Earlier I’ve posted a video about Singer’s hand-built homage to the early
911’s. Here’s a bit more information about this beautiful car which will set
you back 200,000 Euro depending on the specs.
Singer Vehicle Design is the brain child of Rob Dickinson. A British bloke
who resides in San Francisco. He started the company in 2009 and pretty much
reinvented the classic 911.
Anything
goes in San Francisco. Not only for the limp-wristed brigade or Jeff Bridges.
But also for 911 gearheads – all thanks to the exclusive and semi-secretive “R
Gruppe” club based there. It is a meeting place for hard core Porsche fanatics,
many of whom come from the car industry, where they work as designers,
engineers etc. Hot rodding early 911’s is a life style for them, so if you’re
looking for fertile grounds for a 911 hot rod shop, San Francisco is your
place.
Singer’s
modernized version of the classic RSR and ST starts out as a 911 of the
964 generation. So it’s actually a generation
younger than its role models. If you don’t happen to have an old 964 in the
back yard, Singer will be happy to provide you with one.
The car
gets disassembled, right down to the monocoque. It is sandblasted and gets a
few extra weldings for added structural integrity. All panels in the front,
back, sides etc. are replaced by carbon fiber panels. Only the steel doors are
kept. For safety it seems.
The engine
is swapped by a hand-made Cosworth flat 6. It is based on Porsches 3.6 liter
but the displacement is increased to 3.9. It is up to you as a customer to
choose how aggressively it should be tuned; ranging from 300 to 425 horsepower.
That’s in a car, which weighs in at less than 1,200 kilograms! Or, in other
words, it’s like fitting your favourite lounge chair with a thermonuclear
bombs. And not one of the puny Koreans ones, but a biiiig boom. A Soviet one
named Tsar Bomba or something similar.
The
interior gets a complete rebuild with Recaro seats and Singer’s trademark in-your-face
tachometer. The
attention to detail is obsessive. It seems Mr. Dickinson wasn’t quite happy
with the horn button of the Momo Prototipo steering wheel. It seemed a bit
plasticky and, horror of horrors, cheap. So Singer Vehicle Design made their
own, polished by hand and installed with a Porsche emblem in leather.
The brakes
also receive an update with an ABS-system, Brembo discs and Porsches “Big Red”
calibres. It all fits with the Singer philosophy of combining the best of today
with the best of yesterday.
Labels: 911, Porsche, Singer
