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 ÂŁ989,995, 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 playCHASSIS
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 = $5000PERFORMANCE
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 PS4SEXTERIOR 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 – $tbdADDITIONAL
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.
For that kind of money, in all seriousness, I’d take the time to do it myself. I’m one of those ultra detail oriented people (also a watchmaker AND luthier, for instance). Not only would I be able to be certain everything is done 100% to my super high standards, but it would be that much more special..
I’d not thought about it that way before, but I agree. If I suddenly got a million $/ÂŁ/€ I could quit my job for a few years, rent a garage, and buy tools, and get far more enjoyment out of restoring a car myself, than I would just buying one.
I understand, and I share the sentiment about doing something myself to make sure it’s done right…
But Singer of all places, is known for their attention to every possible detail. That’s what your paying for. Not just a remodel, but a remodel where every single thread, every stitch, is perfect; every bolt is polished correctly, then checked again, just to be sure. If Singer isn’t up to your standards, nothing is, not even yourself.
But doing it myself would be more fun!
I think a lot of people are missing the point of “quiet luxury” or “stealth wealth”. The whole idea is to spend an absurd amount of money on something that doesn’t look like it should cost what you paid. Those in the 1% or even higher know the code and know you spent stupid amounts of money but to the masses the item looks normal. It is like the $1,000 white t-shirt or $3,000 leather loafers with no logo
A Singer is the complete opposite of the gold plated Lamborghini or Bugatti with alligator skin interior.
This seems like the typical we put x amount of money into the car so it is obliviously worth that much. Also looking at the parts like how are the Brembo brakes 9k? Same with the suspension. Just a quick search shows you can get those parts for less then what they say they cost. Maybe they think because having them installed means they cost more?
Ohlins DFV from Sharkwerks are currently 8.1k, and Brembo GT-R brakes(I assume they aren’t cutting corners) are 10k currently. If you step up to Ohlins TTX then the price jumps. I’m assuming they are using TTX, as prices of everything have gone up significantly since then. I do think yeah you aren’t getting a wonderful price if you are considering 2015 pricing, but again this isn’t exactly a budget car.
If I were building a 964, I’d go AP Racing and Ohlins TTX or MCS/JRZ, and have them custom valved/sprung for my use case. The main reason you buy a singer is the craftsmanship, and residual value tbh. If I modify a 964 exactly how I want, I’ll most likely lose my ass on the car selling it, unless I part out beforehand. And even with that, you only get 50-80% back on modifications, best case. So it would need to be a labor of love.
With Singer, the money is in the labor too.
They don’t just assemble cars, the fit/finish has to be 100%. So before installation, even brand new hardware, they would check, paint, polish, polish again, polishing each bolt, etc.
Park it wherever you want. Just drive the fucking thing in the meantime.
It’s alright to be a singer
But don’t you love a singer whatever you do
https://youtu.be/3FfK77fqUhI?si=hLPSyUVhLT0-jIFI
Worth noting, Rob is not just a musician, he went to school for design, which is why Singer turned out as well as it did.
I <3 Singer 911s, because it’s what a design guy would do with no budget. Remanufacturing the turn signals, except finding a way to hide the fasteners, small details like that really elevate his cars above most others.
That said, you can get ‘close-ish’ to a singer 911 for a fraction of the price if you build it yourself.
Cars for the 1% are boring.
Cars for the masses are where it’s at.
Today I just learned how little the dollar is worth! 990kÂŁ is 1.3M$, that’s insane.
Not naming names, but someone’s been doing some fumbling about in international trade that may have de-stabilized the US dollar a little bit.
Eh, I’m sure with a steady hand, a solid plan, and competent execution, he can have the ship back right side in no time.
That’s asking a lot from this administration. It’s hard to right a ship once it has capsized.
It’s even worse when you compare the euro against the yen. My $258 JDM car would have cost you some pocket lint and a stick of gum. 🙂
Okay, fine, actually just $228, but still!
