When I heard that Singer Vehicle Design were bringing not one, but two cars along to Caffeine & Machine’s ‘The Bowl’ venue in Bedfordshire this weekend, I knew where I needed to be.
Since 2009, Singer have been restoring and reimagining Porsche 964s into bespoke creations for their clientele. To simply call them ‘restomods’ is under-selling what a Singer Porsche is, because these commissioned builds are nothing short of automotive works of art. What makes a Singer a Singer is the attention to detail, both in design and build quality.
Since the beginning, Singer’s business has revolved around their ‘Classic’ 964-based backdate, but since the order book for those cars were closed in 2022 (having been capped at 450 units), the California-based company has been exploring new ideas.
We’ll get to the Singer DLS-T (Dynamics & Lightweighting Study – Turbo) in a moment, but first I had to take a crawl over the Classic on display, which was finished in Singer’s now iconic pale blue and orange detail scheme.
By replacing its exterior panels with carbon fibre equivalents, tweaking engine performance and modernising the retro interior, this car has a look and feel that befits its Classic name, but with discreet modern features throughout.
While the Classic was gorgeous, I wasn’t the only one who found it hard to take my eyes off the car parked alongside it at The Bowl – Singer’s newest Dynamic Lightweight Study series creation, the DLS-T (Dynamic Lightweight Study – Turbo). As its name suggest, this is a 964 Turbo-based build.
The Singer DLS-T’s visual inspiration comes from the 934/5 endurance racer of the late-1970s, something reflected in its ultra-wide carbon fibre bodywork and unique side-exit exhausts, which have opened up room for a prominent rear diffuser.
The car was shown in its ‘road’ configuration, but the owner also has a ‘track’ package which updates the front fascia and trades the rear ducktail spoiler for a circuit-spec wing.
The heart of the creation is a twin-turbo 3.8L flat six that revs to an astonishing 9,000rpm and produces 700hp.
Inside the DLS-T, there’s never-ending attention to detail finished to the same exquisite level as the exterior. Even though the thinking behind this iteration is to reduce weight, the interior is still luxurious. Singer does this so well.
Although these two perfect Singer 911 reimaginations share the same underpinnings, in many ways they really couldn’t be more different. The question is, which one would you choose given the chance?
Samuel Cherry
Instagram: samgcherry
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