How Singer CEO Fell in Love With 911s While Travelling With His Family

While in a podcast with Jason Stein, the Singer Vehicle Design CEO says he was of “tender age” when he first saw a Porsche 911. His parents were teachers, and every summer they took a long vacation to the South of France. The first time he remembers the adventure is when the family drove an Indian Red VW Beetle that carried a trailer and a tent. Travelling was done rather slowly, so he had time to analyze the cars.

In one of the trips, he says his father told him to pay attention to the road because “something special” was coming. While on the A9, he saw “a happy, smiley face” that was a metallic green 911 Targa rushing towards its destination. Dickinson wasn’t fascinated by the speed, but by how the vehicle looked. “The back of the car had an utterly different demeanor. It felt a bit uncomfortable, but it looked angry while zooming off into the distance.”, said the Singer CEO. Not knowing at the time what that car exactly was, his father turned to him and said: “That was a Porsche 911.”

Since then, Dickinson couldn’t take his mind off the German sports car.

Singer Vehicle Design was founded by Rob Dickinson in 2009 with the sole purpose of preserving 911s by giving them creative and technical upgrades. The company makes it clear that no car they modify can bear the name of Singer or Singer 911 or Porsche Singer 911. The name of the company is in itself a homage to Norbert Singer, a famed Porsche engineer. At the same time, it says what the founder was doing before embarking on this fabulous journey – he was a band member. Also, as the CEO himself points out, part of the ethos of Singer is to understand the emotional appeal of the road trip.

Having his eyes and heart set on the Porsche 964 in Coupe or Targa variants, Dickinson built in a little over a decade a well-known brand that now works with the likes of Cosworth. The cars that leave the shop are expensive, some reaching even close to $2 million. This is somehow understandable since the goal is to optimize classic design by combining it with modern features. The company considers the classic air-cooled Porsche 911 the most important sports car in the world.