The 14 Best Restomods And Recreations You Can Buy Right Now

As new cars get generally heavier, more complicated and less involving to drive, it’s no wonder there’s an ever-swelling market for restomods and recreations: cars that look classic and feel raw and analogue to drive, but have been updated or built from the ground up with modern componentry to mitigate the usual pitfalls of classic ownership.

In fact, there are so many restomods around these days that it can be hard to keep up. To save you the work, we’ve picked out our very favourites that you, with a rather sizeable wad of cash, can place an order for right now. That does mean a few omissions – as much as we’d love to include a Singer Classic Study, Alfaholics GTA-R or Eagle Speedster, all of those cars come with extremely full order books.

Singer Turbo Study

Frankly, this list could be made up entirely of air-cooled Porsche 911s, and the works of Theon, Kalmar, Thornley Kelham, Tuthill, Workshop 5001 and countless others all deserve a shoutout.

Nobody’s been restomodding this highly versatile platform longer than Singer, though, and arguably nobody does it better. Having closed its order books for the delightful Classic Study, the Californian outfit has started exploring other bits of 911 history, and our favourite is the Turbo Study. Using a 964 911 as its base, it’s reclothed to resemble a pumped-up 930 Turbo, and comes with at least 450bhp from its 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six. It’s reckoned you’ll need the best part of £850,000 for one.

HWA Evo

A fresh take on the legendary Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evo II homologation special of the ’90s, this project from long-time AMG racing partner HWA takes a common-or-garden 190E saloon and fits it out with an even more OTT take on the original Evo II’s body, made entirely from carbon fibre.

In place of the original’s nat-asp four-pot is a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 with 443bhp, while the whole thing weighs just 1360kg. 100 will be built, at around £600,000 a pop.

BMW E30 M3 by Redux

If you were team BMW in the early ’90s golden age of DTM racing, then the E30 M3 by Redux is the car for you. Some would call it sacrilege to so thoroughly re-engineer a car as legendary as the original M3, but we have no issue with this British firm’s work.

Redux reclothing the car in carbon panels and bores out the raspy four-pot engine from 2.3 to 2.5 litres makes for 300bhp and just 1150kg, all sitting in a gorgeously balanced rear-drive chassis. Just 30 are being made, and the conversion alone will cost around £330,000.

Ferrari 355 by Evoluto

Anyone who reckons they can improve on the phenomenal Ferrari 355 is talking a big game, but we reckon British upstart Evoluto has delivered. Focusing on further emphasising its driver appeal, its power’s been taken up to 415bhp through the use of no fewer than 200 new bits.

The interior has been modernised, and the exterior tweaked by ex-Jaguar and Aston maestro Ian Callum. Oh, and it keeps the original’s open gate manual. Evoluto plans to build just 55, with the conversion starting at around £700,000.

Eccentrica Diablo

Yep, nothing is too sacred in restomod-land, not even a mid-engined, V12 Lamborghini. This particular effort takes the Diablo, pumps its 5.7-litre V12 up to 542bhp, and clothes the lot in a cyberpunkish body with panels made from (what else?) carbon fibre.

The interior, meanwhile, is a magical combo of extremely ’90s digital graphics and thoroughly modern materials, made even better by the presence of an open-gated six-speed manual gearbox. Eccentrica plans to build 19, and they’ll start at a nice, round £1 million.

Maturo Stradale

The Maturo Stradale wasn't the first high-profile restomod of the Lancia Delta Integrale – that would be the two-door Automobili Amos Futurista – but it is, to our eyes at least, the coolest.

What we’re really looking at here is basically a full on Group A rally-spec Delta Integrale, with its 2.0-litre turbo four turned up to 400bhp and competition-spec suspension. Of course, the whole lot is covered by a carbon body. Sensing a theme here? Inside, things are (slightly) more luxurious, with smatterings of Alcantara. Costing a minimum of £400,000, they’ll be built at a rate of just four a year.

