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If the 911 is the quintessential Porsche, and the Singer 911 is the purest expression of that legendary sports car, is this the Mount Everest of Porsches? According to Top Gear‘s recent experience with it, quite possibly.

Tom Ford writes, in the midst of his test drive:

A slight lift, and we’re into pure old Porsche territory, all those familiar dynamic shortcomings bright and clear. Rather than pivot around a metaphysical point near the centre of the car, imagine a solid piton driven just behind the rear seats about which the 911 tries to swivel. If you’re used to relentlessly modern equipment, with refined and restructured dynamics, all the hairy aspects neatly shaved smooth by design and electronics, this will feel odd and old, verging on the cheerfully lethal. But here, right now, it feels like an ice-cold breath of fresh air after time spent in an overheated old people’s home. It feels like life.

It sounds like heaven. In an automotive world of speed appliances, where cars are simultaneously becoming massively powerful and utterly disconnected and foolproof, it’s refreshing to come across an automaker who reworks a classic, bringing it into the modern era in terms of speed, and preserving not only its benign character traits, but also its vices, knowing that those are nearly as critical to the car’s essence as its finer points.

As for the car itself, if you’ve been abreast of the recent trend of taking hallowed silhouettes and re-engineering them with a kind of OCD-fueled, no-holds-barred fanaticism (two examples being Mark Stielow’s ’69 Camaro and the Eagle Speedster), the Singer 911 will be familiar territory. It may carry all the 911’s well-known styling cues, but every body panel save the doors has been replaced with a carbon-fiber equivalent. The engine is a perfectly-crafted 3.8l, naturally-aspirated version of Porsche’s classic flat-6, delivering 425 hp. The suspension, driveline, wheels and interior have similarly familiar overtones, but conceal state-of-the-art engineering underneath. The whole car is an absolute jewel, and from Top Gear‘s description, an exhilarating drive. I’d love to have a few minutes behind the wheel.