IGNITION

Singer joins forces with Tuthill Porsche to create the outlandish All-terrain Competition Study, a Safari-style 911 that picks up where the 959 left off

Singer’s created a spiritual successor to the rally-spec 959, and we’ve got details of all of 2021’s most exciting new arrivals

LOOKING DISTINCTLY LIKE PORSCHE’S 1986 Dakar-winning 959 metamorphosed into the 21st century, this extraordinary device is the latest ‘Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer’. We’ve become accustomed to the company’s meticulously wrought 911s, with their endless customisation options, supercar performance and subtle embellishment of the early model’s performance aesthetic. More recently we’ve been intrigued by the radically evolved Dynamic Lightweight Study that attempts to take the original 911’s acceleration and handling into the stratosphere, but this All-terrain Competition Study (or ‘ACS’) is something altogether different again. Conceived as a genuine competition car with the remit of tackling long-distance events on the loose such as the Baja 1000 and the Dakar, it’s been developed with renowned 911 rally specialist Richard Tuthill in the UK.

The Tuthill name has become synonymous with the 911 and rallying, whether through its air-cooled 911s rasping through Africa on the historic Safari Rally, or with its 997 GT3 R-GT that won the 2015 R-GT class in the World Rally Championship. Now, with a commission incoming from a long-term Singer client, Tuthill has really delved deep into the toy cupboard to create not just its own take on a ‘Safari style’ 911 (something that’s become increasingly popular in recent years), but to evolve that idea into a machine with cutting-edge technology and motorsport credibility. The ACS is much more about leaping over towering sand dunes than it is delicately quilted engine-bay leather.

As with all of Singer’s projects, the ACS begins with a 964-generation 911, the late ’80s step change in 911 evolution that saw coil-sprung suspension, power steering, ABS and modern aerodynamics for the first time on a regular 911. Yet the styling is clearly influenced by the 953 and 959, the former a 911 with the 959’s four-wheel-drive system that won the Paris-dakar in 1984, and the latter, of course, Porsche’s landmark supercar, which in jacked-up rally-raid form contested the Paris-dakar (and other raids) in 1985 and 1986. It’s obvious every surface of the ACS, each and every last exterior detail, has been patiently thought through and carefully designed, the result being a vehicle that wouldn’t look out of place if Porsche had worked it up as a concept itself. Close your eyes and you can almost see the Dakar 959 evolving into the ACS, complete with its 992 headlamps and much broader, flatter curves, its stylish yet restrained graphics giving it the air of something that’s just escaped a shuttered doorway at Weissach.

Obviously, not much of that original 964 remains once Tuthill has set to work on the body. The central monocoque is extensively strengthened with the benefit of knowledge gained from decades of rallying: the 911 SC/RS bodyshells that Prodrive rallied in European and World Championship events in the mid-1980s were prepared by Tuthill Porsche, run at the time by its founder, Richard’s father Francis, and the company has been building rally 911s ever since. With an FIA roll-cage and all the necessary safety systems, the structure is then clothed in carbonfibre panels that open up via front and rear clamshells in spectacular fashion.

Underneath the bodywork things are arguably even more

interesting, with the usual air-cooled flat-six displacing 3.6 litres and blown by twin symmetrical turbochargers (not sequential, as in the 959). Water-to-air intercoolers, with individual-bank chargecoolers housed within the plenum and cooled by a clamshell-mounted radiator, help the unit produce 450bhp and 420lb ft of torque as a minimum, with more available depending on the event being tackled. The engine’s output is fed through a five-speed sequential dog ’box, with paddleshift control available if desired. The car is, obviously, four-wheel drive, with plated mechanical diffs front, centre and rear. No weight figure has been revealed, but performance should be very serious indeed, even on loose surfaces.

As you might imagine, the ACS’S suspension is equally extreme. There’s a massive amount more wheel travel available with a pair of long-travel five-way adjustable dampers at each corner (so eight dampers in total) and a greatly raised ride height, while forged aluminium 8x16in rims are shod with BF Goodrich All-terrain tyres to cope with pretty much any type of landscape you decide to task the ACS with.

Inside, there’s that trademark Singer attention to every detail and design-led approach, but you’ll also find Fia-homologated seats, what’s described as a ‘state of the art GPS navigation system’, and even rehydration systems for both driver and navigator. No mistaking the giant meat cleaver of a handbrake, either. There are two full-size spare wheels on board, too – no use throwing a space saver on it in the middle of the desert – and a longrange fuel tank, for obvious reasons.

The ACS is far from being a one-off plaything. For a start, the commission was for two cars. There’s the Parallax White machine you see in these images, which has been developed and set up for high-speed desert rallying, but intriguingly a second ACS, finished in Corsica Red, has been configured for what Singer refers to as ‘higherspeed, high-grip tarmac events’. The 959 was Porsche’s Group B car, but its complexity led to its weight ballooning and it always looked far more suited to longer distance events such as the Dakar rather than stage rallying. In any case, the Group B formula ceased to exist before any further developments could be made, also ending the car’s short-lived career on track, which saw just two Le Mans 24 Hours appearances in 1986 and 1987 against negligible class opposition. Just what exactly will the ‘tarmac spec’ ACS look like? We’ll have to wait and see.

Thankfully, the client is not demanding exclusivity, so if you have the necessary funds – and we have no idea what that amount may be save to say it’ll be a very large sum – you’ll be able in time to order an ACS of your own. Tantalisingly, Singer also states that ‘support packages for racing and maintenance will be available’, which you’d have to hope might lead to an ACS tackling a rally or raid event of some description in anger. Creating beautiful, bespoke 911s is one thing, but seeing something like an ACS competing for real is a very exciting prospect indeed, and something we very much hope happens.

‘HOPEFULLY WE’LL SEE AN ACS TACKLING A RALLY OR RAID EVENT IN ANGER’