Saturday 12th August 2017

Singer and Williams AE engine collaboration!

500hp air-cooled flat-six, input from Mr Mezger, a rev limit beyond 9K...

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Singer Vehicle Design is not one for half measures. So when a few long standing clients of the company ask for something special, only the best technical partners will do. Therefore Williams Advanced Engineering and Hans Mezger are part of the project to build a reimagined 911 with a 500hp air-cooled flat-six engine.

Mezger is of course the man behind some of the greatest engines of all time, including the water-cooled flat-six in Porsche's GT1 LMP cars, that incredible flat-12 in the 917 and the turbo V6 in some 80s McLaren F1 cars.

The engine started life as one of Mezger's designs - the 3.6-litre has evolved to a 4.0-litre capacity with most internal components made with lightweight materials including titanium, magnesium and carbon fibre. The rev limit has been extended past 9,000rpm (!) and there are titanium con-rods, four-valve heads, dual oil circuits, aluminium throttle bodies with carbon fibre trumpets, an enlarged engine cooling fan plus carbon fibre air-box and a ram air induction system. Air will be fed to the engine through the rear quarter window intakes helping push the power of this engine to 500hp. 

Apparently this is only the beginning of Singer's new level of restoration and modification services that will lead to more lightweight and higher performing cars; quite exciting news...

No prices have been announced yet, but if you need to ask and all that. We will first see the engine in Scott Blatter's reimagined and reborn 1990 Porsche 911 in September, the man who already owns two Coupes and a Targa. 

[PhantomPH]

That engine is a work of art.

In fact - any one of those images is an 'image of the week' candidate and the physical thing would make a great art piece in someone's foyer.

Gorgeous.

[PhantomPH]

Are we still talking c.£300k for a Singer?

Given that a lot of modern supercars are pushing close to that now with their optioned prices and the 'flipper tax' applied, I would imagine the Singer (at that price) actually represents exceptional value for money. Certainly when you factor in depreciation...or lack of it.

[PhantomPH]

Chris Stott said:

I think someone said >£700k for a 4.0l, inc. all UK taxes.

I would expect one with this stunning power unit will be significantly more.

Damn, that quashes that dream, then!

[PhantomPH]

DonkeyApple said:

And it's not as if the generation behind us is renowned for its political moderation or tolerance of others who do not share their 'beliefs'.

I just wanted to quote this sentence as being the most accurate thing I have read on PH in a long time.

[PhantomPH]

As much as I love the Singer, of the three cars in the last photo above the Singer is the last one I would choose. That Aperta looks phenomenal and the F50...well...it's an F50!!

[PhantomPH]

fblm said:

Maxige said:

PhantomPH said:

As much as I love the Singer, of the three cars in the last photo above the Singer is the last one I would choose. That Aperta looks phenomenal and the F50...well...it's an F50!!

Well I guess you are not alone!!! I'd take the other two over the Singer as well!!

Singer for me. What a trip. How come you guys had a closed section of road (or am I being dim and it was closed ?)

I assume we are all levelling the 'value' playing field for the sake of comparison? Otherwise of course we would all take the Aperta, sell it and buy an F50 and five Singers of varying colours. Ha ha.

[PhantomPH]

Maxige said:

I drove both the Aperta and the F50 on those roads quite extensively...values aside, I will take the F50 over the Singer or the Aperta! It is just a pure, unfiltered and amazing experience, especially with full Tubi exhaust and without roof! Every time I was getting out of the car I was staring at it thinking: "what have I just done? is that a dream?"

The Aperta clearly is unreal in terms of performance...the way it accelerates, brakes, turns in...it's a bloody spaceship on the ground and makes everything else obsolete. You need to re-calibrate your brain in order to push through the gears, I was always short shifting at around 6k rpms and the feeling was already that I was flying more than driving. To keep the foot down in 2nd or 3rd till 9k rpms you just need to force yourself and commit to it...not ashamed to say that my right foot became quite stiff every time I did that, first time that something like this happened to me.

I have seen a couple of F50's in the metal, but never been lucky enough to be in one, let alone drive one. That has to be one ticked off the bucket list for you?

I imagine the Aperta to be just a little 'too' mental. Would I be right in thinking the F50 (and Tubi) made you feel incredibly special no matter what the speed, whereas the Aperta made you feel special because of the speed? (if that makes sense?)

Even my car gets very illegal, very quickly if you rev it out to the red line in pretty much any gear, so I can imagine needing the extra special nature of the F50 for those 'slow' times.