Since founder and executive chairman Rob Dickinson’s earliest builds, the goal at Singer has always been to celebrate the 911 through peerless craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail. As each of their creations inches ever closer to perfection, they’re on the hunt to find the ultimate driving roads where these reimagined Porsche 911s can truly be enjoyed to the fullest. Thanks to Carage Luzerne, Singer has now landed in Switzerland, meaning you can explore the finest tarmac the Swiss Alps have to offer and potentially answer the question: can something be too perfect?
It’s a quandary that dates back to the dawn of human invention, and one that Rob Dickinson is more than qualified to answer. "Can something be too perfect? Well, how do you gauge perfection, I suppose?" Rob contemplates. "I’ve always struggled to admit that we chase perfection. In recent years I’ve had to accept that we do. It’s an uncomfortable thing to try and shoot for because it’s impossible. Our cars aren’t perfect, nobody’s cars are perfect, I’m not sure anything is perfect, but we can strive for things to be as good as they possibly can be. I like to think that our subject matter — the Porsche 911 — deserves such a philosophy."
Ask anyone lucky enough to have seen a Singer restoration in the metal and they would probably agree; very few machines on this planet are as lacking in flaws as the Californian firm’s reimagined 911s. But why did they embark on this relentless pursuit of the impossible? According to Rob, the answer is simple: “The why is because I wanted it. I tried to build my own perfect 911 a few years earlier on a limited budget. That experience fired my imagination and convinced me that a perfect Porsche 911 existed in my head. I wanted it and I knew I had to get it out. It became obsessional, something I couldn’t stop thinking about. Everything else in my life at the time fell to the wayside until I had managed to manifest this thing, which was the car we showed to the world in 2009.”
“Reimagining a Porsche 911? I’m not sure that’s what I was trying to do in 2008. What I was trying to do when I started Singer was curate, conceive and present my version of a perfect air-cooled 911.” Rob reveals about the origins of his company. But what does the word ‘reimagine’ mean to this living legend in the Porsche scene? “To imagine something is a creative thing and to reimagine it is a creative thing too. When we’re being creative, we’re generally in love with an idea, we’re shooting for something that is deeply personal. Reimagination is just an incredibly accurate term for what we do.”
Since the company’s inception in 2009, Singer’s commissions have travelled to the far corners of the globe, from Saudi Arabia to Japan and from New Zealand to France. Now they’re ticking off another country from the world map: Switzerland. It’s a place that shares Rob’s commitment to quality, from their rail network to their timepieces, making it the perfect destination to experience these machines. “Quality is caring. Quality is something you do for yourself, not because you have to. You can usually see it when love and commitment has been put into something for no ulterior motive. That’s when quality really shines through for me.”
“It’s kind of ethereal, Switzerland,” says Rob. “With that comes this quiet contemplative sense of getting things done meticulously well. Which is I think where, from a visitor’s point of view, I imagine that sense of inherent quality. The way the roads are manicured, the way the place is effortlessly happy in its own skin; it’s an interesting place Switzerland, I love it.
Thanks to Carage Luzerne, driving a 911 reimagined by Singer on a pristine alpine pass is no longer just a fantasy. Having worked tirelessly to homologate these handcrafted sports cars according to Swiss regulations, Carage are now offering you the opportunity to chase your own definition of perfection, working in collaboration with Singer to bring these peerless sports cars from California to the Alps. All that’s left for you to do is discover your ultimate driving road.
Video and photos by Alpineracer
