Final Fantasy

FIFTH-GEN SPEEDSTER SENDS OFF 991 SERIES WITH A MODERN TAKE ON A RAGTOP CLASSIC

- Georg Kacher

THE 991 IS DEAD; LONG LIVE THE 991. And long live the Speedster. Before the era of the best-selling 911 to-date comes to an end, Porsche will hand-build 1948 fifth-gen Speedsters in its Zuffenhausen plant. The symbolic build number refers to the year Porsche was born, 71 years ago, and the new Speedsters will share a production line with an extra batch of 2500 991 series GT3 RS fitted with upgraded lower-emission engines.

The Speedster will be available with the optional $35,000 Heritage Design pack which is Porsche’s new millennium nod to early Speedsters. Created by Style Porsche, the pack includes a black and Cognac interior with gold details, white racing decals on the doors and bonnet (the buyer can specify a two-digit number), and ’50s and ’60s-style Porsche crests and gold badges. Green and white-on-black instruments hark back to Ferdinand Porsche’s very first cars.

The Heritage Design pack is expected to do for the head-turning Speedster what the Weissach kit did for the GT2 RS and 918: Enhance the car’s appeal and boost resale value. Thankfully the contrasting white paint and matching ‘spears’ on the nose are deleted options, as on our test car.

The roof of the first Speedster, the 356 launched in 1954, was neither waterproof nor insulated, but opening and closing it was a breeze. Ever since then, the folding top has become increasingly complex, from the 964’s all-manual G-model (with its solid second-generation double-bubble tonneau) to the overkill 997, which needed a YouTube instruction video to work out how to raise and lower it.

But just because it’s 2019, don’t expect to go from hair-in-the-air to becalmed ‘barnet’ in the single push of a button. No, the new Speedster is once again a jump out, then jump back in the affair.