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  • These cars are utterly pointless. In terms of specific need, they are as purely necessary as platinum cutlery or an omelette made exclusively with Fabergé eggs. And yet they are cool. Gloriously, fabulously pointless.

    Almost deliberately removed from the semi-functional items that spawned them, they transcend whimsy to become something else entirely. Something intense and exceptional. You shouldn't want to own them and wouldn't be completely sure what to do with them if you did. But, by God, you'd lop off an ear to point at one and say: "That. That over there... that's mine." Subjective? Yes, so let's argue the point...

    This feature was originally published in the September 2014 issue of Top Gear magazine

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  • Porsche 911 by Singer Vehicle Design

    It's just an old Porsche 911, and yet so much more than that. What Singer Vehicle Design does, from a humble little shop in California, is akin to automobile alchemy, the transmutation of base into precious.

    It takes an older 911, strips, rebuilds and modifies it, replaces steel panels with perfectly matched military-spec carbon-fibre skins, rebuilds suspension with the best available componentry from the likes of Eibach and Öhlins. It blueprints and energises an original flat-six with help from engine deities at Cosworth, retards with Brembo, flays the nervous system and replaces it with aircraft-grade wiring.

    Deep and exhaustive surgery is accomplished with poise and subtlety, with compassion and a profound understanding of what it means to attempt perfection. Yet you probably wouldn't immediately recognise the Singer as a $400k 911. Which is exactly why a Singer is so deliciously outrageous.

    It's a vintage Tag Heuer wrought from titanium, a bespoke suit cut to perfection, but without the flash. Those that know, know. Those that don't... simply don't matter.

  • Jaguar SVO Project 7

    We know the £135,000 Project 7 is at the very least tenuous in its relationship to the great racing Jaguar D-types of the Fifties, but a hump's a hump.

    And there's something rebellious and unapologetic about the Jaguar SVO Project 7: antisocial carbon splitters and spoilers, a windscreen chopped by 114mm, Ecurie Ecosse-ish stripes and a roof that doesn't work.

    Even better, its 5.0-litre s'charged V8 is an upgraded (567bhp and 500+lb ft of torque) version of that in the F-Type V8S, a car whose relationship with sanity is marginal, to say the least.

    It's one of the fastest Jaguars ever, hitting 62mph in under four seconds and going on to an electronically limited 186mph.

    Yet Jag is building 250 of the things, making it real, rather than just a dribble of headline-grabbing specials. "I love this thing..." said Jaguar design director Ian Callum. We agree.

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  • Mercedes-Benz G63 6x6 AMG

    The standard Mercedes-Benz G63 is possibly one of the world's least convincing cars.

    A military SUV first released into the wild in 1979, whose geriatric shortcomings are rudely exacerbated by a 544bhp twin-turbo V8 and £125k price tag. So how do you make it better? Give it another axle, six-wheel drive and treble the price, that's how.

    Surely, I hear you cry, such eccentric modification is a recipe for disaster? And yet, for all petrol-veined humankind, the 6x6 (all legends attract abbreviation) is nothing short of a totem for production outrageousness.

    It's nearly six metres long, just under two and a half tall and weighs 3.85 tonnes. It has 561lb ft split 30/40/30 between the axles - a boast none can match - yet can hit 62mph in seven seconds.

    It is, without doubt, the biggest big boy's toy ever. If you don't want to have a go in one, you're probably dead.

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