Singer’s ACS is the Safari 911 that I’ve had unspeakable dreams about



Singer Vehicle Design, or Singer as it’s more commonly known amongst the automotive enthusiast crowd, is a boutique workshop that has been restoring and modifying old-school Porsche 911s to turn them into appropriate daily drivers for just over a decade. What they’ve done this time round though, is something completely out of their norm – but boy oh boy, did they knock it out of the park.

This here, is the Singer All-Terrain Competition Study, or ACS for short. Built for a long-time customer a who wanted an air-cooled 911 that could “compete in off-road racing and demonstrate all-terrain exploration capabilities”, Singer managed to turn a 1990 Type 964 Porsche 911 into what is basically the ultimate Safari 911 tribute.

As this is Singer’s first foray into built-for-competition cars, the company enlisted the help of one Richard Tuthill of a certain Tuthill Porsche – a company started by the old-timer rally driver for the sole purpose of building Porsche 911 rally cars. So for those out of the loop, here’s how you turn a road-going sports car into a full-blown rally car – while looking damn good doing it.

First off, the suspension set-up has been completely reengineered to “dramatically” increase the ride height, while offering as much travel as possible. Two five-way adjustable dampers sit behind a 16-inch forged aluminium wheel in each corner, wrapped with monstrous BF Goodrich off-road tyres that look almost comically oversized for the Porsche 911.

Every single body panel on the 1990 Porsche 911 has been replaced by carbon fibre for weight reduction and easy replacement, while also allowing them to craft the ACS into what Singer truly wanted it to be – a proper off-road machine with actual racing credentials.

Just take a look at the ducktail rear wing-thing that extends from the engorged wheel arches, as well as the mutant wing-like mud flaps up front. Look at it long enough, and you’d think that the Singer ACS is a proper sanctioned Porsche rally car that came about when a 954 had some fun with a Dakar trophy truck and a 959 Safari.

The monocoque has also been strengthened for heavy duty off-road use, while the entire underbody is covered in 5 mm-thick aluminium underbody protection that can be easily removed for emergency repairs.

Looks even better drenched in mud.

For power, the air-cooled 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six engine has been tuned to now produce 450 hp, but Singer said that the “performance characteristics of the engine can be tuned depending on the demands of competition and the owner”.

The engine is paired to a 5-speed sequential dog-box transmission and a full-time all-wheel drive system – one that has three individual mechanical, plated limited-slip differentials, one on each axle, and one in the centre dividing the power up.

In what seems like the complete antithesis of what Singer is about, the interior of the ACS is suitably bare-bones – just like how a proper race car should be. It’s fitted with FIA-compliant roll cage, seats and harnesses, alongside a GPS navigation system and rehydration system for driver and navigator, ready to take on the Baja 1000 or Dakar Rally.

As it turns out, the mysterious customer actually commissioned two units of the ACS – one in Singer’s signature Parallax White colour focused on high-speed desert rallying, and a second – in Corsica Red – configured for high-speed, high-grip tarmac events and disciplines.

The best part of it all is that the customer has allowed Singer to sell the ACS design to future customers who are looking to build one for themselves. No pricing information has been shared, but seeing how Singer’s “usual” Porsche 911 restomods are priced well above USD500,000 (RM2 mil), we’d wager that this will probably quite a bit more than that.

A bedroom poster will do for us, Singer.


GALLERY