Ah, Monterey Car Week. America’s battleground for four-wheeled displays of conspicuous consumption. From one-off hypercars to multi-million-dollar classic Ferraris, a small country’s GDP’s worth of cars descends on the Monterey Peninsula, and companies are eager to pique the interest of ultra-rich clientele. The latest debut from the festivities is simultaneously a perfect fit and a sign. With this collaboration between Singer and Louis Vuitton, the hypebeast-ification of air-cooled 911s is complete.
Even if fashion isn’t your thing, you’ve likely at least heard of Louis Vuitton. This Parisian fashion house is more than 170 years old, and minor slip-ups along the way, such as allegedly being involved in damaging a UNESCO World Heritage site or collaborating with members of a certain neighboring country during the early 1940s, certainly haven’t stopped it from becoming one of the most valuable fashion brands in the world. You might have even seen its “LV” monogram on handbags or shirts, or even trousers.
Then there’s Singer, the company that made restomodded 911s famous. Started in 2009, it immediately set the bar for significant revised 911 builds, continually evolving thanks to new studies and collaborations with companies like Cosworth and Williams. It’s showing off two fully-sanctioned Louis Vuitton-themed 911s at Monterey Car Week, each of which is rather distinct.
The first is a Classic model, one that looks like a long-hood model straight out of the ’60s but is actually a far more modern 964-series air-cooled 911 in disguise. It’s finished in saffron and yellow, two of Louis Vuitton’s signature colors, and features a surfboard on a roof rack as a vague nod to West Coast whimsy. Inside, the leather’s been selected to match Louis Vuitton’s signature LVT leather, and most of the dashboard knobs are plated in rhodium. Branding’s mercifully been kept to a minimum, although how much of the press release is dedicated to explaining colors, materials, and finishes versus oily bits speaks volumes. There’s a four-liter flat-six, a six-speed manual gearbox, and a set of carbon-ceramic discs on hand, but that doesn’t seem like the point.
The other Louis Vuitton Singer project is a cabriolet spec’d out by Nicolas Ghesquière, Artistic Director of Women’s Collections at Louis Vuitton. This one’s also based on a 964, except it’s made to mimic the impact-bumper 930 Turbo. It’s also, strangely, partially made out of wood. There’s wood on the bumpers, woodgrain on the skirts, woodgrain on the spoiler, and a giant wood tonneau cover where you’d normally find a folded soft top.
The wood continues on the inside too, with the dashboard, console trim, steering wheel trim, and even the floor mats made of nature’s composite. Oh, and you can forget the notion of rear seats because that whole area’s taken up by Louis Vuitton luggage. Other details? Well, the shift boot’s supposedly reminiscent of a Noé bag, and you’ll also find wood in the frunk and the engine bay. All that timber is best met with serious shove, so this Singer-built 911 features a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged flat-six.
This collaboration is certainly a feather in Singer’s cap, but it also feels like the highest proof positive that air-cooled 911s have hit the apex of their performative trophy arc. What was once a weird, leaky, old sports car from Germany with resale value equivalent to a new Corolla is now part of the creative director starter pack. A vehicle less for indulging in trailing-throttle oversteer and more for being seen outside that trendy new coffee shop with an aesthetics-first Instagram page. Now that even Louis Vuitton has jumped on the trend, that shift in buyer is all the more painfully obvious. With prices of impact-bumper cars and even some of the more common long-hood cars dipping over the past few months, maybe we have hit peak air-cooled 911 frenzy. If the other side of this is sanity, I’m here for it.
Still, perhaps the funniest part of all this is how it must feel to be Mercedes-Maybach right now. The marque’s so blatantly tried to run the LV playbook from the Virgil concept to the garishly monogrammed Maybach SL, but Louis Vuitton is going with Singer on this one. How about that?
Top graphic image: Singer
Crackpipe
I would be less embarrassed driving an Aztek
For companies supposedly focused on aerodynamics, why oh why, do they put the surfboard on backwards? If a tie-down comes loose, the forward-facing keel would pull sideways and yank that board off the rack and likely right down against that very expensive paint. I see this often and with the keep forward it places sidewys forces on the forward tie-down at all times when moving. Bad practice. I guess that’s from experience hauling surfboards, kayaks, canoes, and other stuff on top.
love it. cool. want one. then i saw the price.
This feels less like Singer trying to sell cars, and more like LV trying to sell handbags. I don’t think Singer is hurting for clients, but I think with these fashion brands starting to put themselves everywhere. Louis Vuitton also helped make the carrying case for F1 trophies. If anything, that’s a recession indication for high fashion more than it is restomod tuner sports cars.
Just watched Devil Wears Prada 2 this weekend and one line really stuck out to me.
Singer reminded me of this before this joint venture and now they are just consolidating on the concept even more.
I gotta say, Singer porsches live in the same part of my brain as (name any other stupid expensive car that I don’t care about). I am not a tech bro. I am not a Billionaire. Craftsmanship is cool but I would prefer to see, say, a JDM car dressed up as something its not because its fun. There is a reason why everyone loved the CrossCab, its ridiculous, it brings joy, and its cheap.
Will me 12 year old self be surprised that I am more lusting after a crosscabriolet than an overpriced vehicle? Naw, that kid was too busy riding a bmx bike and smacking his head on the ground without a helmet (which may say something about me now).
I can appreciate the workmanship….
…but that saffron color was literally the most hideous choice ever for Porsches in the early 1970’s.
Call me when I can order a 1977 LV Cadillac Seville and matching jumpsuit for when I want to go incognito.
Tacky af