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Films:
The Porsche 911: Reimagined By Singer, Driven By Enthusiasts
Amazing machine!
I’m a Porsche enthusiast, a year ago I was thinking of creating the ultimate collectible piece for Porsche lovers and I come up with this idea: https://kck.st/2EhRWCV I decided to build a CNC Fuchs replica wheel for my self and now I’m sharing the project with the community. The project was posted on Kickstarter a few weeks ago to see the response from the community. You guys are free to check it out, thanks.
Here is is a careful done, short documentary video on the Singer – Ed Pink 4.0 liter engine, the men who build it, and the level of machining, inspection and test performed on these engines. The video is narrated by the general manager at Ed Pink. They have a dynamometer and flow bench in house, and people with decades of experience in using them. The cases are line-bored in house. The cylinder heads for these engines, which arrive new, receive an average of eight hours of hand work, each. Extraordinary shop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=4-DSIba8qZ4
The level of documentation on the Singers is sufficiently sparsely that a lot of the basics of what Rob Dickinson’s people have done with this car are easily missed. This is true even after a fair amount of diligence in reading the literature. Apparently all the basic body panels, e.g: quarter panels, fenders, doors, deck lids, and roof are removed and replaced by Singer with carbon fiber panels designed by and manufactured for Singer alone. By doing this, and taking some other measures, the Singer team managed to remove about 500 pounds from the car.
Here in the San Gabriel Valley there are a number of shops that will do a solid job of cutting back the fenders on a 911, bolting or welding on some fender flares and blending them in. This is not that. Dickinson’s people worked in clay for two years, before pulling off the lines of their full scale model with a coordinate measuring machine, and making the molds for their panels. This is not a modification to a car. This is re-imaging, and re-skinning the entire car.
Even if Dickinson is being optimistic about the 500 pound change, even if he is off by a factor of 2, the achievement in obtaining hundreds of pounds of weight reduction on the chassis of street driven car, that still has upholstery, a dash board, a heater and air-conditioning, is pretty amazing.
My new favorite video from Petrolicious! Great juxtaposition; very successful guy that is an Indiana boy at heart driving an uber expensive Singer/Porsche the way it was meant to be driven- and not caring about rough twisty roads or gravel! Indiana back country roads are what turned me into a Porsche guy, and I’ve been driving the hell out of my Carrera 4 ever since. This video totally captures that experience and Matt has a true driver’s attitude!
It’s interesting how people nowadays behave on blogs like this. I mean globally not only in my country Switzerland, but obviously also in yours in the US. Maybe we just are getting used more to complain or to envy others for what they have instead enjoying life. It may be the “Guitar Slinger Effect” or better “Virus” also going around in Petrolicious. Happy New Year to all real Life and Car Enthusiasts!
I agree,plus see room for me to learn to let live,and reduce my criticism . Petrolicious brings these driver’s-builders and stories to our doorstep without charge. We welcome them into our living rooms,serve them a drink,invite them to stay over the weekend. We listen,smell and take a ride thru the woods in a shared passion . We leave harsh criticism for DMV’s .. and hope each guest will look forward to returning to share more . Let’s begin practicing hospitality !
Funny coincidence … my sign out code below nearly read NIcE, just 1 letter off.
I’ve seen several Singer cars at a variety of cars ‘n coffee gatherings as well as local, Porsche “only” events… every one of them exquisite to the smallest detail. And although I’ve seen many in “static” mode, never actually saw one move of it’s own power (accept via the video machine). I won’t engage in the cost vs value argument as the last time I spent $500 large on something it came with a bathroom, garage and a roof. The best part of the film… watching this owner blast down country roads with little concern about stone chips and other, real world road debris and hazards.
I always liked the attitude of this little short film. https://youtu.be/2VJNTg7CegQ
I can truly appreciate the owner’s attitude. These cars are not built to be trailer queens. They must be driven, at times like you stole it. Truly these Singers are some of the nicest vehicles on the planet. The means to own is the only thing I cannot appreciate about cars like this. The price to own far exceeds the logical price to obtain. It is the 911 of 911’s . There are competing companies to Singer that are doing the very same with 911’s. These are guys that used to work for Singer. These cars are of the same caliber at a price tag that is a couple hundred grand less. Of course, there is ego involved when making a purchase of this caliber. When the money is not the problem it always amazed me how folks will overspend to say they have spent this much. Especially when talking HOTRODS. In this world its how well it is engineered. Not how much you paid. I believe this owner understands that. This is why he drives the cars and doesn’t just stare at it. Still, I think 400k + is far too much for any 911. This is only an opinion of course. If I had the means to acquire one I am not sure my opinion would be any different. Doesn’t mean I would write the cheque.
