  We consider the energy of the torsion problem with Robin boundary conditions
in the case where the solution is not a minimizer. Its dependence on the volume
of the domain and the surface area of the boundary is discussed. In contrast to
the case of positive elasticity constants, the ball does not provide a minimum.
For nearly spherical domains and elasticity constants close to zero the energy
is largest for the ball. This result is true for general domains in the plane
under an additional condition on the first non-trivial Steklov eigenvalue. For
more general elasticity constants the situation is more involved and it is
strongly related to the particular domain perturbation. The methods used in
this paper are the series representation of the solution in terms of Steklov
eigenfunctions, the first and second shape derivatives and an isoperimetric
inequality of Payne and Weinberger \cite{PaWe61} for the torsional rigidity.
