Glorious Singer DLS Porsche 911 for sale
Restomod kings set out to build the ultimate air-cooled 911. The Dynamics and Lightweighting Study is the result
By Cam Tait / Sunday, 17 December 2023 / Loading comments
‘Oh look, another restomod’, you must be thinking. True, there are quite a few of them about these days, but those bringing a new lease of life to old (mainly 964) 911s do at least try their best to differentiate themselves a bit. Tuthill, for instance, will build you a 911 with a flat-six that’ll rev all the way up to 11,000rpm, while Kamm has proven the four-cylinder 912 makes a great road racer. And if you’re you’re so inclined, Everrati will sell you a classic 911 reimagined as an EV. So yes, there are quite a few restomodders these days, meaning there’s something for everyone – providing you have copious amounts of disposable cash, of course.
But what we have here isn’t any other restomod. It is the restomod. Singer may not be the first to have glitzed up a classic car, but it was certainly the first to make it trendy. If it weren’t for Singer, I wouldn’t spend most of my day dreaming about what a Subaru Impreza dressed in carbon fibre and trimmed in the world’s poshest materials would look like (probably a little something like the Prodrive P25, to be honest). The reason why Singer captured everyone’s imagination is because it puts a ridiculous amount of time and resource into creating the very best 911, from the retro styling right down to the choice of headlight bulb.
Over the years, the ‘911 Reimagined by Singer’ has become evermore complex; first pursuing the ultimate air-cooled Porsche before taking on more radical projects such as the car we have here. This is the Singer DLS, or ‘Dynamics and Lightweighting Study’, and it’s one of the closest things we’ve got to an all-new, old 911. Yes, it was still based on a 964, but as the name suggests it was heavily reworked with bespoke double wishbone suspension, adjustable dampers and a raft of lightweight components resulting in a kerb weight of just 990kg.
The real party piece was, as always, the engine. Singer enlisted the boffins at Williams Advanced Engineering to come up with a new air-cooled engine for the DLS, taking the form of a 4.0-litre, four valves per cylinder head flat-six that will rev to 9,000rpm. The aerodynamics were completely overhauled, too, with the windscreen sitting flush with the bodywork to improve airflow, while the ducktail spoiler – supposedly useless on the old 2.7 Carrera Rs – was redesigned to deliver actual downforce. And that’s all while retaining the modern retro look made popular by Singer 15 years ago.
Of course, the look and feel of the thing is entirely up to you if you’re buying a DLS new. But that’ll mean sitting on an incredibly long wait list, whereas you could pick this example up in time for Christmas if you hurry. Good thing it’s been specced impeccably, then, finished in a Black Olive over brown leather with green side stripes. The real eye-catcher is the green-tinted carbon fibre, featuring not only on the skirts but also throughout the cabin and on the inside of the front boot. The seller claims it’s had $370,000 worth of options fitted, with the carbon highlights accounting for nearly a third of it. Wowsers.
While it’s currently listed as POA, the DLS is a $2,000,000 (£1,570,000) car before options, so that should give you an idea of how much you’ll need to set aside. It’s left-hand drive, given its first owner was based in the Netherlands, but the car is now in the UK and has recently had a Singer service and a detailing session at Topaz. Sounds excessive for a car that’s little over a year old, but it’s been well used with 5,900km (3,666 miles) accrued through various European road trips. Can’t imagine a better car for the job, really.
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