past 4,000 rpm, building in intensity all the way to the 7,200-rpm redline. You don’t get a big shove between the shoulder blades when you mash the gas. But with the same power and 30 lb-ft more torque than a Mazda Miata propelling a car two-thirds the weight, the Kamm 912C feels lively on real-world roads.
That liveliness is accentuated by the Kamm 912C’s old-school dynamics. Compared with modern 911s, cars whose rearward weight bias has been pretty much tamed by technologies such as stability control and rear-wheel steering, the Kamm 912C makes you clearly aware its engine—though 50 pounds lighter than the flat-six that powered contemporary 911s—is hung out behind the rear axle. The unassisted steering is light and alert, but you need to make sure you load the front axle on corner entry, lifting off the gas and braking, to get the car to turn in. Then, as the mass of the engine out back begins to accelerate the rate of rotation, you need to get back on the power and transfer weight onto the rear wheels to drive you out of the corner.
The transients aren’t as pronounced as in a 911. But hustling the 912C rapidly down a winding two-lane still requires more interaction with the steering and braking and transmission and throttle, more understanding of the art and science of driving, than in, say, a modern Miata or Porsche Cayman. And that’s exactly how it should be. The Kamm 912C is a proper old-school sports car—compact, light, and wieldy, joyously analog and utterly engaging—even when driven at normal road speeds. The Kamm 912C is proof positive that you don’t need mega horsepower to have fun or hone your driving skills. Yes, less can give you more.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More