Last month we covered some really cool electric sportscars here on The Journal, and this time we’re back with some of the the good old petrol driven stuff…

Right from the get-go in 1989, the 964 was seen as Porsche taking the 911 in a new direction. It was unveiled in an all-wheel drive form, traded torsion bars for springs and shocks, smoothed its bumpers, and gave the model anti-lock brakes and power steering for the first time – and as standard features. It was also the first Porsche to feature optional Tiptronic shifting, among other innovations. The car was still air-cooled and recognizable next to its relatives, but it represented a modernization of the 911: distilled driving that coupled an evolution in performance with a greater degree of build quality and driver consideration.

Come the present day almost three decades later, and the 964 is again set to be the bearer of great change in the air-cooled community, though it won’t look like it did when it was a new car. Things have changed in the time since. For instance, the 964 is widely considered a classic, and the renderings pictured here depict a heavily modified version of a 1990 Porsche 911 with more than twice the power than the factory gave it.

What we’re seeing here is the first modified 964 to incorporate the last two years’ worth of work undertaken by Singer Vehicle Design in collaboration with Williams Advanced Engineering and a  team of consultants and advisors that includes such names as Norbert Singer and Hans Mezger. It began when Singer customer Scott Blattner approached the company to make something special out of his 964 with a focus on lightweight and high performance enhancements. Minimum vehicle weight is said to be 990kg (~2,180lbs).

The resulting endeavor saw Singer team up with Williams on something they’re calling a “dynamics and lightweighting study” (DLS), and the most salient outcome of this work so far is the modified Porsche flat-six under the deck lid of this Absinthe example; the car’s original M64 used 3.6 liters to churn 247 horsepower in 1990, but in Scott’s 911 it’s been enlarged to four liters even. Thanks to that extra capacity and the double overhead cam heads developed by Williams, it’s now capable of putting out 500 naturally aspirated horsepower.

You can listen to what that sounds like here. After you do, you should immediately head over to our friends at Petrolicious to read their full piece on this absolute beast of a car. Of course, if you’d rather just keep listening we at the very least suggest you scroll down and check out the photos below for the full experience…