Kalmar 7-97 RS-R Evo 2025 review – part Porsche 911, part Ariel Nomad

‘We had customers who did safari tours with us and said ‘we want the coolest car possible for this, and we don’t care what it costs,’’ says Jan Kalmar, founder of Kalmar Automotive. ‘That’s how the 7-97 RS-R came about.’ The cost is indeed quite a lot (around half a million pounds), but having driven the RS-R on an ice track in northern Finland, we can confirm that it delivers rather a lot of fun, too. Think the essential analogue driving dynamics of a classic 911 mixed with the huge roll angles and grin factor of an Ariel Nomad. 

Is there room for another Porsche restomod company to squeeze in next to the likes of Singer, Tuthill and Theon? Kalmar thinks so. The Danish firm was founded in 2018, and started out restoring and heavily re-engineering 964s, and now produces a range of 993-based road and safari cars. A 959-inspired hypercar called the 9X9 is on the way, too. ‘We are technical nerds, and we’re proud of it,’ says Jan. ‘The customers we aim for are the nerds, and the drivers that really know what they want. At Goodwood, I saw people getting excited about our car and thinking it was a Singer, but we’re not Singer. We don’t want to be – it’s good that they exist, but we want to be something else.’

Kalmar’s bread and butter is the 7-97, which takes either a 964 or 993 as a base and is modernised with uprated adaptive suspension, a stiffer shell, a choice of rebuilt flat-six engines with up to 401bhp, upgraded brakes, and CFD-formed carbonfibre bodywork inspired by the classic 911 S/T. A host of other niceties, including air conditioning, electric power steering and even an interior coolbox are offered to give the 7-97 the usability of a modern car with the feel and sensory thrills of an old Porsche. The overhaul is necessary because, in Jan’s view, the driving experience of a standard classic 911 doesn’t live up to the legend. ‘People dream about owning one, then they buy one, and realise it’s a piece of shit. A Golf drives better, and the 911’s headlamp costs as much as a Golf.’ Not a man that minces his words. 

When it comes to usability, the 7-97 RS-R Evo we’re driving here is about as versatile as they come. It’s like a classic 911 Dakar that you could actually imagine hammering through dunes, wading through streams and crawling between boulders in the Andes. This particular car has been on its roof before on one such adventure, but there’s no evidence of that on its robust kevlar outer bodyshell.

At the Evo’s core is a 4.1-litre flat-six with over 400bhp, and depending on spec it weighs as little as 1125kg (in other words, it has more performance than you can readily use on an ice lake). The body is raised on rose-jointed active TracTive suspension, with dampers that continually adjust to loads going through the car, and it rides on small-diameter wheels with chunky off-road rubber (or narrow-width Michelin WRC snow tyres here). The rear end is 110mm wider than the base car (a 964 in this case) to cover a wider track, and the body has been modified for more ground clearance (up to 25cm) and improved approach/departure angles. But in the event that you do clatter a rock, the chassis is fully seam welded and features a welded-in crossbar for extra strength. It’s a very comprehensive overhaul, as it should be for the price. The best part? It’s completely road legal. 

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We’re not driving the RS-R Evo on the road here, sadly, but there are few more spectacular driving settings than an ice circuit carved into a frozen lake in Lapland. Jan explains that the WRC Michelin tyres find far more grip on the ice than you can imagine, but with temperatures as low as -15 degrees and icicles forming on the RS-R’s mudflaps, it’s probably best to ease up to the limit. 

The 4.1-litre motor idles with a familiar air-cooled chunter, but it’s not as rowdy as you might imagine from inside the cabin. Loud, yes, but far from the blare of a full-blown competition car. The floor-hinged pedal box takes some getting used to, and the lightweight flywheel means you need a fair stab of revs to pull away, but the RS-R feels compact and quite docile once underway. There’s an undeniable sense of focus and energy about the car, but it’s barely any more intimidating than a regular 964. 

But don’t take that to mean you can completely relax. The engine has a savage bite in the mid-range and up to 7000rpm, and instantaneous response near the top of the throttle pedal. With power going to the rear wheels alone, you need to be sensitive – or short shift – to keep the car in its sweet zone of slip, but with time, you appreciate the fantastic fidelity the Evo gives you when working it hard. It feels totally alive and responsive on the ice, the steering somehow communicating with more transparency than most modern sports cars do on tarmac. 

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Such is the RS-R’s front end grip in these conditions that you don’t actually need to swing the weight around to get the nose in, and you can turn in smoothly on the brakes, tickle the throttle and ride out a neat, precise slide through the exit. But for the biggest thrill (and the quickest way through a corner), you need to put more load through those TracTive dampers and work with bigger slip angles. When you do there’s an almost comical amount of roll (partly due to the removal of the rear roll bar for more wheel articulation), and the way the body tips and dives with the cornering forces is reminiscent of an Ariel Nomad. 

Given how much the body moves, making best use of the RS-Rs rearward weight balance takes a bit of practice. But with time, you learn to modulate the progressive and feelsome brakes to set the car up early in a corner, and balance the resulting slide with the power, making minute adjustments to the wheel and throttle to trim your line. It's hugely satisfying. On straighter parts of track you can start sinking into the throttle further, feeling the car gently swaying beneath you as the flat-six hits its stride and power overcomes traction. 

It sounds wonderful and crescendos into a mechanical scream at the top end, by which time it's time to grab a gear and do it all over again. The shifter is a CAE unit that extends right up to the wheel, with a short, heavy, satisfying action. It's so short that finding your way around the gate takes finesse, but nailing a quick upshift into fourth while the RS-R leans back on its wheels and digs for grip is one of the most satisfying things you can experience in a car. 

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Of course, you could stick a set of decent tyres on a Fiesta and it'd be bags of fun on an ice track, but the RS-R really does take things to another level. Nailing the point home, we drove a less heavily modified (but still £100k) 964 on the same circuit on the same day, and though the fundamental driving dynamics were similar, the RS-R felt like a massive step up. Not just because of its engine, but because of the clarity of its feedback, the quality of its damping and sense of limitless adjustability. It was a much more vivid driving experience. 

Vivid enough to warrant that price tag? With your sensible hat on, of course not. But for those with (very) deep pockets, on ice the RS-R Evo makes you feel like a superhero in a way that few cars can. We suspect it'd be an absolute riot on the road, too.