For this week’s installment in our Made to Drive film series, we packed our bags and tripods for a trip to the midwest where we met up with Matt Euson and the Singer-restored Porsche 911 that he’s been wheeling around his home in Indiana. In a place where pickup trucks are the norm and almost the rule, it’s a rare sight indeed, this wide-bodied, 400-horsepower air-cooled and leather-wrapped foreigner. It goes without saying though: enthusiasm for flat-six perfection is bound by no borders.
Matt knew he wanted a classic car to add to his collection for a while, but he also knew that whatever it turned out to be, it wasn’t going to take the form of something like a puttering Brit with finicky electrics or a coach-built Italian whose beauty is only matched by the finickiness of its temperament. It had to be a car that could be counted on, and one that demanded concentration. It had to be a car that required a complete mental investment to be driven towards its limits. He’s found that and then some in this 911: “When I climb into this car, it has my full attention… it provides freedom, and I don’t just mean freedom to leave one circumstance and to another. I mean freedom, mentally, from whatever else you’re dealing with…”
And when he finally does climb out of the car and back into the real world, Matt loves the fact that he does so smelling like oil and gas and sweat—like he’s been a part of it, not just a passenger in some sterile machine that does it all for you and leaves you feeling like that’s exactly what’s just happened too. The work carried out by Rob Dickinson and his team at Singer Vehicle Design takes the already involved driving experience of the Porsche 911, and, as the plate on this car says, takes it up to 11. That tends to be the case when you’ve got a motor built by Ed Pink wedged into the engine bay of a 964.
Matt’s car began its life as a regular 964 911 C2 (equipped with a factory five-speed and sans sunroof), and upon acquiring it from one of his clients, he promptly sent it off to Southern California to be transformed by Singer into “the ultimate restomod hotrod.” The word restomod might be a bit unfair in this case though, because the word carries a set of connotations about build quality that just don’t apply to cars like this one. In a 911 that’s been restored by Singer, there is nothing that comes at the expense of anything else: it’s a consummate celebration of the idea of the ultimate air-cooled experience, and that extends past the performance. It extends to every detail: every stitch, every sound, every tactile interaction must be perfect, from the leather on the Momo Prototipo to the feel of the radio dials between your fingers.
As Matt puts it so eloquently, “You can’t pick and choose what’s important, everything has to be important.” That’s what separates vehicles like this, “The Indiana Car,” from the ones that might be able to match it in one regard, but one regard only. And in keeping with this idea, Matt uses this 911 for everything, without discrimination, without picking and choosing. Whether he’s driving down to the office, picking his kids up from football practice, going on a date with his wife, or waking up before the sunrise to get in a few hours of undiluted driving pleasure on the backroads nearby, Matt is putting this car to work. That’s Driving Tastefully®
