Norbert Singer

Norbert Singer (born 16 November 1939) is a German automotive engineer. He has played a key role in every one of Porsche’s 16 overall race victories between 1970 and 1998 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.[1]

Singer (left) meeting with Jacky Ickx at the Österreichring in 1976

Singer was born in Eger (Cheb), part of Nazi Germany's Sudetenland, in 1939.

When Singer joined the Porsche company in Stuttgart, the young engineer from the Technical University of Munich was soon given the job of cooling the gearboxes of the powerful 917 racers which had broken down in 1969. His first task was successful and the Porsche 917 dominated the event in 1970 as well as in 1971, the first year Singer attended the great race.

Singer was then given the task of developing the Porsche 911 road car for racing, and in doing so he created eventually what is by far the most successful customer race car that Porsche ever produced: the Porsche 935 won at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans outright, a remarkable feat for a modified 15-year-old road car design.

Following this, Singer designed the bodywork of the Porsche 956 and 962 Group C cars which won no fewer than 7 24 Hours of Le Mans titles. In the 1990s, Singer engineered the Porsche WSC open sports car which claimed two victories in 1996 and 1997, and finally oversaw the Porsche 911 GT1-98 project which achieved Porsche's 16th win, the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans. Following that, Porsche retired from Le Mans racing to develop a new car, but they ultimately decided to focus on the Porsche Cayenne.