In keeping with legend, Singer Automobile Design founder and govt chairman Rob Dickinson was a younger boy the primary time his dad identified a Porsche 911. He was immediately smitten. Dickinson turned that keenness right into a multi-million greenback enterprise, reimagining traditional Porsche fashions together with his personal twist.
To be completely clear, Singer will not be sponsored, accepted, endorsed by, or in any manner related or affiliated with Porsche. Prospects convey their very own 911 to the Singer store—not simply any previous 911, however an air-cooled 964 model mannequin from 1989-1994—for a whole makeover. The vehicles are fully disassembled and modified across the authentic chassis with a course of pushed by Singer’s obsessive consideration to element.
Each piece, each bolt, each single tiny factor is evaluated and lovingly recrafted. Dickinson began Singer to recreate the traditional 911 with trendy science whereas preserving the essence of the automobile and making it higher.
“I scrawled ‘All the pieces is essential’ on a wall 10 years in the past,” Dickinson says. “All of it must be addressed with the identical quantity of excessiveness. That is a part of what our purchasers love–that it’s bonkers. It’s crucial sports activities automobile on this planet, which is why I selected the 911 to be the lens by means of which the Singer model operates.”
For all of its engineering developments and know-how, right here’s the shock: On the finish of the day, the automobile is analog. Meaning no touchscreens and no self-driving coding. It’s trustworthy to the period, and intensely targeted on crafting an ideal car, not a cyborg imitation.
Recreating a cultural German icon
Named partially after Norbert Singer, who started his profession as a racing engineer within the growth division of Porsche in 1970, the Singer Group now employs upwards of 600 workers in California and the UK. The 300th Porsche 911 reimagined by means of Singer’s Basic restoration companies division was accomplished in February 2024, with unrelenting demand that has no finish in sight.
“Whether or not you’re keen on the Porsche 911 or not, it’s a culturally essential icon with hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of trustworthy followers,” Dickinson factors out. “Maybe properly or unwisely, we put ourselves on the market as suggesting that we take this spectacular icon of a automobile and reimagine it to be higher than it was when it began. And somewhat bit extra related for the trendy world.”
A consumer collaborates with Singer, selecting their menu objects to create the automobile they wish to create throughout the boundaries Singer units. It might be geared up with a usually aspirated or turbocharged engine. It might embody physique work that evokes the early 911 F-Mannequin first launched within the early Sixties, or the later 911 G-Mannequin, or perhaps a particular Porsche racing automobile, all based mostly on the 964.
These vehicles usually are not recreations or continuations; they’re not merely restored, both. To riff on a traditional Seventies TV present, these Singer-rebuilt supercars are just like the Six Million Greenback Man: They will rebuild it. They’ve the know-how. They will make it higher than it was. Higher, stronger, sooner. One Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer may not price you six million {dollars}, however it’ll strategy one million or extra. And that’s due to Singer’s fixation on perfection.
From begin to end, a Singer mission can take about 10 months as soon as the method begins, and the corporate has an extended line out the door, says Maz Fawaz, the corporate’s CEO. Prospects approaching Singer at this time would possibly get their automobile again in three years after it proceeds by means of the gauntlet of disassembly and reassembly, guided by a cadre of consultants of their craft. On the engineering facet, Fawaz says, there are a large number of Singer workers with motorsports expertise, together with F1, who perceive the fabric science.
Tearing aside a 911 to place it again collectively, higher, stronger, and technically excellent
Step one–disassembly–occurs off-site from Singer’s pristine Torrance, California store ground. Principally, as a result of it’s extraordinarily dirty work.
“Think about bringing in a automobile from 1990,” Fawaz explains. “It’s previous and usually very, very soiled. Sometimes, the donor vehicles are excessive mileage, not valuable.”
A donor automobile is media blasted to take away the muck and the paint down to reveal steel, then given a rust inhibitor coating earlier than transport to the Singer website. Then the crew repairs and bolsters the chassis, utilizing seam welding, then they take away the physique panels, changing them with lighter, stronger carbon fiber panels. The automobile is successfully restyled and rebodied. Lastly, it’s painted and will get a full “shakedown” to test for squeaks and rattles.
From a design perspective, the Singer store is technologically superior whereas mixing analog strategies. The crew will each create a full-size clay mannequin and use Autodesk Alias, which is the surfacing software program used all around the world for automobile design. Singer makes use of trendy milling methods to mill from clay and construct exhausting fashions earlier than the baton is handed off to the engineers. The store additionally shows artisanal talent in portray and surfacing the vehicles, wrapping the vehicles in leather-based. It runs the gamut from cutting-edge speedy prototyping and pc software program to very old school methods of doing issues. No matter is required to get the job accomplished, Dickinson says.
“We begin with a really particular 911, then deconstruct it and make the vehicles lighter, stiffer, and extra lovely than ever,” Fawaz says. “We use carbon fiber, aluminum, and titanium quite a bit, and we optimize the forged efficiency with out resorting to costly modeling.”
For all of its high-tech instruments and supplies, the Singer designers put these automobiles collectively extra like a high-end watchmaker places collectively a timepiece. “We deal with the paint, leather-based, and trim the best way we’d deal with jewellery, not a automobile,” Dickinson says. “After we began, we constructed one or two vehicles per 12 months. Now, we’re on the bleeding edge, proving {that a} restoration firm can scale itself.”
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