**Welcome to Fifth Gear and Los Angeles**

The car modifying capital of the world is where innovation meets passion, and today we're on the final leg of our journey to check out the latest car craze to hit the scene. Resto moddy inside this unlikely looking lockup is a company which, according to the word, makes the best resto mods of them all. In fact, this might also be the best 911 of all – celebrating its 50th birthday, what we have here is a one-off, a mighty 250,000-dollar clip, every carrera turbo and GT3 that Porsche has ever made.

The man behind the restoration of this 1993 model is Singer Vehicle Designs' Rob Dickinson. He's been obsessed with the 911 since 1970, joining a rock band in the hope that he could make some money to buy one. After moving to Los Angeles in 2003 and building his ideal manual car, "your little my little," Dickson started telling people about his passion for resto mods and restoration. This led to Singer World, where every inch of the car has been considered, with modifications adding up to over 4,000 hours of work.

**The Art of Resto Mods**

While critics of the resto mod scene think these cars should be restored to their original specification to preserve their purity, there's no shortage of wealthy customers who want a classic car that's both faster and safer. Dickson believes in adding his own touches to every inch of the car, making it unique and personal. For example, the mirror from a 1967 911 is paired with windscreen wipers from a 1998 911, mixed with vintage racing chic from the early 70s. The result is a beautifully crafted one-off that blends old-school charm with modern flair.

The process of building this car has been meticulous, with every component considered and carefully selected. From the carbon fiber bonnet cup to the steel doors for impact protection, every detail has been thoughtfully chosen. "We keep everything carbon," says Dickson, "because it's lighter and more efficient." The result is a stunning piece of engineering that showcases the art of resto mods.

**A Car for the Ages**

This car is headed to a gentleman in Indonesia, another to a gentleman in Dubai, with stops in France, Mexico, Sweden, and beyond. Six cars have already been completed, and seven are currently in the restoration process. Singer Vehicle Designs is proud of their work, knowing that this car will be cherished by its owner for years to come.

**Testing the Resto Mod**

Now it's time to put this stunning 911 on the track at Willow Springs, just north of Los Angeles. This was where Carol Shelby tested his legendary AC Cobra and where the stunt team from the movie Bullet came to record the sounds of meaty V8s for that most famous car chase. As we take to the track, the air-cooled note of this 911's engine is unmistakable.

The initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive – the resto mods have clearly done their job. The balance of the car is immediately apparent, with a slight understeer on the front wheels and oversteer on the rear. But despite these handling quirks, this car feels incredibly confident, ready to take on any corner or challenge that comes its way.

**Racing and Driving**

Steering the resto-modded 911 around Willow Springs is an exhilarating experience – heavier steering and less finely tuned handling compared to a modern 911 mean it's not as easy to drive as expected. However, with every ounce of weight saved from the carbon fiber bodywork, this car is surprisingly light and agile, responding instantly to every touch of the pedals.

Braking is aggressive and confident, with deep blips into the corners that test the limits of this V8 powerhouse. The result is a truly thrilling experience – one that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you push this beauty around the track. And yet, despite its impressive performance, this car feels incredibly familiar, like an old friend that's been lovingly restored to its former glory.

