Photo: Singer Vehicle Design
There's a very good reason why people build jacked-up Miatas, and it's not because they make for excellent off-road vehicles. No, it's because they're cool.
Unlike the tiny rear-wheel-drive Japanese sports car, a Porsche 911 actually makes a bit more sense. The German manufacturer's legendary model can come with an all-wheel-drive system from the factory (albeit designed toward performance, not tricky surfaces, but an all-wheel-drive system nonetheless) as well as significantly more powerful engines.
Despite all that, Porsche isn't offering any off-road-ready sporty model at the moment. And given the company's current focus on becoming competitive in the EV segment, it's safe to assume it won't be doing that for a while, if ever.
Luckily, there's this thing called Singer Vehicle Design. The company usually takes older Porsche models and makes them shiny again while also adding some newer tech in the process. It's what people refer to as "restomodding," but on a very high level.
Recently (read the very start of the year), Singer released the All-terrain Competition Study (ACS), a car that seems to fulfill every man's dream of a Baja-bound 911 to a tee. The project is a joint effort between Singer Vehicle Design and racing specialist Richard Tuthill, all commissioned by an undisclosed entity with funds to spare.
You probably noticed the Porsche name doesn't get a mention, yet it was very prevalent in some of the ACS pictures released by Singer. The classic wide-lettered fond could be seen written in red on the back of the ACS, as well as stamped into the exposed protective plastic of the car's sills.
You'd think Porsche should embrace having its name linked with such an exciting project, but you'd be wrong. Well, half-wrong. According to a reaction obtained by Carscoops, it's not so much that Porsche didn't want to be associated with the project, but that it didn't want to create any confusion over its direct involvement. Which is zero.
Subsequently, Porsche quietly asked Singer to remove the ACS from the World-Wide-Web until the situation is resolved, which is why the vehicle is can't currently be found on any of the company's online channels.
We would assume the mean-looking 911 will make a return once the photoshoot will be redone. As a quicker and cheaper solution (and also less professional), Singer could digitally remove the Porsche branding from the pictures, if the German carmaker would be happy with that. Regardless of the approach taken to erase the Porsche lettering from the ACS, the dispute shouldn't have any impact on the actual project. Which, even though we're not the mysterious entity we talked about earlier, is all we really care about.
Despite all that, Porsche isn't offering any off-road-ready sporty model at the moment. And given the company's current focus on becoming competitive in the EV segment, it's safe to assume it won't be doing that for a while, if ever.
Luckily, there's this thing called Singer Vehicle Design. The company usually takes older Porsche models and makes them shiny again while also adding some newer tech in the process. It's what people refer to as "restomodding," but on a very high level.
Recently (read the very start of the year), Singer released the All-terrain Competition Study (ACS), a car that seems to fulfill every man's dream of a Baja-bound 911 to a tee. The project is a joint effort between Singer Vehicle Design and racing specialist Richard Tuthill, all commissioned by an undisclosed entity with funds to spare.
You probably noticed the Porsche name doesn't get a mention, yet it was very prevalent in some of the ACS pictures released by Singer. The classic wide-lettered fond could be seen written in red on the back of the ACS, as well as stamped into the exposed protective plastic of the car's sills.
You'd think Porsche should embrace having its name linked with such an exciting project, but you'd be wrong. Well, half-wrong. According to a reaction obtained by Carscoops, it's not so much that Porsche didn't want to be associated with the project, but that it didn't want to create any confusion over its direct involvement. Which is zero.
Subsequently, Porsche quietly asked Singer to remove the ACS from the World-Wide-Web until the situation is resolved, which is why the vehicle is can't currently be found on any of the company's online channels.
We would assume the mean-looking 911 will make a return once the photoshoot will be redone. As a quicker and cheaper solution (and also less professional), Singer could digitally remove the Porsche branding from the pictures, if the German carmaker would be happy with that. Regardless of the approach taken to erase the Porsche lettering from the ACS, the dispute shouldn't have any impact on the actual project. Which, even though we're not the mysterious entity we talked about earlier, is all we really care about.
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