Singer Vehicle Design

Rob Dickinson – Founder, Singer Vehicle Design

It sounds like a Hollywood movie. The singular vision of an obsessed an ex car designer who then became a rock musician who now stands as one of the world's foremost distillers of the essence of air cooled Porsche. This is the story of Rob Dickinson and Singer Vehicle Designs.

Companies like Singer Vehicle Designs are as much about their amazing founders as they are about the spectacular cars so we want to tell you about Rob Dickinson, the founder and CEO of Singer Vehicle Designs. Rob Dickinson is an overachiever. Born 23 July 1965 in the UK (a native of Norfolk, England) he is a singer, songwriter and entrepreneur who has seen tremendous success in his life.

Rob’s infatuation with cars began in 1970 on a family vacation in France. As he had told it in numerous interviews, his father pointed out a fast approaching 911 Targa while travelling on the Autoroute and he was hooked forever. In college he studied Automotive Design at Coventry University and on graduation went on to work with the Peter Stevens (designer of the McLaren F1) and Julian Thompson at Lotus. A few years later he decided that car design was not his future mainly because he saw rock ’n’ roll as my way out of Norfolk. He picked up a guitar and took inspiration from his cousin (Iron Maiden singer Bruce) and off he went.

He decided to focus on his music and that is where most of you may know him from. Rob Dickinson first became known worldwide as singer and guitarist in the band Catherine Wheel. While a member of Catherine Wheel from 1990 to 2000, Dickinson proved himself as a talented songwriter and vocalist, however, after the 2000 release of Catherine Wheel's last album, Wishville, the group disbanded.

He moved in Los Angeles in 2003 to make a solo album. While in LA he also focused on creating his dream 911, “the ultimate hybrid of all the lightweight, racing 911s I loved, mashed up as a cafe racer hot rod”.

Enter a 1969 Porsche 911 that became known as the “Brown Bomber”. Restored to serve as a lightweight daily driver that Rob used all the time, it wasn’t long before people would hound him to buy it. He thought he may be onto something special. In his own words he started to ask, “Why can’t we take an old 911 and present it as the definitive air-cooled 911? The best-looking, the best driving, the best spec, built like a Rolex…”

In 2009, after a decade as a touring rock-n-roll frontman, Dickinson returned to his automotive passions full time and founded Singer Vehicle Design in Los Angeles (where it is still headquartered). It became a new outlet for his creativity and lifelong love of the Porsche 911. Singer Vehicle Design started by restoring and modifying the 964s and continues to innovate and grow, including a new Swiss watch and the ultimate 911 in the DLS. As for the Singer company name, it is both in honor of renowned Porsche engineer, Norbert Singer, and Dickinson's other career as a singer himself.

What Is a Singer Porsche?

This may seem like an obvious question, but the answer is nuanced. Is a Singer Porsche a restored Porsche 911? Is it a customized classic 911? Is it a hot rod outlaw Porsche? It is a totally unique model? Maybe all of the above.

Singer Vehicle Designs restores air-cooled 964 911 Porsches, turning them into the “ultimate 911.” The final product name sums it up best, it is a Porsche 911 “reimagined” by Singer. It focuses its restoration efforts on 1989-1994 Porsche 964s (about 60,000 units were produced by Porsche so there are lots of them around, although values have skyrocketed because of their popularity as a base for restomodding).

The 964 is the perfect foundation for a Singer restoration. The 964 has classic air cooled 911 proportions, an air-cooled flat six engine, modern day technology in terms of safety, braking, suspension and steering.

Singer takes these tired 964s and restores them from the ground up while simultaneously optimizing every facet of the car and evoking the classic lines of the original 911. Each Singer Porsche is unique and no detail is unattended (“everything is important”) in a Singer build, the attention to detail is amazing. A new engine, drivetrain, and suspension improves performance, while painstakingly refurbished bodywork and stunning interiors complete the cars. 4,000+ hours go into into restoring, tuning, and customizing a Singer Porsche.

A Singer Porsche is the ultimate 911.

How Much Is A Singer Porsche?

This is where we need to break the bad news to you. It is not cheap to have the ultimate reimagined Porsche 911. Singer Porsche restorations start at $395,000 plus the donor car, but most customers usually go well over $600,000. Singer says the most recent restoration commissions have been in the $600,000 to $650,000 range.

At the top of the range is the Singer and Williams collaboration in the form of the wildly reimagined 500 horsepower Singer Vehicle Design DLS. That sells for $1.8 millions, with 75 examples of this restoration being made available to customers (as always every single one is personalized for every individual buyer).

If all of this sounds absurdly expensive, think about the work that goes into these builds and the custom high end materials. A “normal” build is upward of 4,000 in man hours alone. A story Rob often tells is he first started out (in 2009), Rob charged one of his first customers $300,000 and ended up spending $800,000 on the restoration. Since then the company has worked hard to find the right balance between reasonable pricing with how absurdly expensive it is to do the work right.