Extreme wealth changes the equation. Many years ago when Bill Gates built his 60 million dollar home, I determined that relative to our respective net worth it was the equivalent of me buying a home for $600.
Back in the mid-90s I saw Bill Gates flipping through vinyl at Tower Records in Seattle. He drove his own Lexus back then and I remember thinking that his purchase of a maybe $40K car was like buying a burger. That was before Xanadu 2.0 was finished.
What’s crazier is how far Singer has supposedly come.
I’ve driven what’s now referred to as a “Singer Classic.” It was… shockingly well done. Yet in a way, still felt like a hot rod. An extraordinarily well-done hot rod, with an insane level of attention to detail, but a hot rod.
My understanding is the stuff they’re putting out now might as well be as if Porsche built it themselves, in terms of the depth of the integration, especially with what they’re doing with companies like Bosch. It’s that good, and not only are they charging what they are, but it’s why people happily pay it. You can daily the things, and know you’ll have established exotic OEM levels of support if something goes wrong.
I can’t even imagine what Porsche is thinking looking at how it’s unfolded over all these years. Every car manufacturer with enough history has considered what Singer has done, but outside of a few small projects done by Aston Martin, Jaguar, and a few others, they’ve never really done it at scale. Singer came in and has now scaled up to where they have warehouses of hundreds of donor chassis ready to turn into product, and supplier integration on par with Porsche, at a level of quality of what Bentley will do bespoke.
Not for me. Even if I won the lottery, not for me. Yet it’s an interesting rabbit hole to peer into, just to gawk at the insane effort expended on it all.
I love looking at what Singer does, but I cannot fathom ever buying one even if I had the means to do so, which I don’t. Beautiful craftsmanship, astronomical price.
I think it’s a more compelling option than most supercars. Hand built, completely bespoke, and the attention to detail is insane.
True, and that attention to detail is what I enjoy about Singer. That, and that it isn’t as ostentatious as something like a Lamborghini or Pagani, which appeals to me as I’m not one to thrive on attention. At the same time, I am also more comfortable driving crappy cars than nice ones, so I’d definitely be fine driving even the most junky 911.
It is beautiful as almost all Singers are, but my restored Porsche heart yearns for a 911K over anything else.
So you spend all that money and wait all that time to drive it 300 miles and realize you don’t enjoy it that much I guess? Bought it to flip it? What a waste.
At that price a 959 or even a 903 would be more my preference.
A 904 I meant
I would bet it is a financial terrible idea. The equivalent of buying a set of custom golf clubs designed for a 6:2 athletic person for a 5:6 rotund businessman. I would say the ultimate return on paying a million dollars more than what it cost new would be an interior custom fitted for my short fat ass.
If you look at what Singers are selling for on BaT, they’re a decent investment car.
Obviously I’m not the target market for something like this, but the Singers always turn me off. To
me, it’s that they seem to be trying to be two different, fairly incompatible, things simultaneously. The dissonance is tough to swallow.
964s come from the era of Porsches as everyday cars. They were mass produced to be reasonably driven every day, and reflected the reality of such an effort, compromises and all – it’s maybe the very thing that makes them charming to us now.
To do this to them seems to try to have them be Porsches of today, trophy vehicles that many buy as investments or as an avatar of some preferred position, waxed and photographed more than used.
Nothing against them (to each their own), but to me, it feels weird to mix the two things, maybe b/c when you do, you get the best of neither?
But singers DO get used.
This one sure didn’t
Somebody tell me what is involved in building an engine that costs $125,000. Is the block hand-machined from a billet of unobtanium?
I mean… I get that Top Fuel or NASCAR or F1 engines might cost that much (or more) to build, but those are tools for (hopefully) winning money. Singer is building street engines.
