Singer’s first DLS customer car is bound for (where else?) The Quail
A month ago, a duo of early customer-spec examples stemming from Singer Vehicle Design’s Dynamics and Lightweighting Study (DLS) sped up the Goodwood hill. Now, the very first of these $1.8M “reimagined” Porsches to be built for a customer is making the trip from its U.K. birthplace to show North America what happens when one of the world’s preeminent modifiers of air-cooled 911s decides to infuse a road-going 964 with 21st-century motorsports tech.
Singer pays the bills by restoring 911s and allowing each customer to customize their cars beginning with powertrain and ending with the meticulously cross-hatched leather strips in the seats. Seventy-five lucky customers will have the opportunity to customize their 911 in the DLS mold—the result of a marriage between Singer’s obsessive, spare-no-expense philosophy and Williams’ decades of engineering know-how. The formula, in short: Body a 964 in aero-optimized carbon-fiber, plant a 500-hp, naturally aspirated flat-six in its tail, and feed it a steady diet of magnesium, titanium, and silicon-infused carbon.
Meet the Unico commission. It’s not the first DLS we’ve seen—Singer let us ride along in its test mule back in 2018—but this Absinthe Green beauty is the first of the “client-specification” DLS restorations. At a screaming 9000 rpm, the 4.0-liter flat-six makes its maximum 500 hp. The blueprinted mill exhales through an exhaust made of titanium and Inconel, the latter a trademarked, high-strength alloy of nickel, chromium, and iron that F1 cars have employed for years. That grunt is channeled to the rear wheels via a lightweight magnesium gearbox, with carbon-ceramic brakes clamped by aluminum monobloc calipers in charge of stopping duties. The rubber is bespoke, courtesy of Michelin.
The DLS may be the most powerful and dynamically refined of the company’s 911 restorations, but Singer didn’t expunge all comfort or security from the car. The dash hides a lightweight air-conditioning system. There’s traction control and ABS, along with multiple drive modes to tailor the ride to your needs and/or preferences. The front glass is heated, and the nose will lift to clear any rude and threatening obstacles.
The Unico commission wears a complementary color scheme, pairing a Blood Orange interior with an Absinthe Green exterior. It’s a relatively tame combination, by Singer standards, and it represents an entirely sold-out run. Each of the 75 DLS restorations promised by Singer is spoken for. If you hold a ticket to The Quail, held this Friday as part of Monterey Car Week, you can whet your envy in person.
