His company, Singer Vehicle Design, has reimagined the entire 911 backdate market
Rob Dickinson’s Los Angeles-based company famous for ‘re-imagining’ the 911 is only a decade old, yet already Singer Vehicle Design is utterly entrenched in the minds of Porsche enthusiasts the world over. Singer might lack the history of RUF, its only plausible rival in high-end custom 911 builds, but its impact has nevertheless been huge in the period. From humble beginnings modifying his own 1969 911 nicknamed the ‘Brown Bomber’ around 2008, Dickinson has since built a world-renowned company – named after his former occupation as front man for rock band, Catherine Wheel – which has totally re-written the rulebook for backdating a 964.
In fact, the term ‘backdating’ doesn’t really do Singer’s work justice: instead, this is a complete ‘re-imagining’, creating the 964 in its ultimate form. Working to the mantra of “everything is important,” these cars are very high on detail and build quality.
Singer has since rebuilt over 100 Porsche 964s from its modest premises in the hills above LA, each ‘commission’ named after the place the customer hails from, and taking around two years to complete. Most notably, Singer’s work has inspired other companies around the world to create their own interpretation of a ‘re-imagined’ 964, Singer thereby solely responsible for cultivating an entirely new market over the last decade for high-end, custom Porsche projects. This has lead to a perpetual shortage in the availability of 964 Coupes, these often used as the base car for such projects, and as a result their value has sky-rocketed – a £15,000 car at the start of the last decade will now cost you in the region of £70,000. Bad news for the enthusiast at grassroots level, but it’s unfair to put this at Singer’s door. Instead, Singer’s incredible work in breathing new life into these tired, 30-year-old 911s has created some of the most desirable classics on the planet, redefining the term ‘restoration’ and in turn showing fans (and businesses alike) exactly what’s possible with a dedication – no, a fascination – with even the smallest details.