A handmade body, a throaty growl and the performance of a track racer are a few of the reasons Bob Weekes brought his classic Porsche 911.

The diamond-blue, 1988-vintage Porsche 911 Turbo is one of just seven special 911 Turbos built to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the production of the 911. Only two of those seven were built right-hand drive making Bob's car extremely rare.

Bob, 57 from Burghley Park in North Swindon brought the E-registered 911 Turbo with 44,000 miles on the clock in 1998 for £31,000.

Shortly afterwards, he began a slow restoration project bringing it up to better than new condition. He refurbished the wheels, fully re-sprayed the car and re-built the engine and gearbox in an attempt to bring it up to Concours d'Elegance standards.

The project has paid dividends. The car has won 12 prizes. Last month, he took the car to the Swansea Festival of Transport where it won its class in the western round of the 2003 Autoglym Classic Concours Championship.

The car, which has just 57,000 miles on the clock has qualified for the Grand Final of the competition in November.

Mr Weekes who is a project manager for a forklift company said: "When I brought the car in 1998 it was perfectly driveable but I wanted to get it to a higher standard. The difference in quality between the 911 and other Porsche's we have owned that is so different.

"The 911 feels solid, it was basically handcrafted, it is a joy to work on. The car was built to a high specification, leather trim, and air-conditioning and the special diamond-blue chassis."

The car has a top speed of up to 160mph and can accelerate from zero to 62mph in little over five seconds. All that from straight six, 300 horsepower engine sat over the rear-wheels.

Mr Weekes said: "It is awesome to drive. Under all these luxuries like the leather, it is basically a racing car, there is no power steering or traction control or ABS, and you can reach 100mph in second gear, which I have tried out on track days.

"It feels light at the front but heavy at the back. But it's a superb drive but there are some days where it frustrates you, but to drive this car you have to be in the right state of mind.

"When you drive it, the car seems to growl and occasionally there is a definite howl, but you can tell it has a Porsche pedigree as it sometimes sounds like it's misfiring."

The 911 is a far cry from Bob's first car, a Mini van from 1964. Currently the family is a four-car household the 911 Turbo usually housed in the garage and joins an Audi A4 and a Peugeot 106.

Not a man to cruise the streets, Bob only usually drives the car on dry summer weekends. If its wet, he'll keep it in the dry tinkering with a few details or stand back and admire his work.

lIn 1938, under the direction of Dr Porsche the first assembly lines for the Volkswagen Beetle are erected ready for series production.

In 1948, a lightweight sports car, built from VW parts, the 356 is rolled out from a factory in Gmund. It is the first car to bear the Porsche name.

The first 911 was launched at the Frankfurt International Automobile Show in 1963, and this year the car celebrates its 40th anniversary.