It’s the end of the road when it comes to Singer’s original “reimaged” Porsche 911s. In a recent interview with Top Gear, Singer Vehicle Design founder Rob Dickinson confirms that his company will no longer take orders for the naturally aspirated Porsche 964-based restomods that made his company famous. The company will now be turning its attention to its next endeavor: the Turbo Study.
“We’ve actually stopped taking orders for ‘Classic’,” Dickinson told Top Gear. “We’ve capped it to about 450 [cars]. We’ve got a lot of Turbos to build! I’d love to say there’s a masterplan… there isn’t really a masterplan. There wasn’t a master plan 12 years ago when we started, we’re kind of making it up as we go along.”
He added that the company is taking a “pause” with its classic series, though he made sure to point out that the decision is not due to a shortage of unmodified 964s left for Singer to scoop up. Dickson believes his company has reached a sensible endpoint in developing the naturally aspirated air-cooled flat-six engine — and he believes that capping production will keep values of existing cars high.
“It’s time to have a go at turbocharging – synonymous with Porsche in so many ways. To do a refined car, really chase the NVH and make the car – dare I say it – luxurious and something that made you feel super good as well as being fast and super refined was another challenge for us after the DLS and the Classic, which we’ve been doing for 12 years,” he told Top Gear.
Dickinson boasts that Singer’s Turbo won’t have the monstrous turbo lag of original 930 Turbos. In fact, he says it will have literally no lag at all. Dickinson tells Top Gear he doesn’t want this car to be the widowmaker the original 930 was.
If you want to experience that absence of lag for yourself, you’ll have to give Singer the better part of three-quarters of a million dollars. That number will probably inflate substantially depending on how you option your build.
Each Turbo Study will come with a twin-turbocharged, 3.8-liter air-cooled Mezger flat-six producing 450 horsepower — a number that can go up or down depending on what the client wants. Hell, you can even get it with all-wheel drive if you like. No matter how you spec it, all Turbos come with the same transmission: a six-speed manual.
It’s a new era over at Singer Vehicle Design, and from the looks of it the company is starting off strong.