Nakai-San Cut Into a 964 at Porsche Santa Clarita and the Purists Kept Going

Two events happened simultaneously in the same parking lot at Porsche Santa Clarita. The Porsche Club of America's Cal Inland chapter ran a concours, meaning a judged showing where cars are evaluated on period-correctness, cleanliness, and authenticity. At the same event, Nakai-San of RWB, Rough World Base, was cutting into a 964 Porsche that belongs to what the organizers called their Restoration Challenge project. A concours and a body modification in the same space at the same time. The organizers called it a contrast and clash of purist and outlaw Porsches and added that nobody does it like this. Nakai-San, full name Akira Nakai, is a Japanese builder based in Chiba whose practice involves flying to private clients around the world and cutting wide-body fender flares directly into the car's sheet metal. No bolt-on panels. The cuts are permanent. Each RWB build takes roughly a week of Nakai doing the work himself with hand tools, and each car is named by him. There are no two identical RWB 911s. The practice runs completely counter to the concours standard, where original panels, original paint, and original numbers are everything. ## The 964 Is the Most Contested Generation in Porsche Culture The 964, produced from 1989 to 1994, is the generation that sits at the fulcrum of a long-running debate about what era of 911 matters most. It was the first 911 with coil springs instead of torsion bars, the first with ABS as standard, and the first with four-wheel drive in the Carrera 4 version. Purists who prefer the air-cooled simplicity of the earlier 2.4S or the 2.7 RS argue the 964 began the modernization that led eventually to the water-cooled 996. Outlaw builders love the 964 body for its wider arches, its visual mass, and the canvas it provides for exactly the kind of surgery Nakai performs. The Restoration Challenge project at Porsche Santa Clarita appears to take a 964 and run it through a documented build process. The fact that Nakai was invited to participate in this process during a concours event is a curatorial decision about what counts as restoration. RWB would not pass a PCA concours. Nakai's cuts disqualify the car from originality scoring permanently. That is the point. ## 19 Images From One Event Tell a More Complete Story The documentation from this Cars and Coffee covered both worlds simultaneously: PCA-judged cars in one frame, tools and cut metal in another. That visual record matters because it forces the viewer to hold both standards at once rather than choosing a lane. The Porsche hobby, like the broader collector car world, has spent the last decade watching values bifurcate. Singer Vehicle Design restorations of 964s have sold for over $1 million, with some approaching $2 million at auction. These are not original cars either. Singer modifies them significantly, replacing engines, bodywork, and interiors with components that exceed original specifications. RWB goes the other direction: less expensive builds, more radical cuts, community built around Nakai's personal presence at each build. Both Singer and RWB are modifications that would fail a PCA concours. Both command serious market premiums. The concours standard is not the only value metric left in the Porsche market. ## PCA Cal Inland Ran Their Event Anyway This is the detail that the caption 'nobody does it like this' is pointing at. The PCA chapter did not pause their concours because Nakai was working nearby. The concours judges presumably kept evaluating paint depth and panel gaps while a 964 was being permanently altered twenty feet away. That simultaneity is not a scheduling accident. It is a statement about the diversity of the Porsche community that most press materials never capture. Porsche as a manufacturer has navigated this tension carefully. They have supported Singer indirectly through Porsche Classic parts supply relationships. They have not officially endorsed RWB but have participated in events where RWB cars are present. The factory understands that modification culture is part of what makes the 911 the most culturally persistent sports car in automotive history. No other model has a comparable collector ecosystem spanning six decades, multiple sub-cultures, and a price range from $40,000 to $2 million for variants of the same basic architecture. ## The Restoration Challenge Is the Clearest Argument Either Side Has Made Cutting a 964 at a concours is the kind of provocation that looks accidental but is not. It asks a direct question: what is a Porsche for? The PCA answer is preservation, accuracy, and the appreciation of engineering decisions made forty years ago. The RWB answer is use, transformation, and the acknowledgment that a car is a canvas as much as an artifact. Both answers are correct. The 964 Nakai is building will be named, will have one owner who commissioned it, and will never win a concours. It will be immediately recognizable as an RWB car because every RWB car carries Nakai's visual grammar in its fenders. The PCA cars at that same event will be evaluated against a standard that rewards the absence of Nakai's grammar entirely. The market for both is strong. The community that appreciates both exists in the same parking lot in Santa Clarita.