JAN WITH A PLAN

This man thinks he can storm the chockers restomod Porsche scene with Scandinavia’s answer to Singer. Is he mad? Well, a bit. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong

- OLLIE KEW

“WHY DOES A DOG LICK HIS OWN BALLS?” Jan Kalmar’s retort catches me off guard. Um, because it can? “Exactly.”

His metaphorical answer to me querying why his prototype ‘RS-R’ 911 rally restomod has leather wrapped impact bars beneath its bumpers is typical of the forthright Dane. As is the geeky follow-up.

“Actually to get the correct curve the metal needed a lot of welds which did not look so nice, so we covered the bars in this stitched leather.”

Kalmar is a car enthusiast, a businessman, and according to Tom Kristensen – the nine-time Le Mans winning co-owner of his burgeoning car firm – “a nerd”. He’s also a handy driver. A record holder for the 11,000-mile Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas (tip of Norway to bottom of South Africa) rally, he invites me into a modified Porsche Cayenne ‘CS-R’ to offer a tour of his ice driving paradise in Lapland, 110 miles inside the Arctic Circle.

“F**k’s sake.” He’s irritated someone left the traction control on. Banished with a button prod, he shows me around through the side window. One hand on the wheel, the other pointing out eight miles of tracks on 272 acres of swamp.