Simply Red

For Greg Howell a passion for VWs and the VW scene inevitably led to the altar of all things Porsche and a passion for modified 964s, culminating in this slammed C4 

- Brett Fraser

Before we get even the slightest glimpse of Greg Howell’s road-hugging 964 Carrera 4, he takes us on a quick tour of his workshop: Greg runs a body and paint shop, and while he deals in everything from builders’ vans to classic cars, in the past couple of years he’s been picking up an increasing amount of business from Porsche owners. Proving that point is a partly disassembled 964 RS Touring, a left-hooker in rare silver, that’s having little bits of rust sorted out and a general spruce-up. Elsewhere sits an Audi RS2 – the estate car co-developed with Porsche – in the final throes of a major restoration and with some of the smoothest paint we’ve ever seen.

Greg isn’t showing us these cars to brag of his talents, he’s simply passionate about quality machinery and believes we probably are, too: he’s right. But Greg hasn’t always been a Porsche man.

‘When I was still at school I enjoyed tinkering with mechanical things and spraying push-bikes,’ he reminisces. ‘Then once I had my driving licence I moved quickly on to cars.

‘Like so many others I got into the Volkswagen scene: my friends were into it, too, and it was great fun. We’d take our cars to shows and picked up trophies left, right and centre. Later I moved on to Audis, and then about nine years ago I felt that I was ready for a fresh challenge: that’s when I got my first Porsche, a white 964 Carrera 4.

‘It was frowned upon by a lot my hardcore VW mates!’ Greg laughs. ‘But several years later a fair few of them have Porsches of their own. You quickly get to realise how well built they are and how readily available so many of the parts are. And after my first drive I couldn’t believe how well they handle.