Singer partners with Red Bull on 964 Cabrio
Red Bull gives you wings - and a 175 per cent increase in torsional rigidity
It’s a problem faced by car companies the world over. Doesn’t matter how much is charged, how rare the car is or how much power is under the bonnet, once the roof is off a hard-top car the underlying structure, to one degree or another, will suffer. It won’t ride as nicely, handle as crisply, or accelerate quite as vividly (the latter thanks to the weight added by a folding roof). For most it’s an acceptable compromise for wind-in-the-air joy, but then Singer Vehicle Design (and its customers) are not most car people. It wouldn’t be unreasonable, when spending a million on a car, to brook no compromise whatsoever - even if it looks like a 30-year-old Porsche.
So, of course, Singer has a money-no-object solution to the age-old issue of wobbly drop-tops: it’s called in Red Bull. What with a lot of commissions using the turbocharged flat six, boasting a significant step up in performance, the need for a flex-free Cabriolet or Targa is more pressing than ever. So Singer ‘asked Red Bull Advanced Technologies to deploy their world-class capabilities in simulation and structural analysis’. That meant using Finite Element Analysis to work out just how rigid both coupe and convertible were, then to identify where the latter was losing out to the former and attempt to address those weak spots. Soft top chassis technology has come a long way since the '90s; where the best cabrios are almost - almost - indistinguishable from their hard-top counterparts these days, that certainly wasn’t the case in the late 20th century.
Red Bull’s fix is a formation of 13 carbon fibre structures to reinforce the 964 chassis, bonded to the monocoque during Singer’s extensive restoration and said to boast torsional rigidity by 175 per cent. Singer is emphatic about the results: ‘This increased chassis rigidity benefits handling, braking and overall refinement, with the driving experience of the open-roofed cars now matching that of the coupe.’ The best of both worlds, then, in theory: traditional top-down thrills, with all the dynamic discipline that Singer’s reimagined Porsches have become globally renowned for. And, presumably, little in terms of weight penalty.
Singer’s Chief Strategy Officer Maz Fawaz said of the link-up: “Our clients are some of the most discerning drivers in the world. To achieve the standards they have come to expect, we work only with the best, and our search for expertise in this area led us to Red Bull Advanced Technologies. Since 2009 our approach has brought heritage together with cutting edge engineering, and Red Bull’s mastery of advanced materials, simulation and structural analysis perfectly exemplifies this approach. The results underline the extraordinary lengths we go to in our relentless pursuit of excellence”. As if a Singer of some kind wasn’t beguiling enough already. Best get hold of a 964 cabriolet now, in fact, before they’re all wanted for carbon-enhanced restomodding and prices climb further…
I remember those
I'd love to see Singer do an actual 964, that looks like a 964 but with their attention to detail and enhancement. The wide-body 964 Turbo 3.6 and Anniversary are outstanding-looking cars, one of my favourite Porsches.
Targa, no wing, please.
Perfect daily.
And a Nichols N1A for giggle duties:
https://www.evo.co.uk/reviews/208483/nichols-n1a-r...
Meanwhile, Ferrari please note: less is more.
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