The fanfare surrounding Singer Design’s All-terrain Competition Study unveiled earlier this year was inescapable, but if you look at the company’s website and Facebook page now, you won’t see any trace of it. The car has reportedly been pulled due to Porsche objections, probably related to the heavy “Porsche” logo.
According to Carscoops, Porsche’s legal department has asked Singer to remove the car from its retail outlets until the issue is resolved. “We are pleased to have a growing community of Porsche enthusiasts. They help us ensure that so many Porsche cars originally built decades ago stay on the road and are still enjoyed today,” Porsche told Carscoops . “At the same time, we have a responsibility to our customers to ensure that Porsche products – designed and developed by us – can be clearly and easily identified.”
In some images released by Singer, the ACS had the word ‘Porsche’ written on the back in the traditional wide Porsche font or something close to it. One of the cars had the word “Porsche” molded into the door sill. Porsche believes this could lead some people to mistake the Singer for a real Porsche product, it seems.
[Porsche products] can range from an individual part or item of clothing bearing our name to entire cars. We do this by only allowing products made by us or for which we have obtained a direct license to bear the Porsche name, ”the statement to Carscoops continued.
While Singer’s cars ostensibly resemble Porsches and incorporate heavily stylized and graphic elements found on Porsches, they are not actual Porsches. However, in earlier designs from Singer, such as the lightweight DLS, the word ‘Porsche’ was prominent, and they asked to be described as ‘Porsches reimagined by Singer’ as they were essentially restored vehicles. This is different from, for example, RUF, which qualifies as an OEM in Germany and issues their own VINs.
It’s not clear what made the ACS a different story. Maybe it was so drastically different that it was no longer considered a resto mod. Depending on how this latest development plays out, it could affect how Porsche branding appears on future cars from Singer and similar companies.