Downtown Garage | Masters of Restomod
RC 17 by Rico Customs/NL, based on a 1980s 911 SC 3.0 Coupé
Cool guy, cool concept, cool location: all this promises endless (driving) fun! Rik Ten Napel is a Dutchman known in the automotive world – and that’s meant quite literally – under his label Rico Custom. This guy from the fashion industry creates a lifestyle from classic 911s of the G series. One of his customers, “Lord of the Boards” and fellow Dutchman, has called it snowboarding with a bit more sound. And now all of this in the trendy US color Limoncello? We went on a fact-finding mission – in the hinterland of the Dutch province of Gelderland.
Behind the Scenes
Behind the scenes of the RC 17: The 950-kilogram “Limoncello Project” impresses with its design, precision, and unbridled agility: a hot rod for the sports car-loving surfer generation.
Meant to be driven. But why then a castle built in the Art Nouveau style between 1853 and 1905? The answer is obvious: because the (photo) location is right by the wayside – on the road trip to the Furka Pass in the Swiss Alps, a good nine and a half hours away.
For Rik Ten Napel, it’s all about a feeling. He doesn’t sell this (good) feeling, he lives it. Just two and a half years ago, after his tenth hobby project for his own enjoyment, he was persuaded to turn yesterday’s pastime into a serious business, putting his all-too-obvious knack for good taste to use. “I never planned any of this, not even for my nearly 100,000 Instagram followers,” he says. “I just posted a few snapshots of my builds for fun. But then I started getting more and more requests to see if I could also realize such projects professionally – for a fee – for clients.” And then his innate business sense, which he had already successfully applied in the fashion industry, kicked in. His workshop, originally intended as a “man cave,” on a rural property with a gas station out front, is now his business headquarters, think tank, and control center all in one. The road leading here is called Slagsteeg, and Rik explains with a laugh what that means. “Do you see that mountain over there?” he points to a barely visible rise behind the house. “That’s what I mean – the path to the highest point here in our lowlands.” It’s no wonder that this man, barely in his forties, a husband and father, loves real mountains – those in the Alps, preferably in Switzerland, around the Furka Pass with his Belvédère Hotel at 2,272 meters above sea level. The road trips from Ermelo to the Swiss cantons of Uri and Valais provided lasting inspiration for Rik Ten Napel. He devised a blueprint that would also allow for great moments in hill climbs like the one in Arosa: consistently lightweight, crisp on corners, and instantaneous on the throttle. The latest and wildest result is called the RC 17, which simply means the 17th creation from Rico Customs. “The Beast,” the enterprising owner reverently calls his bright yellow creation. The specifications alone command respect: 3.9 liters of displacement from a finely tuned 3.6-liter engine of the 964 model generation, 357 hp, a maximum of 375 Nm of torque, 950 kilograms – made only for high altitudes and winding roads? Of course not, as soon becomes clear during our second visit to the Ermelo plant in the province of Gelderland.
Quiet, sunlit streets, plays of light and shadow, rows of trees, roundabouts: the drive to Staverden Castle is enlightening. The RC 17’s ever-present agility is reminiscent of a trip in the legendary RS 2.7 Coupé. Both sports versions are kindred spirits.
So, off to Staverden Castle, not the Furka Pass – not today, it would have been too far for a simple photoshoot. But what is simple here? In Rik’s workshop, it’s all too easy to get a sense of the maximum effort that goes into creating Rico Customs – always on a bare chassis, spartan, like a race car. There, inside and out, painted bodies sit on their mounting jigs, devoid of any technology. In principle, the 911s of the G series are used as base models: the Carrera 3.0, 911 SC, or Carrera 3.2. The philosophy behind it is simple: performance through minimal weight, cost transparency through the simplest possible technology. Rik Ten Napel avoids using the buzzword “backdate.” Rather, he emphasizes the timeless design of the widened racing variants of the early seventies, such as the 911 S/T. This has been done thousands of times over the decades, but never so appealingly, so boldly, or with this level of perfection and seriousness. Perhaps the man who transforms these incredibly purposeful vehicles from classic cars is a genius. He uses well-shaped sheet metal parts to later mount 15-inch wheels under the fenders. He sources the rims themselves either in the “cloverleaf” design from Otto Fuchs KG or, more recently, from an English supplier who reinterprets the cast wire wheel of the 917 Coupé. Combined with Michelin “TB5” tires with a tread width of 225 millimeters at the front and 275 millimeters at the rear, this creates a crucial component for effective, grippy handling. An equally decisive factor is the MCS coil-spring suspension with its numerous adjustment options. Rik Ten Napel has logged countless kilometers on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, primarily during track days organized by Scuderia S7, the team recently led by the late Mike Schütte. The configuration of the MCS setup is carried out in the adjacent industrial park near the Nürburgring – and it shows immediately. You don’t have to travel nearly 900 kilometers to the Furka Pass to understand the interplay of wheel configuration, track width, and suspension. Everything works together seamlessly – from turn-in and mid-corner apex to accelerating out of corners. “This is a demo run with ample safety margins,” assures the man behind the deeply dished, three-spoke steering wheel. He exudes calm and is in complete control. This is the confidence of a global clientele primarily interested in driving experiences rather than simply collecting cars.