**Conclusion**

This resto-modded 911 is a true masterpiece, a testament to the art of restoration and modification. With every inch of attention to detail, every component carefully selected, it's clear that Singer Vehicle Designs has outdone themselves once again. While it may not drive as precisely as a modern 911, this car offers something unique – old-school charm mixed with modern performance. Expect resto mods to take off in a big way; this one-off is the proof.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlos angeles is one of the world's great petrolhead cities ever since the birth of hot rodding in the 1930s california has always been a trendsetter for car culture and now i'm on the trail of the latest scene this may look like a 1952 chrysler town and country on the outside it still is with its pattern of body weathered by the years but underneath there's a brand new 500 horsepower 6.1 liter hemi engine with brakes and suspension to match this is what the new culture is all about resto modding resto modding is all about taking an old classic and fitting it sympathetically with new mechanical and cosmetic parts so you get the best of both worlds evocative old-school looks with 21st century refinement and performance it's something manufacturers like chevrolet and dodge have tapped into with their so-called factory resto mods the camaro and challenger are brand new cars with modern day speed that hark back to the shapes of the 70s but you don't see the very best examples of the breed in showrooms or even at car meets you have to know where to look in the los angeles underground i've tracked down the downtown warehouse of magnus walker he owns what has to be one of the coolest porsche collections in la internet films about his modified classics have turned him into a cult star good day hey tiff nice to meet you are you a bit of a porsche 911 fan by any chance yeah i've heard that before i do like the 911s i have a passion for them and yeah began as a 10 year old back in 1977 at the london hills court motor show eccentric millionaire magnus made his money customizing jeans now he customizes classics and his fans include car collecting royalty like jay leno his pride and joy is this the st r what's been modified on this particular camera well it's got a whole different look at the back the deck lids got louvers which is something that's not found on a 911 those arches don't look quite normal no i mean this is a 72 911 t which would have been narrow body these are actually reprofiled steel turbo flares but the whole turbo lip is being dulled off and rounded so it's got a nice curved shape it's running a uh eight and ten inch rim it's got an upgraded motor so initially this would have had a 2.4 liter motor with 130 horsepower what's it got now then it's got a short stroke 3-2 with approximately 275 horsepower so we've doubled the horsepower you thought it's a good idea it's like early 911 on steroids there's more of it there's more power there's more throttle response it's more sort of the feeling of a streetable race car but the proof is of course in the um so do you think i might try all your brilliant ideas out i'm not quite sure what you're meaning there give me the keys oh you want the keys oh well here's the key to happiness thank you very much you're gonna have a cup of tea can i use any rams you can use them all good the car's more than 40 years old and with a better patch weight ratio than a current day 911 being allowed behind the wheel is a rare privilege i'm going to test it on a road i've always dreamt of driving once you've escaped the urban sprawl of los angeles we're better to go for a bit of a feisty drive for the snake pass of al holland drive through the santa monica mountains mulholland is one of the most famous stretches of tarmac in california built in the 1920s it was a favorite haunt of car lovers james dean and steve mcqueen today it's popular with car enthusiasts and bikers from all over the world now i can really appreciate what this 911 is all about but it's all about a good old-fashioned 911. the great thing about presto modding is that you you make a car for your own individual taste and obviously magnus likes to sit on the floor and he also doesn't like to put in air conditioning no power steering no power assistance to the brakes this is good old-fashioned heavyweight work but the good thing about heavyweight work is it brings back all the sensations of what driving used to be yes the steering's heavy but also means you can feel every bump and ripple of the road yes the brakes are heavy but you can modulate them so much more easily but this state pass just goes on but i think i might get a bit of third gear sometime soon things that are fun to do shouldn't be easy to do and this isn't easy oh it's a big dead to the barrier there don't like lands normally i'm not a fan of old cars they're too fragile and unrefined but magnus's 80 000 resto mod is as exciting as any modern supercar and has been a brilliant introduction to the scene welcome back to fifth gear in la where it's time to get back on the trail of the biggest story in u.s car culture resto modding in southern california's san fernando valley there's a boutique restoration company with a big reputation icon alongside the old girl i've been driving around in are a whole host of american classics awaiting the same resto mod treatment none of these cars will come cheap with prices starting in the region of one hundred thousand dollars but the price hasn't put off the likes of tom hanks david