GOODWOOD INTERVIEW:
Singer founder Rob Dickinson on the companies, past, present and future
Not the guy that started the restomod revolution, Rob Dickinson and his speciality company, Singer, have certainly given it a very large helping hand. At the forefront of reimagining what a certain vintage of 911 Porsches could become through extensive modification, through Singer, Dickinson has transformed air-cooled Porsches, almost exclusively built around the 964 chassis of 1989-1994 cars, into both works of art and intense driving machines, in an attempt to satisfy the insatiable appetite for retro-chic.
“We wanted a 400-plus horsepower engine that met all emissions requirements across the world. Crucially, it would also have prodigious mid-range torque and would rev its nuts off at the same time. Working with Cosworth was a partnership made in heaven. It’s one of the most exciting engines that we’ve ever made.”
Dickinson originally envisaged being a design company with other organisations building his ideas. “I didn’t expect this at all,” he says. “This is all a mistake. I knew something good would happen, I just didn’t know where it was going to go. I thought we’d build maybe ten and then we’d go off and do something else. I thought we would be in a white office with screens and I’d have a bunch of creative people surrounding me and we would design cars.”