My strong sense is that no one at Singer is making an excessive profit. The cost of that low volume workmanship is amazing. When you get a group of technicians and artisans going at this level money simply vanishes. If a buyer wants a 911 hot-rod many people can do a good one for a fraction of the price. The price of a Singer is that high, because that’s what it costs to work at this level, of fit, finish, and obsessive finesse with regard to the smallest perceivable details of the design. If you want a Singer 911, Rob Dickinson is there to help you out and he stands alone. If want a solid, sorted 911 hot-rod there are 100 garages nationally that do good work in the resto-mod business. They really are different products, aren’t they? One isn’t ‘better’ than the other. Just different. One is done for a purpose, to a budget. The other is done to pursue an ideal and the cost gets tallied up at the end. Like you, if I could afford a Singer 911, I wouldn’t buy one. I would do something else with the money. This said, the Singer 911 is a very interesting exercise in seeing just how far you can push a certain vision and the industrial craft that goes with it. And I find myself engaged that someone has done this: has found out how far you can push this exact design.
I was so glad Matt pointed out the importance (to some of us) of the manual transmission to the driving experience. People can yak all day about the superiority of modern auto trannies but I still don’t care. Shifting is what really involves the driver with the machine. The 5 speed in my old Volvo 245 puts a smile on my face. Driving this Singer would give me a smile they’d have to remove surgically!
When I saw that this car was in Indiana, I thought “what a drag owning a 911 in the flatlands”. Boy was I wrong! I too would be up every morning at 5:00 if I had a car like that on roads like those.
The basket weave leather is an interesting choice. Unlike a top-grain leather the weave exposes a lot of cut edges to the air letting the leather ‘breathe’. And this makes the leather quite fragrant. On a design and build job in which every imaginable aspect of the user experience is being used, tuned, and modulated the folks at Singer have to be thinking about fragrance. They have thought about everything else. Without question they are considering how the car smells when the owner first gets in and closes the doors. Spinneybeck is the vendor and you will find the details here. https://www.spinneybeck.com/index.php?/upholstery-leather/categories/ The texture of the weave also hides small scratches and finger prints, and the openness of the weave lets leather dressings get around to the back side of the hide.
Wonderful car, as many all the others 911s. Singers are dreams cars for me. Any aircooled Porsche is a dream to me. It´s quite difficult to be a Porsche fan as these cars are so well done and has such a beautiful and classic design that they tends to get more expensive almost daily basis. But no problem. I have lots of fun with my beetle and its couple of Webers 40.
Oh yeah Matt, I can understand what you say in the nicely done video with eye to details. From perfection to outstanding. It’s like Zagato would have finished this 911 (the RSR of course is one of the 911 history milestones). Especially I like the exhaust note in the gearchange when lifting foot from the gaz pedal! Congrats and much more fun with your Singer. Cars are made to be driven, that’s right!
Huh? What? Painful? A car video painful? There is very little documentation on the Singer 911 effort. A few videos. Some magazine articles. The company does not even have a Wikipedia entry, though the founder Rob Dickinson does, and most of that is about his rock & roll recordings. What is absent from the journalistic accounts is who drives a Singer 911, where they drive it and why. And this video addresses that gap in the record. I strongly suspect that most people who own Singers don’t drive them at all. For many people even extremely wealthy people, a Singer is just too valuable to drive. Car guys are not actors. They are car guys. We are privileged to learn their stories and their motivations. They owe neither of these to the public. Yet somehow the folks at Petrolicious manage to get access and gain the trust of this owners and collectors.
I’ll join in with Mark on this one .. I half expected this driver to have stuck a Marlboro pack under his half rolled T-shirt sleeve,and at least 1 expensive threatening tatoo theme going on … Plus the production has this commercial feel to it where I have expect it to conclude with a credit for a sexy add about cologne for men . And 2 hours of morning ego stroke’n regularly.. seems like by now the car would of been compounded .
In typical Pet-Licious fashion.. they produced a fine Gallery review for this film. In it are some fine shots of this extraordinary barn style mini paradise building which I’d bet my last nickel,houses a fine shop and maybe some of the other rev’n projects Matt’s tinkering with .. Thank you for these shots .. this style of construction is my favorite !
@Emerson Harris, I missed that. The tachometer does indeed go to 11, like a Spinal Tap Marshall amp. This variant of the engine, however, red-lines at 7,200. Apparently Singer is working on a variant of this engine, with Williams in England, that will red-line at 9,000. You need titanium connecting rods and similar measures to get to that speed, and 500 Hp.