letterman and jonathan ive who all boast icon restomods in their car collections their latest work is this exquisite version of the legendary toyota land cruiser fj it uses a 450 brake horsepower 5.7 litre v8 while the body has been finished in a special teflon coating to make it even tougher than the original the seats are covered in waterproof marine grade material whilst the sun visors are the same specification as those on a learjet the main switch is a cnc machined aluminium whilst the floor mounted dip switch is submersible rated in fact the icon is near as you can get to a real life tonka toy but can it really be worth 10 times more than an original toyota land cruiser first i'll check it out on the highway it has to be said that like all old off-roaders the fj was a bit of a tougher on road but this icon conversion has transformed this vehicle we've now got an extra 300 horsepower shed nearly half a ton of weight and i'll get to 60 in about six and a half seconds to cope with all that extra performance we've now got disc brakes all around the old cart springs have been thrown away in favor of modern coil springs it's got a wonderful solid brake pedal it's still got the old worm and screw steering no wreck opinion but it's fun it's fast and it feels very secure so it's been massively improved on-road but has that compromise its ability off-road this is the angeles national forest park and these are the rower flats a popular hangout with local off-road enthusiasts icon boss jonathan ward has brought along an unmodified original fj to help me see which is quicker when it comes to completing a section of the trail hi good to see you what have we got here this looks rather pristine this is a very nice vintage land cruiser this in fact is what we call basically the holy grail of the old land cruisers so this is a 1983. they only made 250 of them they were the very end of production at least for north american delivery when did these shaper line crews are finished then these went all the way from 1958 to 1985 globally so to compare this beauty with your modern icon there's a little horrible tortures course the driving tips keep your thumbs on the outside that's your biggest problem especially with these because the steering wheel will rip your thumb right out if you don't uh keep your foot in it the gas pedal on this is more of an on off switch than the greatest 135 horsepower flywheel 450 yeah first i'll set a time in the old school land cruiser three two one launcher launch kind of large i'll tell you what i thought that the uh there'll be a lot more bang in a bump into it they're legendary in their time and place it's just modern drivers expect a whole different sort of relationship now like all off-roaders of this vintage the original land cruiser feels a little ponderous by modern standards the steering is vague and acceleration is leisurely but considering that the design is over 50 years old it's coping pretty well in the hands of such a skillful oh sorry girl sorry sorry tap the hell now go come on come on come on oh that pulls it forward i'm sorry sorry sorry now what about this big hill have i got have i got any diff locked no sir no diplomats into the settings some we go come on girl oh please come on you can see the road on the sun please please stop the watch 2 31. next up is the icon funny how 450 horsepower makes you instantly more confident this was a wonderful grant they said yeah the torque is your friend left for the pylons this special edition celebrates the 40th anniversary of toyota's first ever off-road win when an fj took the famous baja 1000 desert race from california to mexico it's hard not to channel some of that excitement even today put your foot in itself i love the sound of it like a rodeo just keep your hips loose yeah what game is that higher lower range yeah goes on for the gnarly glow everything's low you're 87 to one crawl ratio and you made the course oh there we go in two minutes and 16.3 seconds lad people do this for fun oh yeah all day there's no doubt that the icon is an exquisite blend of the vintage and the very fast if you've got 150 000 to spare and are looking for a resto mod that can pound a mountain into submission then this baja fj is for you welcome back to fifth gear and to los angeles the car modifying capital of the world i'm here on the final leg of my journey to check out the latest car craze to hit the scene resto moddy inside this unlikely looking lockup is a company which the word has it makes the best resto mod of them all in fact this might also be the best 911 of all in the year the iconic sports car celebrates its 50th birthday what we have here is a 250 000 one-off the mighty clips every carrera turbo and gt3 that porsche has ever made the man who masterminded the restoration of this 1993 model is singer vehicle designs rob dickinson well i've been obsessed with the 911 since 1970. i joined a rock band in the hope that i could make some money so i could buy one and i just managed to to do that and i moved to los angeles in 2003 and built my ideal manual your little my little 69 hot rod over there and a lot of people like that car that was my hollywood kind of hot rod racer i started telling them well maybe i can build you something similar or restore a car in a similar way and that led to singer world and whilst restoring the car you add all your own touches you modify little bits every inch of the car has been considered and i just love the fact that we can take the mirror from a 1967 911 and put it with the windscreen