Icon FJ

California’s Icon 4x4 is one of the restomod old guard, and has been on the go for years. It’s diversified into plenty of other models over time, but our favourite is its take on the original 40-series Toyota Land Cruiser.

Don’t be fooled by its laid-back beach cruiser looks – its lovely pastel bodywork is hiding a 6.2-litre Chevy LS V8 kicking out 430bhp, while some serious suspension and optional locking diffs make it even more off-road ready than the original. Want one? You’ll need around £180,000 at a minimum. Having visited Icon’s LA HQ a few years ago to see the team working, we can see why.

Twisted Defender

Yorkshire company Twisted Automotive is another firm that’s been overhauling a particular 4x4 for years, in this case the original Land Rover Defender. In fact, it bought up a whole load of the car’s final production run so it had plenty of stock to build from.

You can commission pretty much any look you like, and choose from a host of engines – diesels, turbo petrol four-pots, snarling V8s, and even an electric powertrain. Price very much depends on how far you want to take things, but it can easily get into the rather high six figure range.

Arcade Sojourn

We’re not done with classic 4x4s just yet. A new entrant in the restomod sphere, Arcade is a British-Austrian concern whose first product is a reimagining of the original Mercedes G-Wagen.

Very much putting emphasis on relaxed style rather than shouty performance, it buys from old Swiss army stock, and either keeps the original 230GE’s petrol engine or fits an electric drivetrain. Starting at just over £100,000, it’s also very much on the affordable end of this list. All relative, though, isn’t it?

Peugeot 205 GTi Tolman Edition

Another 'budget' choice, by restomod standards, is British firm Tolman’s take on the Peugeot 205 GTi. Widely regarded as one of the greatest hot hatches of all time, Tolman has wisely left the looks well alone, but fitting some modern components underneath to sharpen up the drive.

Go for the full kit and caboodle and you’ll be treated to 200bhp from a fizzy 1.9-litre four-pot engine, plus a weight of just 900kg. Going all that way will also cost you £125,000, but if you really want to be shocked, go look at what original 205 GTis are worth these days.

MZR 240Z

Winding the clock back a little further is the Datsun 240Z from Yorkshire outfit MZR Roadsports. Taking a Singer-ish approach, it reworks the pretty original into something wider, lower and altogether meaner.

Meanwhile, its straight-six is bored out to either 2.9 or 3.1 litres, the latter sending around 280bhp to the back wheels in a flurry of gloriously raspy noise. Depending on how far you want to go, you’re looking at a minimum of around £100,000, plus a donor car.

Built By Legends Skyline

Prefer your straight-six Nissan restomods with a little more ’90s flavour? Japanese company Built By Legends can provide with its range of Skyline restomods. It’s created builds based on the R32, R33 and, most recently, the R34.

The latter is really something to behold: 640bhp from a 2.8-litre, 8000rpm version of the RB26 straight-six from legendary tuning firm Mine’s, and a full suspension overhaul and the addition of plenty of carbon fibre. Yours from £355,000 – plus a donor R34, and good luck finding one of those for less than £100k.

MST Mk1

Okay, this isn’t technically a restomod, because it’s been built from the ground up, but if it looks like a Mk1 Ford Escort, and it sounds like a Mk1 Ford Escort… well, it might not be a Mk1 Ford Escort.

It might be an MST Mk1, which sees modern bits and a rev-happy four-pot engine dropped into a body closely resembling a classic Escort. MST also sells cars resembling Mk2 Escorts (not to mention its Metro 6R4 project), but it’s the bubble-arched Mk1 that has our heart. It starts at around £140,000. We drove the Mk2 a while ago and adored it, but reckon the Mk1 is an even tastier prospect.

Officine Fioravanti Alfa Romeo 8C

Yep, even cars that you thought were relatively new are getting restomodded now. Take the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, a car whose drive never really lived up to its staggering looks and sensational 4.7-litre V8.

Swiss firm Officine Fioravanti has set out to rectify this with a suspension overhaul and, most importantly, the open-gated six-speed manual the 8C always deserved. Lovely. There’s no word on how much it’ll cost, mind.