What is it?
To understand the point of the new Porsche 911 Speedster requires rewiring your brain to accept that cool, detached logic has really very little to do with it. For if you allow common sense even a glimpse of the Speedster, it will start to ask questions. Awkward ones like, "Couldn’t I buy a GT3 and a Boxster Spyder and still have a five-figure sum left over?" Ah yes, Porsche will tell you, but they will not be exclusive.
Or, put more properly, Exclusive. The Speedster follows hot on the heels of last year’s Sport Classic as the latest product retailed by Porsche’s Exclusive department. These are the wacky folks in Stuttgart who over the last quarter century or so have brought you cars such as the shove-snouted 930 Turbo, 968 Turbo S, 993 Turbo S and, last year, the 997 Sport Classic. And they’re not kidding about the exclusivity: apparently out of homage to the first 1954 Speedster, just 356 are going to be built, each one retailing for £144,100. By comparison, the original 356 and subsequent G-series 911 and 964-based Speedsters (of which 4144, 2103 and 930 respectively were built) were positively common.
See the test pics of the new Porsche 911 Speedster
What's it like?
At its heart, this new Speedster takes the wide body of the Carrera 4S Cabriolet but the rear-drive, 402bhp upgraded powertrain from the Sport Classic which will next year become standardised in the 911 GTS. PDK is the only available transmission. Wide Fuchs-style wheels, as well as the front and rear bumpers and valances, are also Sport Classic carry-overs.
But your attention is drawn first to the signature double-bubble hood cover and the shortened windscreen, abbreviated to the tune of 60mm. Unlike previous Speedsters, the rake of the screen remains unchanged. But also unlike its forebears, you don’t have to sign papers saying you understand your Speedster is not waterproof; this one emphatically is.
The hood mechanism is more complex than complicated and putting it up or down requires none of the wrestling demanded of you by a Boxster Spyder. To raise it, electrics lift the hood cover, which you then manually hinge back to provide access to the hood itself. You then pull the hood into place and dive inside to secure it to the windscreen, before leaping out to lower the cover again, dive back inside to tension the rear roof struts and finally use the electrics once more to clamp it down on the now safely closed roof cover. Porsche says one person, suitably trained, can do it in under two minutes.
The weight shed by removing various electric roof motors and adding aluminium doors and PCCB carbon brakes is matched exactly by that gained by the wide body and endless equipment list, meaning the Speedster weighs not one kilo more or less than a C2S Cabriolet. The result is that it drives very much as you’d expect, offering flashing performance, admirable body rigidity and superb steering, chassis balance and poise.
But you could say as much about any convertible 911, and this is not why the Speedster will sell. Instead, it will go to those who buy into an interior so covered in leather that even the air vents and coat hooks are swaddled in the stuff. They’ll love the anodised steel kickplates, the unique series number of their car (which they can choose) and the ‘Speedster’ inlaid into the handbrake.
Should I buy one?
It is, in short, a car for completists or for those turned on by ownership of something others cannot have. It’s a great car, but that’s more because it’s a 911 than because it's a Speedster. Its value, therefore, is defined almost entirely by your desire to be Exclusive.
Porsche 911 Speedster
Price: £144,100; Top speed: 190mph; 0-62mph: 4.4sec; Economy: 27.4mpg; CO2: 242g/km; Kerb weight: 1540kg; Engine: 6 cyls, 3800cc, petrol; Power: 402bhp at 7300rpm; Torque: 310lb ft at 4200rpm; Gearbox: 7-spd dual-clutch auto
Join the debate
Re: Porsche 911 Speedster
I just don't get this car at all, it is clearly not as good as it should have been for the price. The interior looks like it has been specified for a Halfords showroom. Why shave weight in the hood mechanism and yet have heavy options added, it looks like it has electric seats. I think the concept is flawed.
Re: Porsche 911 Speedster
I saw one of these the other night near where I live. It was in Bowdon. Cheshire. Nuff said.
Re: Porsche 911 Speedster
PhilM4000, you either like them or you don't, it's as simple as that,there's a car for everybody. i don't think this car's a minger, i like the color,not sure about the interior, but for the money you pay, you can have what ever you want, doesn't matter what you or i think, that's how it work's.
Peter Cavellini.
Re: Porsche 911 Speedster
"You can buy a GT3 and a Boxster Spyder and still have a five figure sum over" but these are not exclusive like the Speedster, this is proof that Porsche will be prepared to sell you almost any 911 variant, claim exclusivity and charge you an arm and leg for it. There is obviously one born every minute.
Re: Porsche 911 Speedster
I was reminded recently that the original Speedster was a cut-price 356.
The person doing the reminding was a classic-car restorer , who was apologetic about the fact that he had re-trimmed a 356 Speedster in leather instead of the original vinyl.
Re: Porsche 911 Speedster
The 1989 Speedster (Turbo look) is one of my favourite cars of all time and I think the speedster look worked then because the car looked so "chopped" with its tiny windscreen compared to the standard convertible version.
This car doesn't look different enough from the convertible version judging from the Paris show video.
