Not a tuner. Not a restoration. A reimagination.
The founder
Rob Dickinson was the lead singer of the British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel through the 1990s. He had grown up around cars — his cousin Iain Dickinson was a Porsche restoration specialist, and Rob himself had owned and restored several air-cooled 911s through his music career. When Catherine Wheel disbanded in 2000, Dickinson moved to Los Angeles and started working on a personal project: rebuilding a 911 the way he thought it should have been built.
That personal project was the seed of Singer Vehicle Design. The company was founded in 2009 in Sun Valley, California. The name "Singer" comes from Norbert Singer, the Porsche race engineer responsible for the dominant 935 and 956/962 prototype programs of the 1970s and 1980s. Dickinson chose the name as a tribute — though Norbert Singer himself was not involved in the company.
What Singer builds
Every Singer car starts with a customer-supplied 964 chassis. The car is stripped completely. The body is hand-modified — carbon-fiber body panels replace most of the steel sheetmetal. The proportions are subtly altered: the fender flares are reshaped to evoke the long-hood cars, the front bumper is reshaped, the rear deck is modified to accept either a ducktail or a flush rear lid. The headlights are converted to the rounded long-hood style. The result is a car that visually reads as a 1970s 911 but uses 964 mechanicals.
The interior is fully retrimmed by hand. Period-correct cloth (often a custom houndstooth or tartan), wood and aluminum trim, sometimes leather to customer specification. The dashboard architecture is preserved but every surface is replaced. The instruments are custom-faced. The seats are hand-stitched.
Mechanically: a Cosworth-built flat-six, typically 3.6 to 4.0 liters, naturally aspirated, putting out 360 to 500 horsepower depending on spec. The engine is air-cooled — Singer cars are universally air-cooled, by design. A six-speed manual gearbox sourced from Getrag or built to spec. Modern brakes, modern shock absorbers, period-style suspension geometry.
Every Singer car is customer-commissioned. The customer specifies color, interior, engine configuration, optional equipment. Build time runs 12 to 18 months. The cost ranges from approximately $750,000 to over $2 million depending on specification.
The DLS
In 2017, Singer announced the Dynamics and Lightweighting Study (DLS) — a partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering and chassis specialist Norbert Singer himself. The DLS was a $1.8 million reimagination of the 911 with weight reduction as the central engineering principle. Carbon-fiber tub. Modified suspension geometry. Engine rebalanced and rebuilt by Williams. The DLS limited run was 75 examples. All were sold before announcement.
The DLS Turbo Study followed in 2022 — a turbocharged variant of the same engineering principle, with a low-pressure twin-turbocharger setup designed for usable street power rather than peak output. The Turbo Study commemorated the original 930 Turbo.
What Singer changed
Before Singer, the restomod market was fragmented. Specialty shops built one-off 911s for individual customers, but no shop had built a recognizable brand identity around the concept. Singer changed that. The Sun Valley shop became a destination. The cars became media events. By 2015, every major car magazine had featured a Singer build, and the term "Singer" had become almost synonymous with "high-end air-cooled restomod."
The market followed. RUF began offering its own air-cooled restomod variants. Tuthill in the United Kingdom built up the 911K series. Theon Design (also UK) and Gunther Werks (California) emerged as direct competitors. The high-end restomod segment, which barely existed in 2008, now supports a dozen serious builders.
The values of donor 964 chassis have climbed in parallel. A clean 964 Carrera that sold for $30,000 in 2010 now sells for $80,000 to $120,000 partly because the chassis is the basis for high-end restomod conversions.
Why it matters
Singer's contribution to air-cooled culture is the demonstration that a 1990s chassis can be re-finished to a standard that exceeds what the factory delivered. Every panel hand-fitted. Every surface considered. Every component selected for both function and history. The cars are not faster than what Porsche delivers from the factory today, but they are finished to a standard the factory has never had time to attempt.
For the F6 Supply Co. catalog, Singer represents what air-cooled enthusiasts mean when they talk about a chassis being "worth finishing." The same instinct that made customers spend $800,000 on a reimagined 964 also makes customers want the cloth and chassis numerals on a tote bag.