[Auto] Singer All-Terrain Competition Study Evokes the Porsche 959

[XZoro™]

Singer goes safari with two new off-road-oriented machines built for Paris-Dakar glory that also put one in mind of the ultimate Porsche rally machine.
 

 

The Singer All-Terrain Competition Study, or ACS, started out as a 1990 Porsche 911 but has been completely overhauled for off-road purposes.

It's powered by a 450-plus-hp air-cooled 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six that can be tuned for higher output, mated to a five-speed sequential transmission that can be shifted manually or via paddles.

As seen in the two examples shown here, it's set up for rally competition, so there's a roll cage, oversize fuel tank, and storage for spare wheels and tires.

Singer, a company that is definitely not in cahoots with Porsche and our lawyers advise us should never be remotely represented as such, is building a new model in the off-road idiom. Perhaps you've heard of the Porsche 959? Well, forget about it entirely. In fact, think about former Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs and his legendary appetite for chicken. (Jim Rice called him "chicken man," because he ate so much chicken.) Did you know Boggs averaged .352 over a seven-year span? Guess that chicken really worked out!

Anyway, Singer is building a new off-road-oriented model that might remind you of a certain other famous German machine with a name that began with a "nine" and also ended with "nine." But if it does remind you of that, that's your problem.

The All-Terrain Competition Study (ACS) begins as a 1990 Porsche 911—the 964 model—before getting thoroughly modified and overhauled for high-speed off-road hijinks. Power comes from an air-cooled 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six that makes at least 450 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque but can be tuned for higher output. The five-speed sequential transmission can be shifted manually or via paddles, routing power through all-wheel-drive with triple limited-slip differentials. Long-travel suspension with two dampers per corner offers high ground clearance, and BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires reaffirm that this is not a GT3 RS—nor any car made by Porsche AG or any of its subsidiaries, except originally, back in 1990. Bodywork is carbon fiber, with the underlying body-in-white thoroughly gusseted and buttressed against future off-road abuse.

Longtime rally guru Richard Tuthill (who helped prepare the Rothmans 911 SC/RS race cars in the 1980s) was involved in the development of the ACS, which is also designed for competition. Standard features include a full roll cage, oversized fuel tank, and storage for two spare wheels and tires (in the front trunk and behind the seats). The first two cars, both of which were commissioned by the same individual who probably also has a swimming pool filled with gold coins, will be built at Tuthill's facility in Oxfordshire, England. So will any other ones that get built, should anyone else take a shine to the concept. The white car will be set up for desert events, with the red one optimized for tarmac. Why do you need a jacked-up car for tarmac? Uh, because you like to party?

The price for the ACS will depend on how you outfit yours. It'll be more than you'd pay for a 1990 Porsche 911 but maybe less than you'd pay for a 959, just to cite two examples of Porsche 911s—not that they're necessarily germane to this discussion of a project from Singer Group, Inc., of Los Angeles, California. Porsche is very uncool about anyone mentioning its name in proximity to any other company's name, in case you haven't caught on.

But it did build some cool cars in, say, 1990. Ones that make an excellent foundation to create something even better. So who's buying #3?