Damon Jones

As most young boys, Damon’s passion for cars stemmed from his father. He frequently used to read and re-read the car magazines his father bought, and things sort of escalated from there. His most beloved car magazine was one which featured the wonderful De Tomaso Pantera, a magazine he still has in his possession to this very day.

Needless to say, the De Tomaso has stuck with him ever since and has became his first car love. This admiration expanded from there on, with wonderful editions such as the Lamborghini Countach, the Ferrari F40, and the brilliant Porsche 911 Turbo. His childhood dream of owning a black Porsche 911 did become a reality later on in his life, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Damon’s first car was, unsurprisingly, was not an exotic. Like most of us, he received an ordinary car from his dad on which he could learn. In his case, that was a Rover Metro with a tiny 1.1-liter engine. He says it was a great basis for learning, but one of the slowest things on the road.

Damon’s current fleet is more impressive than the first Metro he started with. He currently owns a Porsche Cayman GT4 finished in gorgeous Carmine Red, as well as a BMW i3 Range Extender. His childhood dream of owning a 911 was finally realized last year in the shape of a 991 Carrera S. Finished in Jet Black with upgraded Turbo wheels, Porsche Sport Design front splitter and side mirrors, this car had to be sold in order to make room for the GT4 we mentioned earlier. (quite the upgrade if we’re being honest.)

The i3 is his daily driver and the GT4 is a fun canyon carver. Damon says that the i3 is not as exciting as his previous BMW, an M4 finished in Mineral White, but it does come with its own advantages. For starters it’s awfully economical, he reckons he’s spent less than $10 in gas in the last year alone. There’s a similarity in its controls to those found in the M4, plus it keeps him closer to the BMW brand, which he claims he adores.

As for the weekends, Damon claims he’s extremely fortunate to live just down the road from Angeles Crest Highway, the famous twisting part of the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles. A Cayman GT4 together with an incredible ribbon of tarmac make for some epic drives.

Damon’s a fan of new and old cars just as equally.  Which is hardly a surprise given his wide range of car ownership history. He’s particularly attracted to that old car smell. Especially those old leather seats.

Damon is not just your average car enthusiast though. He lives and breathes cars, and he does it for a living. He finished Birmingham University with a Bachelor of Engineering and immediately started working at MG Rover. After several years he migrated to yet another British car manufacturer you may have heard of: Aston Martin Lagonda. You think most people would be set for life working for such a prestigious company, but not Damon. Six years later we find him in yet another British firm, this time perhaps the biggest one of them all: McLaren Automotive.

Working at McLaren was a blast for Damon. He’s one of the parties involved in the MP4-12C, the original McLaren supercar, which kick started the company after its F1 car back in the late 90’s as well as other notable projects such as the 650S, 675LT, 650LM, P1, 570S, 540C and 720S. As Damon himself likes to put it: ‘They all just have two doors and four wheels in the end’.  He fully enjoys the growth of a company but once they are all organized and churning out different variations of the same thing it becomes less exciting for him. Damon loves a challenge.

He visited Singer Vehicle Design in search of a new challenge, and that’s exactly what he found.  A brand with a solid reputation and massive potential. Singer Vehicle Design is a company that restores and reimagines Porsche 911’s (1989-94).  They take these now classics and reinvigorate them into automotive pieces of art, both inside and out. Modern Porsche’s envy the build quality and materials in a Singer, so why wouldn’t Damon join the major nerd-fest going on there as the Vice President of Singer Vehicle Design.

Damon is presented with many opportunities to drive a lot of incredible cars in his line of work, but he’s so infatuated by his Cayman GT4 that he often turns some of them down just so that he can enjoy his own Porsche. This automobile is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car with a proper six-speed manual and is a thing to behold. Damon says he loves the way the car drives and how connected it feels to the driver.

Damon’s other love, besides cars, is architecture. He often visits homes with architectural significance or does a drive by (without any guns) whenever he can. You can say he’s found a way to combine his two greatest passions in life (driving cars, and architecture). Though he loved London and its architecture, Damon says LA has really spoiled him. The incredible buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Schindler and Richard Neutra never cease to amaze him. Recently Damon has had the pleasure of moving into a mid century modern house in silver lake designed by architect Allyn E. Morris who was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright’s.