Frankly most newer Porsche engines, from what I have read here, are pretty much the same but computer adjusted so a Booster won’t beat a 911. I bet Singers next offering a Booster convertible that can tear the hide of the 911. Cost about $500. Redo a used one and sell it for 5x new.
It must be because of this-
Cams – big
I like big cams
I can not lie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DSIba8qZ4
I found a post on Pelican parts from 2016 where their engines cost $35k or so. Not sure where the extra 90k is coming from, likely demand vs supply.
While I don’t know anything about Mr Pink, I happen to know who and where Singer has thier “regular” engines contracted out to. I’m not sure the deal is public, so I won’t name them, but there’s some real money being spent there.
In both cases though, the price will be so high because it’s just a room full of experienced engine builders without automation.
Those restomods always made me feel bad for how I restored my classic, but seeing how “little money” I put in my Datsun compared to this, I’m OK now.
Porsche does almost as much detail, for almost as much money for a new one, but both Singer and Icon leave me cold. Perhaps it’s because this is just the upscale version of a 69 Camaro with an LS swap and 20″ wheels. I find period correct modifications much more interesting. That same Camaro with a built 350, slot mags and window louvers is far more appealing.
Yes but if you have branding people will pay. Isn’t that why we pay a $1 a bottle for water that is actually more contaminated than the 9© a gallon of water we get from the spigot? Tap? Fawcett?
Worse, people will pay $2 for water from a South Pacific island. Talk about carbon footprint.
That stuff (Fiji water) just drives me nuts. Well, bottled water in general… Perrier. Ty Nant. Smart. Just stupid.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2024/05/29/fiji-water-bottles-amazon-recalled/73899911007/
Paying ten to eleven times as much as the MSRP for a tool that you want to be presented as art has never made sense to me at all.
These cars are the equivalent of a Thomas Kinkcaide painting. Technically unique because of a minimum amount of irreproducible human input, but still created according to a template. The labour isn’t worth the money, and neither are the modifications. What people are paying for is the chance to say “This is based off of this template.”
There’s also the gentrification aspect of it, where previously attainable things are pulled further into wealth so that normal people are denied the chance to experience them. ICON is really fucking bad about this, because a $3,000 beater gets such extensive monetary investment that it will stay in $300,000 ranges for the next twenty years.
Well if you have ever seen Porsche’s option list for a 911 it’s not that surprising. I think the gold plating was standard back then though, they all seemed to come that way some years.
Something tells me the buyers of these aren’t having an internal debate over the cost of options like an average Joe does when they consider if they really need the $500 heated seats in their new Rogue.
Of course those seats are only $2 a month (over 72 months), so why not?
But they aren’t car guys, except Leno
Right, the internal debate is between the 15 paint chips they sent you to choose from when you told them “spearmint green” and “which way do I want the pattern running on the seats”.
Frankly, I’ll take a new Catherine Wheel album instead (no hate to Singer, they’re beautiful. But if I’m afraid to thrash it it’s not for me).
I’ll second that.
$780,000 spent for an imagination-is-the-limit bespoke restoration AND:
“Front seat backs – piano black”
“Shift knob – piano black”
JFC.
Yeah, but it’s a Steinway Concert Grand.
Yes but there are tons of free crap piano available
It could be worse, imagine gloss gray pint to match the owner’s Toyota pickup
Interesting dive into what makes a Singer sing. Literally 10x the value of the base vehicle to “reimagine” it from mere class-defining superiority to…even more so.
And now it’s listed for 66% above that. I feel like this occupies the grey area between money laundering and wishful thinking.
Fools and their money, no matter where the decimal point is.
“No lowballing, I know what I have” for the 0.1%.
For high earners making $50M a year or more, a car like this is just a toy. The cost for purchase, insurance, repair, or upkeep is not a huge concern. People often have a hard time with that concept, but when your income is that high then many kinds of expensive purchases are not a big deal.
Ohhh myyyy…
Now I want to watch Anora with George Takei.