HEADLINER
FANTASTIC FOURS
California isn’t short of workshops prettifying Porsches. But a peek inside Benton Performance reveals a fascination with something different
WORDS STEPHEN DOBIE
BECAUSE THEY DON’T MAKE ’EM LIKE THEY USED TO
PHOTOGRAPHY JONNY FLEETWOOD
John Benton is a coiled spring of a man. His Californian workshop may be tucked away in Anaheim, southeast of downtown LA, but that doesn’t mean Benton Performance is a quiet little corner in which to show hushed reverence to shiny old Porsches. There’s enough of that going on elsewhere in California. John’s eyes are wide and his energy fizzing as he leads me and photographer Jonny on a tour much longer than his modestly sized shop had led us to expect, Motown pumping loudly throughout the building as we try our best to keep up with both his legs and his anecdotes.
It’d be a bit strong to call Benton the anti-Singer, not least because they aren’t directly comparative. You’re looking at a resto business here rather than a restomod business. But there’s an everyman spirit to Benton’s work, not least because John specialises in four-cylinder Porsches – chiefly the 912 and 356 – though there’s the odd flat-six 911 lying around.
“I’ve built all sorts of engines over the years,” he tells me. “Ferrari, Lotus, water- and air-cooled, small block Chevy. Engines are largely the same – it’s like a doctor learning the human body when they study to be a surgeon. But there are little differences in them all.”