wipers from a 1998 911 and mix it with the vintage racing chic of a central racing filler from the 911 r rsr era of the early 70s so where's the carbon begins the bonnet cup was that original bonnie everything's carbon carbon carbon carbon we keep we keep the steel doors because of the impact side impact uh protection which is good how many hours work going to turning a 964 into this beauty a little over 4 000. it's nutty critics of the resto mod scene think these cars should be restored to their original specification to preserve their purity but there's no shortage of wealthy customers who want a classic car that's both faster and safer this car's going to a gentleman in indonesia this car is going to a gentleman in dubai um we have a car in france we have a car in mexico we have a car in sweden how many have gone out of the doors so far six six have gone and we have we have seven eight nine ten eleven are in the restoration at the moment we're very proud very proud it's a wonderful piece thank you very much time to see just how wonderful it really is welcome to the famous willow springs one hour north of la it was here that carol shelby tested his legendary ac cobra and where the stunt team from the movie bullet came to record the sounds of meaty v8s for that most famous of car chases now it may have taken about four thousand hours to build it's gonna take me about four minutes to tell how well they've built it first impressions are they've done a pretty solid job it's great to hear that air cooled note from the back 360 horsepower to play with a little bit of understeer there i was concerned they put larger tires on the rear than i really was the balance is immediately predominantly understood pushing me wide into the back turn beginning to fight but it's quite impressive how confident i can be so quickly with this car whoop whoa whoa the resto modifications are impressive but it's not as easy to drive as a current 911 the steering is heavier and the handling less finely tuned fighting but thanks to all that weight saving carbon fiber bodywork it's light and agile and responds instantly if you grab it by the scrap of the neck come on it's like riding a bronco in the left corner up to 7 000 rpm great deep blip i'll tell you what this really is a car i'd love to race around this track it's confidence inspiring it's feisty it's flipping hard work this street course they call it it's really been a great test for this 911. it's standing up to laugh after lapper heavy braking being power sliding and twitchy moments what i really love about this 911 is that they built it like a new car and yet it really feels like the lovely old air-cooled cars that so many people still lush after well here we are last thing yes it's a lot of money and no it doesn't drive as precisely as a modern 911 but that would be to miss the point it's a meticulously built one-off and like all the resto mods i've seen on this trip offers the best of both worlds expect old classics remixed in a new style to take off in a big way youlos angeles is one of the world's great petrolhead cities ever since the birth of hot rodding in the 1930s california has always been a trendsetter for car culture and now i'm on the trail of the latest scene this may look like a 1952 chrysler town and country on the outside it still is with its pattern of body weathered by the years but underneath there's a brand new 500 horsepower 6.1 liter hemi engine with brakes and suspension to match this is what the new culture is all about resto modding resto modding is all about taking an old classic and fitting it sympathetically with new mechanical and cosmetic parts so you get the best of both worlds evocative old-school looks with 21st century refinement and performance it's something manufacturers like chevrolet and dodge have tapped into with their so-called factory resto mods the camaro and challenger are brand new cars with modern day speed that hark back to the shapes of the 70s but you don't see the very best examples of the breed in showrooms or even at car meets you have to know where to look in the los angeles underground i've tracked down the downtown warehouse of magnus walker he owns what has to be one of the coolest porsche collections in la internet films about his modified classics have turned him into a cult star good day hey tiff nice to meet you are you a bit of a porsche 911 fan by any chance yeah i've heard that before i do like the 911s i have a passion for them and yeah began as a 10 year old back in 1977 at the london hills court motor show eccentric millionaire magnus made his money customizing jeans now he customizes classics and his fans include car collecting royalty like jay leno his pride and joy is this the st r what's been modified on this particular camera well it's got a whole different look at the back the deck lids got louvers which is something that's not found on a 911 those arches don't look quite normal no i mean this is a 72 911 t which would have been narrow body these are actually reprofiled steel turbo flares but the whole turbo lip is being dulled off and rounded so it's got a nice curved shape it's running a uh eight and ten inch rim it's got an upgraded motor so initially this would have had a 2.4 liter motor with 130 horsepower what's it got now then it's got a short stroke 3-2 with approximately 275 horsepower so we've doubled the horsepower you thought it's a good idea it's like early 911 on steroids there's more of it there's more power there's more throttle response it's more sort of the feeling