The Singer 911

Usually when you hear that something has been “re-imagined,” you can assume it’s going to be total crap. Just take a look at Hollywood’s desperate lack of creativity over the last few years if you don’t believe me. That’s why you could be forgiven for being skeptical about Singer’s re-imagining of the Porsche 911 upon first hearing about it. They’ve basically decided to cherry pick the best features from the various cars that populate the air-cooled era of the 911 and combine them into one. If you think about it, the fact that the general shape of the car has not changed since its inception makes the 911 probably the only car where you could Frankenstein the different models and still end up with a coherent package in the end. Toss in custom carbon fiber body work, Ohlins suspension, an engine by Cosworth and top it off with maniacal attention to detail and you could say thing Singer really did pull off a legitimate re-imagining of an iconic car. Chris Harris pays the Singer workshop in LA a visit to discuss car building philosophy and to see what goes into each car. He then takes one out for a spin on California roads and at the track to see where theory meets reality. The video is long, but it’s definitely worth checking out to see what a deep passion for the 911 combined with basically an unlimited budget can birth.


Source: DRIVE on YouTube

Ice Driving Porsche 911 Rally Cars

Chris Harris heads to a frozen lake in Sweden to partake in what he calls “leisure oversteer” in some classic Porsche 911 rally cars. He discusses why Porsche’s signature rear engine layout is so good for rally drifts and then finishes up with a pretty in-depth discussion about the studded snow and ice tires used in the World Rally Championship.


Source: DRIVE on YouTube

One Car To Do It All – Petrolicious

Meet Black Beauty, Jack Olsen’s 1972 Porsche 911 RSR. I love Jack’s philosophy towards building things. He refused to believe that he had to make sacrifices on the street in order to go fast on track. To that end he built Black Beauty to be his one and only recreational car. He packs all of his aero parts, tools and safety gear into the 911 and then drives it to the track. Motivation is provided by a 1995 Porsche 911 engine that makes a little less than 300 horsepower. Jack says, “All of the genius of my particular car is in the suspension and I want to continue tweaking that suspension almost indefinitely. Horsepower is something that looks great in a magazine article, but suspension is what actually gets you around the track fast and this car does a fantastic job because of its suspension.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.


One Car to Do It All
from Petrolicious on Vimeo.

2013 Porsche Boxster S

When Porsche first introduced the Boxster, the concept was for the car to be an inexpensive entry level model for the lineup. Turns out a reasonably priced mid-engine Porsche was a great formula for success. That being said, the Boxster had some shortcomings having to work around hand-me-down parts and Porsche’s mandate to keep its performance level significantly short of the bread and butter 911. Now that the Boxster and Cayman have proven themselves as strong sales successes, Porsche’s attitude towards them has reversed. The twins now get their own designs and parts in order to have the top of the line S models have almost identical performance stats with the base model 911. Motor Trend’s Carlos Lago also reveals that being the entry level model has the benefits of tuning focus. What I mean is that the Boxster is under less pressure to deliver specific 0-60 or Nurburgring times than the 911. The result is chassis balance that makes dialing in some oversteer more of a priority than outright grip. Cars tuned for fun are starting to become a rarity these days, but I’m glad to see some people still get it.


Source: Motor Trend