Insight of the day: 357 hp from 3,900 cc is more than enough – both on level ground and uphill. The power delivery is a perfect match for the lightweight chassis, progress is more than brisk – and yet a modern turbocharged engine remains the ultimate goal.
The M64/01 engine, adopted from the 964, revised and further developed, reaches its absolute peak performance in the 1980 911 SC 3.0 Coupé restomod. Acceleration can be truly ferocious when needed, or perfectly suited for everyday driving, depending on the situation. This finely balanced sports engine, with its modern, fully electronic management system and the powerfully sounding exhaust, is all that’s really required. The gear ratios in the also completely overhauled 915 five-speed gearbox keep the revs at a high level. Despite all the harmony, Rik Ten Napel, the eternally restless one, has big plans: “You know,” he philosophizes, “back in the day, a 930 turbo was a job for specialists – either there was no power at all, or when the turbo kicked in, there was an untamed surge of force. You could handle that on the Autobahn, but what about on an Alpine pass? Today’s fully electronic engine management systems can do more than a K-Jetronic, metering the torque curve more sensitively and cleanly. Besides, I want to keep the flat rear decklid, without a spoiler, without an intercooler underneath. In the mountains, a spoiler only starts working above a certain speed anyway. So I’d be best off leaving it out even on a modern turbo version.” Okay, a person should have their goals, their dreams. But let’s get back to RC 17, whose bright yellow hue, “L998,” is reminiscent of the spectacular “Limoncello Project” by Italian Paolo Iacometti – who revived a 993 that had lain submerged in a Tuscan river for almost five years and was brought back to life as a tribute to the 993 RS. Rico, as the Dutch entrepreneur has always been known to his circle, caught on to the “Limoncello” saga on Instagram and embraced it. His “Beast,” with its louvers in the rear decklid, represents the pinnacle of what’s currently possible. “The tuning phase is still underway,” assures the former amateur race car driver, who once owned a BMW M3 in full DTM trim. “I would never transport RC 17 to the Alps on a trailer,” he admits. “For me, even longer journeys are valuable test kilometers.” For his customers, including the local snowboarder, this very attitude is crucial. They have the reassuring feeling that everything works – and that no technically ambitious experiments end up pointless after a short time.
Down-to-earth simplicity and straightforward approach define Rico Customs. This is reflected in their pricing, and the pre-order list is correspondingly long. The solution is obvious: increase production, expand their premises, and “the sky’s the limit.”
The sky above Staverden Castle is changeable, sun and clouds playing together. Rik Ten Napel puts on his sunglasses and looks up, while the chronicler dusts off some old habits and performs a bit of floor gymnastics for amused landscapers. “The sky’s the limit”—no other mantra could be more fitting for this moment. The cameras of accompanying videographer Marc Freye have long been set up in RC 17; the photo shoot is actually over, but then the sun comes out again—and it all starts again, with the cameras installed, “behind the scenes,” indeed. But time marches on, even for the busy man. Since the original “man cave” is now filled to the brim with work, he’s considering expanding—if only to store the collected base vehicles. “Suitable production vehicles are still available,” he reports, “a base from Düsseldorf is on its way to us today.” He needs his trailer for that, not for transporting finished projects. “Originally, we envisioned five units a year,” he admits, “but now it’s leaning more towards eight.” And will it eventually be ten per year? “Possible,” estimates the man in question – and he’s certainly in demand. Back in his jeans-making days, he once said, “Let’s do this!” And he follows through on that every time. For him, everything has to fit together perfectly: design, dynamics, price point – the latter being surprisingly affordable. For the budget of a full-size version like the RC 17, you could get a (well-made) replica of a DTM BMW or Mercedes-Benz in touring car racing. You can certainly have fun with those, but the scene, the community, is different. For many, being out in the mountains with good friends is the ultimate in coolness. Of course, times change, even at high altitudes. It’s possible that routes will soon be transmitted to cockpits via Google Maps and Apple CarPlay. Individually and separately. It’s worthwhile to follow this trend in this respect as well, to venture into bridging the gap between old and new. In modern parlance, this is called a crossover. Or, to put it more simply, entrepreneurial spirit. And the moral of the story? We’ll see each other again, in the Alps, of course. But where does a 950-kilogram lightweight lead car for #AlpineCruising come from so quickly? One is surely allowed to ask.
Responsible for content and photography: netzwerkeins GmbH, Carsten Krome