of a streetable race car but the proof is of course in the um so do you think i might try all your brilliant ideas out i'm not quite sure what you're meaning there give me the keys oh you want the keys oh well here's the key to happiness thank you very much you're gonna have a cup of tea can i use any rams you can use them all good the car's more than 40 years old and with a better patch weight ratio than a current day 911 being allowed behind the wheel is a rare privilege i'm going to test it on a road i've always dreamt of driving once you've escaped the urban sprawl of los angeles we're better to go for a bit of a feisty drive for the snake pass of al holland drive through the santa monica mountains mulholland is one of the most famous stretches of tarmac in california built in the 1920s it was a favorite haunt of car lovers james dean and steve mcqueen today it's popular with car enthusiasts and bikers from all over the world now i can really appreciate what this 911 is all about but it's all about a good old-fashioned 911. the great thing about presto modding is that you you make a car for your own individual taste and obviously magnus likes to sit on the floor and he also doesn't like to put in air conditioning no power steering no power assistance to the brakes this is good old-fashioned heavyweight work but the good thing about heavyweight work is it brings back all the sensations of what driving used to be yes the steering's heavy but also means you can feel every bump and ripple of the road yes the brakes are heavy but you can modulate them so much more easily but this state pass just goes on but i think i might get a bit of third gear sometime soon things that are fun to do shouldn't be easy to do and this isn't easy oh it's a big dead to the barrier there don't like lands normally i'm not a fan of old cars they're too fragile and unrefined but magnus's 80 000 resto mod is as exciting as any modern supercar and has been a brilliant introduction to the scene welcome back to fifth gear in la where it's time to get back on the trail of the biggest story in u.s car culture resto modding in southern california's san fernando valley there's a boutique restoration company with a big reputation icon alongside the old girl i've been driving around in are a whole host of american classics awaiting the same resto mod treatment none of these cars will come cheap with prices starting in the region of one hundred thousand dollars but the price hasn't put off the likes of tom hanks david letterman and jonathan ive who all boast icon restomods in their car collections their latest work is this exquisite version of the legendary toyota land cruiser fj it uses a 450 brake horsepower 5.7 litre v8 while the body has been finished in a special teflon coating to make it even tougher than the original the seats are covered in waterproof marine grade material whilst the sun visors are the same specification as those on a learjet the main switch is a cnc machined aluminium whilst the floor mounted dip switch is submersible rated in fact the icon is near as you can get to a real life tonka toy but can it really be worth 10 times more than an original toyota land cruiser first i'll check it out on the highway it has to be said that like all old off-roaders the fj was a bit of a tougher on road but this icon conversion has transformed this vehicle we've now got an extra 300 horsepower shed nearly half a ton of weight and i'll get to 60 in about six and a half seconds to cope with all that extra performance we've now got disc brakes all around the old cart springs have been thrown away in favor of modern coil springs it's got a wonderful solid brake pedal it's still got the old worm and screw steering no wreck opinion but it's fun it's fast and it feels very secure so it's been massively improved on-road but has that compromise its ability off-road this is the angeles national forest park and these are the rower flats a popular hangout with local off-road enthusiasts icon boss jonathan ward has brought along an unmodified original fj to help me see which is quicker when it comes to completing a section of the trail hi good to see you what have we got here this looks rather pristine this is a very nice vintage land cruiser this in fact is what we call basically the holy grail of the old land cruisers so this is a 1983. they only made 250 of them they were the very end of production at least for north american delivery when did these shaper line crews are finished then these went all the way from 1958 to 1985 globally so to compare this beauty with your modern icon there's a little horrible tortures course the driving tips keep your thumbs on the outside that's your biggest problem especially with these because the steering wheel will rip your thumb right out if you don't uh keep your foot in it the gas pedal on this is more of an on off switch than the greatest 135 horsepower flywheel 450 yeah first i'll set a time in the old school land cruiser three two one launcher launch kind of large i'll tell you what i thought that the uh there'll be a lot more bang in a bump into it they're legendary in their time and place it's just modern drivers expect a whole different sort of relationship now like all off-roaders of this vintage the original land cruiser feels a little ponderous by modern standards the steering is vague and acceleration is leisurely but considering that the design is over 50 years old it's coping pretty well in the hands of such a skillful oh sorry girl sorry sorry tap the hell now go come