Rare Singer Listing Gives Insight Into The Options Cost For These Million Dollar Porsche Restorations

When Singer introduced its first Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe Reimagined by Singer (the name you call it so Singer doesn’t get sued by Porsche), it proved what was possible within the confines of a restoration. It also gave a branded shorthand–Singerized–for a kind of extreme if-you-have-to-ask-you’ll-never-know car project that ‘restomod’ didn’t quite cover. These are so individualized it becomes hard to know exactly what one of these costs, but I like to ask the question, and now, thanks to a sales listing, we’ve got a bit of an answer.

I’m going to assume you already know the story of Singer Advanced Design, which was founded by former English rocker Rob Dickinson in Southern California. The concept was deceptively simple: What if you could combine all the best of various Porsche 911 generations in one 964-based, air-cooled car with a level of customization usually reserved for private planes.

The first one was revealed about a decade ago, and it immediately became the car to have for a certain kind of high-net-worth enthusiast. Not only was it fast and beautiful, it signified that the owner had taste. Anyone could buy a Bugatti, maybe, but you have to wait for a 4,000-hour Singer restoration. In fact, being on the list for one has become its own sort of flex, roughly on par with owning one.

Everything about Singer has become hush-hush, and the specifics of how the cars come together, and precisely at what cost, have been more generalized. You can’t just go to the website and configure it like some sort of pedestrian Lamborghini.

That’s why this AutoTrader UK listing for a Singer 911 is so interesting. First, for just £989,995, or $1.3 million, you can get your hands on a version with only 300 miles–presumably since restored in late 2022, as it would be sacrilege to sacrifice such a virginal chassis.

Not only do you get to enjoy this car, you also get another perk:

As new condition – rare opportunity – Beat a 3 to 4 year waiting list. Like new this spectacular Singer commission comes from a good home and either enables you to jump a 3 or 4 year waiting list – if Singer do even recommence classic 911 production – a rare opportunity!

I love the sort of implied threat there. What if this company, that everyone loves, stops making cars? It’s quite the sales pitch, although the latest release from Singer implies to me that maybe we shouldn’t worry. Eventually, Singer will run out of 964s, so I suppose that’s a risk.

There’s a breakdown of what, it seems, are the prices for individual options. First of all, there’s the base vehicle cost of $70,000. It gets a lot more expensive from there. The Pepita/Houndstooth inserts on the seats, which admittedly look great, was $19,000! Even Anora didn’t get paid that much for a little trim. The seats themselves cost $6,000 a pair.

A ‘nubuck wrapped with black’ Mod 7 steering when in a bespoke finish is $2,500. The headliner is $2,100. Even with a lot of prices not listed, the interior has at least $40,000 in options, and probably more.

By comparison, the $475,000 chassis restoration almost seems like a steal? That, apparently, doesn’t include the optional Ohlins sport adjustable two-way dampers. The absolutely most expensive single option is the “Ultimate Ed Pink 4.0 litre engine” at $125,000. That’s obviously worth the money.

While this is all obviously tasteful, a few options are a bit out there for me. Specifically, I’m not sure I’d fork over $5,000 for “raised decklid lettering finished in 24k gold.” Here’s the full listing, btw:

INTERIOR TRIM
Primary trim – Earth tones (CA1252, CO 2208)
Vertical panels/inserts – Bespoke weave – TBD – Pepita/Houndstooth for inserts smmoth leather for vertical panels – refer special wish item 2 – $19,000
Seat insert style – Twin-needle stitching
Dash/roll tops/parcel/knee pad – standard black leather
A + B pillars – standard black leather
Front seats – Carbon bucket seats = $12,000
Front seat backs – piano black
Rear seats – none
Seat belts – black
Lower interior panels = carpeted jacuzzi/tunnel/sills = $tbd
Stitching – in Alabaster = $tbd
Steering wheel = Mod 7 in bespoke finish – nubuck wrapped with black (ES 8075) center stripe = $2500
Shift knob – piano black
Dash emblem – Singer script finished in 24k Gold with “reimagined” in deviating finish/deleted = $2200
Headlining – upholstered in alcantara light ivor = $2100
Floor material – tbd – carpet or lighter shade of leather colour
Footboards – carpeted
Compartments – marine grade leather
A/C standard
Stereo – Apple car play

CHASSIS
Singer coupe restoration rhd = $475,000
Roof – Carbon Roof
Roll hoop – tbd
Fuel – external center fill with safety cell = $10,000
Oil – External oil fill system = $5000

PERFORMANCE
Engine – 4.0 Motorsports = $125,000
Cams – big
Catalyst – high flow
ECU – tune tbd
Inlet – ceramic plenum
Exhaust – titanium muffler system
Gearbox – 5 speed
Suspension – Ohlins sport adjustable 2 way normal road = $12,500
Brakes – Premium Brembo brake calipers with high performance discs = $9000
Tyres – Michelin PS4S

EXTERIOR TRIM
Paint protection – $7500
Graphics – racing side stripes and lettering ghosted light with pistachio lettering – $3500
Decklid lettering – raised decklid lettering finsihed in 24k gold = $5000
Decklid badging – Singer script finished in 24k gold = $2200
Reimagined – bespke reimagined tbd ghosted light body = $tbd
Reimagined – E-marked rear reflectors – tbd uk homologation = $tbd
Caliper finish – Bespoke caliper finish – tbd black,silver or others with lettering – $tbd

ADDITIONAL
Special wish item 1 – nickel plated sill step side plate = $tbd
Special wish item 2 – satin walnit dash strip = $2200
homologation item 1 – rear fog light uk

In total, the restoration cost $712,000, or about $782,000 with the original car before any other registration or delivery costs. My assumption is that these costs change over time, but a recent listing for a similar-ish Singer on BringATrailer earlier this year had numbers that line up (the carbon buckets are also $12,000, for instance). That one sold for just over $1 million, but these are different enough that perhaps it’s justifiable?

The second-hand market for these cars is quite an interesting one. The point of a Singer, to some degree, is that it serves a market of people who are used to getting exactly what they want. In this case, you’re not getting what you want, you’re getting what someone else wanted. This car is worth more because of the rarity, sure, but aren’t all old 911s worth more?

As Hannah Elliot wrote earlier this year in Bloomberg:

This month, as car enthusiasts converge on Florida for two weeks, they’ll find 14 Porsches with estimates straddling the $1 million mark—two more than the dozen Ferraris with the same distinction and far more than any other brand among the 405 total lots being offered across three auction houses. Million-dollar Porsches are creeping into the elite pricing echelon that Ferraris once dominated at significant auctions around the globe.

The increase reflects collectors’ desires and financial ability to build significant collections around one favored brand, says Steve Serio, a Boston-based automotive broker to billionaires. Porsches have always been valuable—they just haven’t been as desirable as multimillion-dollar Ferrari GTOs, LMs and Testarossas. But Porsche is inching closer as an increasing number of buyers amass collections around the historic marque.

If you think of these cars as art, though, maybe that’s less of a big deal. Unless you’re a Medici with a time machine, your ability to commission a Michelangelo sculpture is pretty limited, which doesn’t make one of those any less valuable. I mean, I love my old BMW, and I had no choice when it came to the options (nor is it all precisely to my taste).

I’m the kind of guy who, in theory, would spend $1.3 million to amass roughly 1,300 different cars. But where would I park them all? If you’ve gotta park $1.3 million of your hard-earned dollars, you could do worse than putting it into one of these.