What a classic Porsche 911 looks like when deeply modernized with the utmost respect for its authentic allure

Car enthusiasts often debate what is best to do with a classic car — restore it exactly as it was from the factory, or go the route of a restomod, improving it to more modern parameters. In the US, however, there is a workshop called Singer that walks a middle ground, restoring cars through consistent improvements to every little part, but with the utmost respect for its authentic allure, so that the final car does not lose any of its classic magnificent appearance.

The people at Singer are so specialized in what they do that they only restore examples of Porsche 911s, produced between 1989 and 1994, based on the 964 body. And they have three possible interpretations — classic, lighter in kilograms and turbo. They don't restore very many cars in quantity, but the quality of what they do and the inspiration they have is so fascinating that the prices for a project of theirs start at $500,000 in the US in the most basic and theoretical form and reach up to 1.8 million for customers who want to listen to all the suggestions and give the workshop people freedom of creative thinking.

The car we see in these images is the classic interpretation, that is, the one that best preserves the authentic spirit of the Porsche 911 of this generation. From the outside, a less knowledgeable enthusiast could say that he only sees a classic Porsche 911, and by no means a version that is so consistently improved.

The interior is a real temple of skill. And the colors chosen, and the materials, and the general atmosphere, and the dedication with which they worked is simply sublime. Everything is so classic, that you end up wondering if the Porsche 911 should have looked like this from the start, in some factory edition.

Everything that has been replaced and updated has the right colors, materials from that era, everything looks like it was destined to be there from the start.

And even the new elements, such as the wooden ball joint of the gear box lever, seem well integrated into the landscape.

And the work of Singer is not just about design. The technical substrate is also modified, with a lot of consistency. But again, the basic idea remains. It is enough to open the engine compartment and see the air-cooled engine there and the visual transformations it has undergone.

It's a 4.0-liter 6-cylinder boxer engine that has new cylinder heads, magnesium valves, connecting rods, new pistons and a different crankshaft. The engine is still air-cooled, but revs much higher, up to 9,000 rpm and above. For the classic version, the power is not announced, but it seems to be equal to that of the light version, i.e. at 450 HP. And on the turbo version it reaches 510 HP.

This approach to these Singer-modified Porsches has made these creations the absolute pinnacle of classic Porsche conversions. Singer is a workshop founded only in 2009, so still a very young one, but their creations are already collector's items, which, as mentioned, end up costing millions.