on come on come on oh that pulls it forward i'm sorry sorry sorry now what about this big hill have i got have i got any diff locked no sir no diplomats into the settings some we go come on girl oh please come on you can see the road on the sun please please stop the watch 2 31. next up is the icon funny how 450 horsepower makes you instantly more confident this was a wonderful grant they said yeah the torque is your friend left for the pylons this special edition celebrates the 40th anniversary of toyota's first ever off-road win when an fj took the famous baja 1000 desert race from california to mexico it's hard not to channel some of that excitement even today put your foot in itself i love the sound of it like a rodeo just keep your hips loose yeah what game is that higher lower range yeah goes on for the gnarly glow everything's low you're 87 to one crawl ratio and you made the course oh there we go in two minutes and 16.3 seconds lad people do this for fun oh yeah all day there's no doubt that the icon is an exquisite blend of the vintage and the very fast if you've got 150 000 to spare and are looking for a resto mod that can pound a mountain into submission then this baja fj is for you welcome back to fifth gear and to los angeles the car modifying capital of the world i'm here on the final leg of my journey to check out the latest car craze to hit the scene resto moddy inside this unlikely looking lockup is a company which the word has it makes the best resto mod of them all in fact this might also be the best 911 of all in the year the iconic sports car celebrates its 50th birthday what we have here is a 250 000 one-off the mighty clips every carrera turbo and gt3 that porsche has ever made the man who masterminded the restoration of this 1993 model is singer vehicle designs rob dickinson well i've been obsessed with the 911 since 1970. i joined a rock band in the hope that i could make some money so i could buy one and i just managed to to do that and i moved to los angeles in 2003 and built my ideal manual your little my little 69 hot rod over there and a lot of people like that car that was my hollywood kind of hot rod racer i started telling them well maybe i can build you something similar or restore a car in a similar way and that led to singer world and whilst restoring the car you add all your own touches you modify little bits every inch of the car has been considered and i just love the fact that we can take the mirror from a 1967 911 and put it with the windscreen wipers from a 1998 911 and mix it with the vintage racing chic of a central racing filler from the 911 r rsr era of the early 70s so where's the carbon begins the bonnet cup was that original bonnie everything's carbon carbon carbon carbon we keep we keep the steel doors because of the impact side impact uh protection which is good how many hours work going to turning a 964 into this beauty a little over 4 000. it's nutty critics of the resto mod scene think these cars should be restored to their original specification to preserve their purity but there's no shortage of wealthy customers who want a classic car that's both faster and safer this car's going to a gentleman in indonesia this car is going to a gentleman in dubai um we have a car in france we have a car in mexico we have a car in sweden how many have gone out of the doors so far six six have gone and we have we have seven eight nine ten eleven are in the restoration at the moment we're very proud very proud it's a wonderful piece thank you very much time to see just how wonderful it really is welcome to the famous willow springs one hour north of la it was here that carol shelby tested his legendary ac cobra and where the stunt team from the movie bullet came to record the sounds of meaty v8s for that most famous of car chases now it may have taken about four thousand hours to build it's gonna take me about four minutes to tell how well they've built it first impressions are they've done a pretty solid job it's great to hear that air cooled note from the back 360 horsepower to play with a little bit of understeer there i was concerned they put larger tires on the rear than i really was the balance is immediately predominantly understood pushing me wide into the back turn beginning to fight but it's quite impressive how confident i can be so quickly with this car whoop whoa whoa the resto modifications are impressive but it's not as easy to drive as a current 911 the steering is heavier and the handling less finely tuned fighting but thanks to all that weight saving carbon fiber bodywork it's light and agile and responds instantly if you grab it by the scrap of the neck come on it's like riding a bronco in the left corner up to 7 000 rpm great deep blip i'll tell you what this really is a car i'd love to race around this track it's confidence inspiring it's feisty it's flipping hard work this street course they call it it's really been a great test for this 911. it's standing up to laugh after lapper heavy braking being power sliding and twitchy moments what i really love about this 911 is that they built it like a new car and yet it really feels like the lovely old air-cooled cars that so many people still lush after well here we are last thing yes it's a lot of money and no it doesn't drive as precisely as a modern 911 but that would be to miss the point it's a meticulously built one-off and like all the resto mods i've seen on this trip offers the best of both worlds expect old classics remixed in a new style to take off in a big way you\n"