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 Porsche a GT3 and Porsche 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.
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 Porsche 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.
