The Insane 700-Horsepower Singer DLS Turbo Is A Road-Legal Tribute To ’70s Endurance Racing

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Just as it felt like the modified Porsche 911 craze was tapering off, the restomod wizards at Singer have gone completely mental. This is the Singer DLS Turbo, a tribute to one of Porsche’s greatest-ever racing cars boosted to the nth degree. It’s pretty damn close to an IMSA Group 4 racer for the road, except it has even more power than the original.

Singer Dls Turbo Powertrain

This high-end restomod may look properly old, but it’s still more powerful than any brand new Porsche 911 you can possibly place a deposit on. Stowed under the rear deck sits an in-house 3.8-liter air-cooled flat six with not one, but two turbochargers bolted on. The result? A full 700 horsepower and more than 9,000 rpm in a car roughly the size of a honeymoon suite Jacuzzi.

Singer Dls Turbo Interior

All that rocketry makes it way to the rear Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires through a six-speed manual gearbox with an exposed linkage so exquisite, you could sneak it into the MoMA and it would take weeks for people to catch on. Mind you, the interior that Singer is demonstrating happens to be more orange than Garfield, so it’s easy to miss this sensational shifter at first glance.

Singer Dls Turbo 1

As with every Singer vehicle, the DLS Turbo starts with a Porsche 964, but it doesn’t end up looking anything like a stockbroker’s chariot from the early ‘90s. Instead, it gets coachwork inspired by the Porsche 934/5, a racing special so potent that it was banned by IMSA before it ever got a chance to compete under that sanctioning body. Not content with scrapping the project, teams took the 934/5 racing in the 1977 SCCA Trans-Am series where it dominated the podium, a solid track record for a car built to exploit a rule change in a completely different series.

Singer Dls Turbo 2

To be fair, the turbocharged 934/5 was a hilariously overpowered mix of Group 4 and Group 5 parts, hence the name. Porsche used the engine and chassis from the 934 Group 4 car but the wheels, tires, widened rear bodywork, and gigantic wing from the 935, a rulebook stretcher in itself. Unsurprisingly, the resulting chimera looked absolutely insane, with rear fenders the size of kitchen cabinets, and the Singer DLS Turbo leans all the way into it.

Singer Dls Turbo Street Aero

If customers don’t want the full Monty, the rear picnic table can be swapped out for a little ducktail and the front air dam can be replaced with a smaller piece. However, if you’re going to spend this sort of money on a reimagined 911, you just have to go for the full Moby Dick all the time. It’s a car with two commas in its price tag, pull out all the stops. Get the turbofans and ludicrous aerodynamic aids and enough orange to suggest German liqueur affiliation. Own a four-wheeled expletive nutty enough to make a Pagani Huayra look tame. Whatever you do, don’t be boring.

Singer Dls Turbo 3

With modern tires, modern suspension, and modern brakes, the Singer DLS Turbo should be less scary than an original 934/5, but sharing a telephone booth with a starving, irate grizzly bear also sounds less scary than a 934/5. You’re still dealing with a 30-year-old donor car draped in carbon fiber panels and bestowed with more firepower than North Korea.

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As is usual with high-end builds like this, production is limited and the price tag lives in “if you have to ask” territory, but whatever small nation’s GDP Singer lands on might just be worth it. It’s the sort of machine that would make grown adults with Roth IRAs and mortgages squeal with delight upon merely spotting it in the wild, and can a price really be put on joy? Surely it’s more sensible than spending $1.2 million on a 996.

(Photo credits: Singer Vehicle Design)

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18 thoughts on “The Insane 700-Horsepower Singer DLS Turbo Is A Road-Legal Tribute To ’70s Endurance Racing

  1. Holy mother of Jeebus, that ducktail car is gorgeous. And the interior of the other is stunning. I know one pays for it through the nose and several other orifices, but if I were stupid rich….

  2. I’m usually not into this sort of thing but this is unbelievably awesome. The OG 934/935 are some of the most iconic Porsche race cars even if their reign of terror was short lived. This is an incredible tribute that captures the sheer audacity of the original with modern touches. I’m sure it’s less horrifying to drive than the OG but 700 rear mounted, twin turbocharged horsepower to the rear wheels is 700 rear mounted, twin turbocharged horsepower to the rear wheels.

    If I had 7 figures to blow on a car (spoiler: I don’t and never will) this would be near the top of my list. It’s so much cooler than any modern hypercars and it won’t be the utter pain in the ass to deal with that something like an F40 or another classic supercar would be. It’s incredibly unique and although restomods aren’t really my schtick I’ll give Singer a lot of credit for showing so much reverence for Porsche’s heritage.

  3. Reminder: the 935/76 and 935/77 only exist because Chevrolet kicked their teeth down their throat with a MONZA.
    And both of those Porsches were nothing more than frantically and desperate copying the DeKon Monza. And still having a hell of a time till GM stopped spending.

    Lee Dykstra and Horst Kwech did not fuck around. Al Unser, Michael Keyser, 1976-1977 Australian GT champion Alan Moffat, and 1976-1977 IMSA Champion Al Holbert. And still consistently racking up kills in SVRA and reunions.

  4. I’m torn. I’m glad that cars are able to be reimagined to this level of detail and quality but also it’s just another reminder of the haves and have nots.

    1. It’s not supercar pretty, but does have a very racecar functional look. I guess a car like this should look a bit special (to put it nicely).

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