We have seen a handful of Singer Porsches for sale in the aftermarket and they are going for well into the millions. Now that Singer has said it will stop making Classic Commissions, we expect the price of the existing cars to continue to increase. It also means that the above pricing is mute because Singer will be selling new models like the Turbo Study, which will likely be even more expensive.

Buying & Building A Singer Porsche – The Process

The process for getting your own Singer car is more than just rocking up and dropping money. Sure, each Singer Porsche starts with the owner putting down a big deposit and then working on their dream spec list but they also need to find a 964 donor car (so we are talking 1989 to 1994 Porsche 911 for non-nerds). Once they are called up they send their car to Singer and the team goes to work, completely disassembly the car, media blasting to bare metal, adding carbon fiber bodywork and then technicians at Singer each wait their turn to transform the 911 into the final form. Engine assembly is handled by Ed Pink Racing Engines and paint is outsourced, for now, but the suspension, trim, interior, assembly, and final fit and finish are all done inside a surprisingly small shop in Sun Valley, California.

Get on the Waitlist

Singer had built a few hundred cars so far. While a handful of Singer cars have come up for sale in the aftermarket, they are few and far between so it makes sense to put your name down on the waitlist. So what is the waitlist and process if you are one of the lucky ones who just sold your tech startup or your hedge fund had a great year and you wanted to buy the ultimate, reimagined Porsche by Singer. You will need to work directly with Singer and you better get in line because there is a long wait. After a deposit has been placed and the specifications have been determined, the restoration can take from 8-10 months, while a typical waiting period from deposit to delivery is approximately 18 months. You are looking at an almost two year wait for your Singer Porsche, but is that really too long when you consider each donor 911 goes through Singer’s complete ground-up customization process, ending up as the ultimate re-imagination of the 964-generation Porsche 911, with no detail overlooked and totally personalized to your tastes. Don’t wait then, write that check for the deposit and get on the waitlist. Please note that Singer has said it is no longer building classic commission cars, so you will be looking to purchase the DLS or Turbo Study cars moving forward. The DLS is limited to just 75 units.

Speccing Your Reimagined Porsche

Singer really allows a lot of personalization on these cars. Broadly you can have your Singer be sports-driving focused, luxurious, flamboyant or simple and understated. Every restored car is unique to their owner and has its own story. In saying that we did find some broad options that Singer talks about on their site that will help you with your (probably imaginary) options list.

Chassis & Body

You supply your own fully road legal 1989-1994 Porsche 911 Coupe or Targa so that it retains its Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), odometer reading and is legally registered, operated and licensed in the same manner. The cars are comprehensively disassembled and all bodywork to be replaced is removed from the car. The monocoque (unibody) is media-blasted to bare metal and then treated for rust prevention. The monocoque receives additional welding strengthening and fabrication in preparation for its new bodywork. After that almost every panel on the car is replaced by carbon fiber bodywork (doors stay as steel to keep strength in side impacts).

In terms of colors, Singer has 75 colors which they feel complement the classic curves of our machines and recall some of the vivid hues pioneered in the 1960s and 70s. There are tons of options.

Engine, Exhaust & Transmission Options

Donor car engines are completely disassembled then meticulously blueprinted, balanced and hand-built using new or state of the art components. Customers are offered a choice of three engines, each with a unique output and character, designed to match the dynamics of their car.

Engine Option – 3.8-liter, 300 horsepower. There is a 3.8L flat six with 300 horsepower. It has a Bosch engine management system, exhaust and ancillaries, therefore retains the engine’s original emission calibration.

Engine Option – 3.8-liter, 350 horsepower. There is a 3.8 liter flax six with 350 horsepower. The engine was co-developed with Cosworth and is built by Ed Pink Racing Engines. Singer says this engine option is a nice balance between a high-revving, high horsepower Porsche racing engine and a torque rich, tractable and durable engine for the road.

Engine Option – 4.0-liter, 390 horsepower. There is a 4.0 liter flax six with 390 horsepower. Ed Pink Racing Engines developed and builds this unit and it takes cues from the Cosworth unit. This is the most popular engine option. In addition to almost 400 horsepower it has a healthy 7,200 rpm redline and about 315 lb/ft of torque. Performance is amazing for an air-cooled, non turbo engine with an estimated 0 – 60 mph time of 3.3 seconds.

For the DLS, Singer Vehicle Designs partnered with Williams Advanced Engineering to develop the DLS (Dynamics and Lightweighting Study), their take on the ultimate air cooled Porsche 911. Engine capacity has been increased to 4 litres, with an accompanying screaming 9000 rpm limit. Around 500hp is now transmitted through the real wheels.

Interior Options

Your Singer 911 comes with a customized interior. The attention to detail is amazing. There are too many interior options to name here but suffice to say this is where you can really go nuts in making your car your own. Materials, fittings, seats, steering wheel, gauges, rear seating, interior paneling and much more can be completely customized