Porsche 911 Speedster Concept revealed

Porsche has revealed a special concept to celebrate its 70th anniversary, the Porsche 911 Speedster Concept, based on the first car ever registered with the brand’s badge.

The Speedster concept is clearly based on the Porsche 911, though it draws historical influence from the iconic Porsche 356, the first ever Porsche car.

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The 911 Speedster also fulfils the ‘historic’ (or purist, if you like) brief of Stuttgart stormers through its 6-speed manual transmission, passing power from a 368kW, 9000rpm naturally aspirated flat-six engine to the rear wheels.

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If that powertrain sounds familiar, it should – it’s the same redline, power output, and gearbox a manual Porsche 991.2 GT3 utilises.

As well as the running gear, the 911 Speedster’s chassis is drawn from the GT3, priming it to be drop-top Porsche purist heaven.

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Porsche says the bodywork of this concept is drawn from that of the 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet, though carbon fibre and a mix of silver and white paint, plus 1950s styling brings together old and new.

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The fuel cap is positioned in the front trunk lid, while the wing mirrors are styled in a retro Talbot design, and the headlights are even given an ‘X’ motif to represent the taped-up lights of early motorsport.

Also unique to the Speedster are the lower windshield and shorter side windows, giving it a sleek feel, and throwing back – again – to the Porsche 356 Speedster.

Behind the driver and passenger seats, a pair of ‘streamliners’ with black accents and ‘Speedster’ badging, plus an etched ‘Porsche 70’ inscription is found.

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The seats themselves, which are full bucket shape, are made of carbon fibre, and Porsche says the light brown ‘Cognac’ leather ‘picks up on features from the car’s classic predecessors.’

The Porsche 911 Speedster badge was first used in in 1988, while it was last used on the 997 911 Speedster, of which only 356 units were built.