It probably says something about the state of the modern world that there's an obsession with restomods. They offer the comforting embrace of nostalgia for old cars, but without any of the attendant unreliability, oil stains on the driveway, nor the lack of a decent cabin heater.
Singer - that storied classic Porsche recreationist - is actually something of a purveyor of double-restomods; taking 964-era 911s of the 1980s and not only improving them mechanically (improving is a vast understatement...) but also backward-converting them so that they look like sleeker, simpler 911s from the 1970s. It's nostalgia wrapped in another layer of nostalgia.
Singer Porsche and Escort Mk1s in the same sentence
Singer is the doyen of the restomod world, but there are others, notably Boreham Motorworks, which this week revealed its stunning Ford Escort Mk1 restomod - with Ford's official blessing - built around original 1975 bodyshells. No original Mk1 ever had a 330hp 2.2-litre engine revving to 10,000rpm, though.
Of course, while all this retro-obsession is fine, it isn't cheap. The entry price for a Singer starts at more than €1,000,000 and that's without even thinking about options nor bespoke fittings. And just because you can afford one doesn't mean Singer will have space in its schedule to create it for you. Ford Escorts might be humble, but Boreham wants €341,000 for its new-old Mk1, and that's before VAT, customs duty and VRT if you're bringing it into Ireland.
Or go for a homegrown option
Thankfully, there are cheaper options. Down deep in the Offaly countryside, not far from Birr, there's something of a growing legend, and it's the legend of the Nissan Patrol.
Specifically, the Y61 variant, which first entered production in 1997 and which stayed around - produced in South Africa and Morocco long after it had left Irish shores in 2008, a victim of the switch to CO2-based taxation - until 2024.
Why so long? Toughness. Simplicity. Ruggedness. Like its more famous contemporaries, the Land Rover Defender and the Toyota Land Cruiser, the Y61 Patrol has an incredible reputation for tackling the worst that you can throw at it and coming back for more.
For decades, it was the vehicle of choice for various United Nations agencies - from UNESCO to UNICEF and WHO - when they needed to get somewhere where the terrain was tough and the roads non-existent. It was the kind of car you could trust with your life.
Hello Morgan Maher
Actually, make that the kind of car you can still trust with your life, especially if Morgan Maher, proprietor of Morgan Maher Motors, has anything to do with it.
Morgan is a massive fan of the Y61 Patrol and, while his yard when we call to pay a visit also contains such interesting machinery as a three-door Mercedes G-Wagen and a tricked-up 500hp current-shape Ford Ranger Raptor, the phalanx of Patrols that greets us is really quite something.
Some are original Irish-reg cars, many have been subsequently imported, especially from Australia, another place where the Patrol has a cult following. And it really seems to be a developing cult.
Just before we arrive on site, Morgan received a delegation of German Patrol fans on a tour around Europe who diverted to Ireland just to visit him. He's got quite the reputation as the Patrol Whisperer, but why fall in love with Nissan's butchest car?
Turning a passion into a business
"It's funny, but I always loved jeeps, or 4x4s I should say,” Morgan tells us. "My love for Patrols goes back to when I was a young fella, and we had a branch of Ulster Bank in Ferbane, just up the road, and it was back when the Army would escort the cash-in-transit vans. So when you see the Army rocking up in a Patrol, and you're just a lad, well, it's going to look cool isn't it?”
That boyhood passion has turned into a modern-day business, and Morgan has parlayed his original training as a panel beater and mechanic into a labour of love, taking crusty, sometimes unloved Patrols, and returning them to greatness.
This is not actually a Singer-style operation. There's no Williams Engineering engine to slot in, and a distinct lack of carbon fibre. Instead, Morgan puts Patrols back to work for people, and these are cars designed to be used, even abused, and not stored in an air-conditioned garage.
"I can remember how scarce they were, after 2008, and how hard it was to find bits for them, and I was kind of thinking, 'what if I'm clever enough to buy a few of these and get them while they can be got?' I had a skill set to do all aspects of a restoration, and then obviously I had the love and interest to do it. If we try and restore some of these vehicles, make them look a little bit pretty, and wait till they get a little bit older, that maybe I'll be on to something.”
Adding decades to a Patrol's life
Onto something indeed. Patrols looks tough and rugged, but like any car, they have their weak points. For the Y61 models, the none-more-nineties plastic cladding that runs along the sides and over the wheelarches looks cool, but it can hide shocking levels of rust, some examples of which Morgan shows me.
It would be easy to bodge-repair those areas, because the plastic cladding will just go back on top, but I'm shown some restored panels, and I struggle to see the join between Nissan's 1990s work and Morgan's more recent effort.
