PH Interviews: The Man From Singer Porsche
PH talks to Rob Dickinson, the man behind the Singer Porsche - the classic 911 're-imagined'
When people first saw the Singer 911, some areas of the motoring world into a meltdown of excitement. So to see what all the fuss is about, on a recent trip to Los Angeles, PH paid a visit to top Porsche bloke, rock star, and Creative Director of Singer Vehicle Design, Rob Dickinson.
Oh and yes, we did ask if we could have a car on long term test with the PH Fleet. He said no. Pity.
Rob Dickinson: It is. I was born in Norwich and studied Industrial Design (specialising in transport) at Coventry University, then I worked as a designer at Lotus in the eighties. But the thing was, I knew even before I began working that I didn't want to be a car designer, I wanted to be a rock star.
PH: ...did that work out?
RD: Well I spent the next twenty years pursuing that idea with a reasonable amount of success. It was an interesting time. Throughout that period my love of cars - specifically my love of 911s - grew, which I don't think it probably would have done had I stayed in the car industry.
RD: I've owned quite a few and have always been deeply into the Porsche world both in the UK and the US. When I moved to LA in 2003 I built my own 1969 911E with a lot of design inflections of the early racing 911s, like the 911R from 1967, through to the 911ST of 1970, and quickly found that there were a lot of other people who liked doing what I was doing.
There was something called the 'R Group', which was a fiercely anti-car-club kind of club - very low key - and there were a lot of cool cars there, and a lot of guys who were similarly afflicted with this passion for these cars. As the R Group grew between 2006 and 2008 I began to notice that a different kind of car was turning up; less of a grass-roots machine like mine and more of a real high-dollar car, like a 1973 911 chassis with a 1998 vario-ram, last-of-the-line, air-cooled engine.
PH: But you didn't want to make the car a 'replica' as such?
RD: What I wanted was to make my car an amalgamation of the best of Porsche and not a specific replica of any model. It was kind of a 'café racer' if you like - built for driving from one cool place to another and basically having fun.
I thought that if we built something that embraced this romantic notion of what a lightweight, sporting 911 could be with our own, updated design flourishes that it would be popular. I wanted to build the car that I would build for myself if money was no object. I knew which parts worked the best and I also knew which people did the best work, and I had a very clear vision of what the car needed to be to have a broad appeal.
RD: I've lived and breathed the idea of the Singer 911 now for more than five years, and it's very flattering that the whole thing has been so well received. Although building the car itself was almost the easy part - what we're into now is the hard part. I hoped this would happen, but didn't really expect it to.
PH: You mean the reaction to the first car?
RD: Well yes, the reaction and the fact that I'd sold this idea to people who invested money so that we could do this - build a car that we could sell. We knew it would have to be expensive so that we could do justice to arguably the most important sports car in the world. To even attempt to present an ultimate version of it...you know...who the hell were we to attempt such a thing?
RD: I had to be able to do it properly, and we spent a lot of money getting into the position to build one car. 'Build it and they will come' was the cliché I kept boring people with, but we did it...and they did!
PH: You could say that this paid off then?
RD: Well we're selling cars - which is great - and we seem to have resonated with the type of buyer we needed which is very exciting. Now the problem is that we need to continue to produce them like jewellery, treat all our customers like family, and continue to lay the foundations of a company which will have deep integrity. That is a very difficult process, and just as important as the car.
PH: Is the order book full?
PH: And has the reaction in the US been similar to the reaction on PistonHeads?
RD: Yeah, we've had the same reaction from France, Spain, China, Russia, the Emirates, Malaysia... It's been nuts, seriously nuts!
PH: And Germany?
RD: Oh yes. Impressing our German friends is very hard because their standards and expectations are so high, so to be validated in Germany was extremely important. We have a crazy amount of requests from people who want to drive this car, which is wonderful. We never expected the massive mainstream interest from non-Porsche people.
PH: There must have been some huge engineering issues getting the first car completed to such a high standard. Are there further developments in store?
PH: So are you going to keep everything strictly air/oil-cooled?
RD: We plan to do a water-cooled car one day, but that will be a totally different machine. This car is homage to the 1965-1998 history of the 911. The newer chassis will give us access to ABS brakes and more sophisticated front suspension. That will be a very, very fast car.
RD: Only if I think it looks good! We've spent a huge amount of time and attention on the options for a Singer 911, so people can make it their own. You can have luxury touring at one end of the spectrum, and a seriously fierce track weapon which can still be driven on the street at the other. Or you can have something which is the sweet-spot in the middle. That's the classic 911 duality; you can drive our car to-and-around the Nurburgring, or just as easily take the kids to school.
PH: Anything you'd like to say to PistonHeads community?
RD: To anyone who said either good or bad things about what we're doing 'thank you for caring enough to say anything'. It takes some balls to put your hand up and say 'this is what I think'. You know you've done something right when some people say that they don't like what you've done!
PH: Really?
PH: Thanks for your time, Rob. Now, about that drive to San Francisco and back...
Given that these cars are pretty much bespoke (admittedly re-using old parts to some extent) it's hard to give a precise figure but from what I've seen around the various forums you're looking at £150-200k depending on model... So not for the faint of heart or the shallow of pocket. Still, they are lovely.
Local Boy Done Good!
VERY cliquey, closed group, they judge if your early 911 meets their requirements for membership. Bizarre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI1PjgCV_c4
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff