The classic Porsche 911 has always been a masterclass in character, but the open‑top versions carried a compromise baked into their DNA: a soft, flexy chassis that never quite matched the engine’s enthusiasm. Singer has spent years reimagining these cars into dream‑garage material, yet even its obsessively rebuilt Cabriolet and Targa shells still started life with that same structural weakness. Now, with help from Red Bull’s Formula 1 brain trust, the company has finally gone after that flaw with race‑team intensity and a lot of Carbon.
The result is a quietly radical shift in how a vintage 911 can feel, especially with the roof missing. Instead of accepting cowl shake and the odd shimmy as part of the charm, Singer and Red Bull have treated stiffness as a design brief, not an afterthought, and turned one of the platform’s biggest compromises into a selling point.
Why Old Open‑Top 911s Needed Help
Anyone who has driven an older 911 Cabriolet or Targa knows the tradeoff: roof off, vibes on. The basic structure was never as rigid as the coupe, and once the top was removed, the middle of the car had to work overtime to keep everything aligned. Singer builds its reimagined 911s on the bones of a stripped‑down 964-generation Cabriolet or Targa, which means the company inherits that fundamental lack of torsional rigidity before it adds a single bespoke stitch of leather.
That flex is not just a theoretical annoyance. It affects how precisely the suspension can do its job, how faithfully the steering talks back, and even how solid the car feels when it hits a mid‑corner bump. Earlier this year, Singer Vehicle Design made it clear it was no longer willing to live with that compromise, announcing that it is teaming up with Red Bull Advanced to reinforce the chassis on its reimagined Porsche 911s and give the open‑roof cars a much stronger backbone.
How Red Bull’s Race Lab Got Involved
On the Red Bull side, this is not a casual branding exercise. Red Bull Advanced, the high‑performance engineering arm of Red Bull Technology Group, usually spends its time on projects that orbit Formula 1 levels of complexity. Partnering with Singer gives that group a chance to apply its simulation tools and structural know‑how to something with chrome trim and air‑cooled nostalgia instead of slick tires and DRS.
The collaboration is not just about swapping logos. Red Bull Advanced Technologies deployed its simulation and structural analysis capabilities to increase the torsional stiffness of Singer’s reimagined Porsches, treating the open‑roof shells like a clean‑sheet race car project rather than a restoration. For a company that has been winning in Formula 1, taking on a 964 Cabriolet is almost a passion project, but the tools are the same: heavy computing power, obsessive iteration, and a refusal to accept flex as fate.
The FEA Deep Dive Into a Vintage Shell
Instead of just welding in a few braces and calling it a day, the engineers started with data. Finite Element Analysis software was used to calculate the torsional stiffness of various car body variants, with the FEA models built from a mix of scanned data and manual measurements of the classic shell. That digital twin let the team test ideas virtually, long before any metal or composite was cut, and showed exactly where the Cabriolet and Targa bodies were giving up rigidity.
From there, the job became one of targeted surgery rather than brute force. The goal was to bring the open‑roof cars as close as possible to the stiffness of a coupe whilst minimizing additional weight, a balance that matters on a car as delicately tuned as a Singer. The result is a set of 13 custom carbon‑fiber reinforcements developed by Red Bull that slot into the structure of the 911, each one shaped by that Finite Element Analysis rather than guesswork.
Carbon, Cabrios, and a Much Stiffer 964
For Singer, the magic trick is that all this tech disappears into the car. Red Bull engineers helped Singer stiffen its open‑top 964 chassis using those carbon‑fiber parts, which boost rigidity by a huge margin without turning the car into a stripped‑out track special. The reinforcements are tucked into sills, bulkheads, and other structural hot spots, so owners still see hand‑stitched leather and perfect paint rather than a jungle gym of tubes.
At the same time, the company has been clear that it is not sacrificing the qualities that made its restorations so coveted in the first place. In a recent update, Singer described the partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies as a way of doubling down on performance while preserving the craftsmanship and character that define its builds. The extra stiffness is there to make the car feel more precise and more solid, not to erase the analog charm that buyers are paying for.
Inside the Open‑Roof Engineering Playbook
The real challenge with any open‑roof car is that the structure has to work harder once the top is gone, and that is where the joint team focused its attention. There, engineers analyse the open‑roof structure to identify the areas contributing most to torsional resistance, using this insight to decide exactly where those carbon pieces will do the most good. Instead of simply boxing in the floor, they are effectively tuning the entire shell so it carries loads in a more coupe‑like way while still leaving space for the roof mechanism and interior.
That process is not happening in a vacuum. The same group also has to make sure the upgrades do not blunt the feedback that makes a classic 911 feel alive. According to detailed reporting on the project, the reinforcements are designed to support the handling and ride while preserving the steering feel and rear‑engined balance that form the core of the 911 magic. In other words, the car should feel more planted and more accurate, but still unmistakably like an air‑cooled Porsche when it loads up a corner.
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