Chassis are also a potential source of rot, having not been fully galvanised at the time. The Y61 Patrol is a body-on-frame design, so it's relatively easy to detach the rotted-out chassis and slot in a new one, sourced from a company in Poland which is just as Patrol-nutty as Morgan.
Before the new chassis get fitted, though, they're fully galvanised, painted and then coated inside and out with Waxoyl to keep the Irish weather out. As with most of the process I'm shown on my little personal tour, it's painstaking stuff, but as Morgan says, this is about adding another 20-30 years of life to a hugely capable car, not just 'getting it through the next NCT.'
"One of the things that I like to boast about here is, a lot of people will say we'll come in and say it's as good as new, and I do kind of contradict them and say, but it's not - it's actually better than new...,” said Morgan. A big boast, but one that's justified when you see the quality of the work going on.
Or add a little upgrade
You can, of course, dramatically upgrade a Patrol, including doing such things as fitting a BMW straight-six diesel engine, or modernising the interior with an Italian leather-trimmed dash (the original Nissan plastics can bubble and split if you leave them sitting in strong sun for too long) or all manner of other upgrades.
The original four-cylinder 3.0-litre 'ZD30' diesel engine is prone to overheating and cooking its head gaskets, but Morgan fits a double-thickness stainless steel radiator to fix that issue. Gearboxes are apparently indestructible, though (they're coveted by off-road racers for their ability to cope with up to 600hp) as are the axles and differentials.
"If you track down an early Irish Patrol Y61, that might come with the old RD28 engine,” says Morgan. "Or the really popular choice is the six-cylinder TD42, and those are two phenomenal engines.”
What's it like to drive?
It seems appropriate to have a spin in a beautifully restored 1998 Patrol, finished in a shimmering metallic green, with the ZD30 four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual gearbox.
This one is pretty well all-original - from the DIN slot radio-cassette to the couldn't-be-more-nostalgic brown plastic dash and ruched leather seats - aside from some chunky BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A tyres sitting on 16-inch wheels which seem impossibly dainty compared to modern rims.
Fire up the ZD30, and from the outside it seems almost laughably noisy, but once you're inside and the door is shut, it's surprisingly quiet and the engine revs smoothly. The long gear lever guides a softly chunky change into first, and we're off.
We're off, but very slowly. This engine develops only 104hp, although it can also generate up to 540Nm of torque, depending on the version, so acceleration is of the slow-and-steady variety. That said, 80km/h comes up easily enough, and the Patrol sits very happily between that figure and 100km/h almost irrespective of the road.
You have to retune your brain to the slightly choppy sensation of heavy wheels moving around at the end of live axles, suspended by coil springs and semi-trailing arms. Once you mentally allow for that, the choppiness fades into the background, and what you mostly notice is the surprisingly smooth, reassuring thrum of the engine as you cruise effortlessly along.
Sure, the brakes are a little spongy, and the steering fairly vague, but the Patrol feels incredibly reassuring, never more so than when a sudden squall of heavy rain passes over us, turning the road to slick asphalt. Not a problem with permanent four-wheel drive and those BF Goodrich tyres.
In fact, what the Y61 Patrol is, is a welcome antidote. I had driven down to Offaly in a very modern, fully electric SUV, one stuffed with big screens and high tech. The Patrol instead offers a screen-free experience (aside from the tiny LCD readout on the climate control panel, also DIN sized) and you suddenly remember what it was like to drive without the constant distraction of a flat-screen telly two feet from your eyes. It is, in a word, blissful. I could have happily driven that Patrol all day, and all day again the next day. A reminder of what we've lost.
How much for all this nostalgia?
Of course, thanks to Morgan you can now have one again, although these restored Patrols are not cheap. For a full ground-up resto, you're looking at between €70,000 and €80,000, although when compared to the cost of a relatively 'meh' modern SUV, those numbers don't look too bad.
The Patrol also has some useful advantages over more modern machinery - such as the split tailgate, and the twin folding armrests in the rear. And its ability to soak up mechanical punishment in a manner that would utterly flummox most modern cars.
"I definitely think that modern 4x4s are not built to last,” said Morgan. "I actually don't even believe that there is a modern 4x4 on the road today that we're going to be restoring or talking about in 20 or 30 years' time. I think there was really a sense of pride as well, in what they were building at Nissan. I think it just went beyond, that it was about quality for them as well as money, and I would know from the stuff that I would see done on the older vehicles. You pick up something in your hand, you'll feel the weight of it, and yeah, it's over engineered, but you know, it's done, and it's done really, really well.”
No wonder both the Patrol and Morgan himself are developing a cult following.
Classic Nissan Patrol 4x4, reborn in Offaly