RE: Chris Harris video: the Singer 911

[DanielSan]

Resorting to name calling and cheap insults. How high brow of you.

[T.J.]

Having watched the latest Drive video with Harris in the Singer, I got thinking about what that build meant to me, and what other high-profile 'ultimate retro air-cooled' builds there are. The three ones that came to mind due to the very different approaches taken to realise them are:

1. Chris Harris in the 'Singer' Porsche
2. Harris and his own 'Tuthill' 911 build from a few years ago
3. Magnus

3 very different approaches and end results, but all utterly desirable.

I've just watched all three videos again over the weekend and was surprised in my ranking:
1st Tuthill - there is just something ... authentic about this - no frippery at all, focused on the drive. For someone like myself who get's lost in the nuances of carrying speed, it is really appealing.
2nd Magnus - there is something authentic about his creations - lots of very personal Magnus-Frippery, some of which ain't me, but the finished article still has authenticity
3rd Singer - I'm amazed I have put them 'last' - an ultimate creation, so absolutely stunning inside, and yet.... I feel bad saying it when you can see the thought and execution, but it lacks something to me. It'd hugely desirable but not quite a 911 in the way the others are. An obvious manifestation of this is the arches - horny, but not RSR.

I'm stuggling why, after watching the video, I'm a little less absolutely obessed with Singers as I was even a couple of months ago after reading Meadens wonderful piece on his experiences.

[E500 TAT]

Awesome, simply AWESOME!

[roystinho]

So there's a Singer 911 in town apparently. It has been to Top Gear today and is at Richard Tipper's aka @pefectionvalet for a detail on Friday, so is there anywhere we can go and see it?

[roystinho]

Nobody knows?

[Davey S2]

Doubtful but you could try looking on Detailing World as most of the detailers tend to put up lots of pics on there of interesting cars they work on.

[dinkel]

Pre '66 2 litre in action.

[martin mrt]

I watched this video yesterday, 27 minutes of brilliance

The singer project and those involved were mind blowing.

[canucklehead]

oh.my.god. Want want want.
Where's that winning lottery ticket?

[shoestring7]

goodhand said:

shoestring7 said:

goodhand said:

shoestring7 said:

NGK210 said:

Excellent. Thank you for a great vid about my dream car.

Oh, and just one wee question: Why's the company called Singer?

After this chap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_singer

(Not many people appear to know this).

SS7

And not because Rob Dickinson used to be lead 'singer' with Catherine Wheel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Wheel

Edited by goodhand on Thursday 17th January 20:23

Dickinson

No.

HTH.

SS7

It was intended as a slightly tongue-in-cheek response. But you might want to have a look at this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarawarren/2011/12/2...

Edited by goodhand on Thursday 17th January 21:57

Both answers are correct:

Rob Dickinson said:

“Hayden Burvill – who runs WEVO – and I had a meeting about the concept [what turned into the Singer 911] I think it was in early 2008,” Rob elucidates. “He suggested that any mule we used to test our ideas should be named ‘Norbert’ [after Norbert Singer].

“I thought it might be offensive, but I did like ‘Singer’. I liked the relevance: celebrating the air-cooled flat six, which has a definite song and, of course, I was the singer in a band for years.”

SS7
Source: http://www.total911.com/company-profile/company-pr...