The car is most fun to drive on country roads between 80 and 180 kph.
Windy roads, uphill, downhill, through the forest and countryside.
That’s when you can fully appreciate the car.
My name is Roger Kaege. I’m 51 years old.
I’m a vehicle and chassis master engineer.
I live in a small village by the name of Stetten
in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
And I’m crazy about Porsche.
When I saw the first Singer in 2009 in a magazine,
I was so fascinated by the visual appearance that I said,
“Wow, I’d like to have a car like that.”
Then of course I researched and saw what a car like that costs,
and it was clear that it was far too expensive for me.
So an idea popped into my mind, “How can I create a car like that myself?”
I’m a chassis and vehicle engineer,
so I thought, “Well, let’s look at how we can do it ourselves.”
The color is called geyser grey metallic.
It’s the color of the fiftieth anniversary edition of the 991.
I chose the color because it’s a hue from the 1970s
a metallic or pearl-effect lacquer, a modern lacquer.
So I have the combination of a classic hue and a modern lacquer.
That was important because that’s how I have the rest of the vehicle.
Everywhere on the car, you see modern components with vintage visual appearance,
whether it’s the headlights or the steering wheel or the fittings.
You have the combination of vintage visual appearance and modern function.
It’s challenging to make something with which I'm ultimately satisfied.
I’m very self-critical.
With the Retro, I built a front bumper with my plastics engineer five times
until I was satisfied with it.
And he said, “That’s enough.” And I said, “No, it’s not enough.”
We ended up having five bumpers lying around in a corner somewhere
before we got the bumper like it is on the vehicle now.
From purchase until completion of the car, I put over 2,000 hours into it.
There’s a lot of developmental work in it.
We did a lot of things twice.
I had to do a lot of design work. I wanted to build my own car.
I didn’t want to imitate Singer. I wanted something more original.
Above all I wanted to use a different foundation.
I started with a 993 because I thought,
“Why does Singer take a 964 and install a large number of components from a 993,
instead of just starting with a 993?”
So I thought, “I’ll just try to improve the concept or change the concept,
and not try to install a bunch of different parts in a car.
You’ve got series engineering that’s very, very good—
the best air-cooled series engineering that Porsche ever built—
and I’ll change it just a little.”
And that led me to think, “I’ll start with a 993 and not a 964.”
In comparison to Singer, I’d say
you mostly see the costs of development.
Singer invested a lot of money in development,
like headlight lamps, sample parts, nickel-plated parts,
where I went with series parts from Porsche.
If there was an accident,
you would be able to do repairs without being dependent on Singer.
You can repair with Porsche parts.
That's the biggest difference from Singer.
Technologically, it has more power, which also makes it interesting.
In contrast, I believe that my car is better suited for everyday use.
I have standard technology, series technology from Porsche,
that’s been proven in everyday use
and that can be repeatedly repaired by any Porsche mechanic with series parts.
I see that as the biggest advantage of my vehicle compared to the Singer vehicle.
When I got my permit for it in 2016— I turned 50 in 2016—
the nicest birthday present I could give myself
was simply to drive the car for the first time.
As far as reliability goes, the vehicle is a very safe, very solid vehicle,
a very modern vehicle with electronic stability and safety features
while still having the vintage essence.
The vehicle is now almost perfect.
Of course there are always things that you would improve
or redo in its construction.
It’s like when you build a house.
It’s only on the second or third house that you build the perfect house.
And you change as well. So naturally I’d change some things.
But not necessarily improve, just change.
Of course I’m very proud of the car and of what I’ve accomplished here.
I feel I’ve written a little bit of Porsche history.