Forget the new Miata or Fiat’s turbo spider, this is the only car you’ll need next summer. And all the summers after that.
Zender is one of those great classic German tuners who made everything from Alfa Romeo body kits to the bluest interiors ever fitted to a Mercedes (or any car for that matter). Hell, Hans-Albert Zender even built his very own supercar, the 300hp, 174mph Vision 3, which retailed for £250,000 in 1987.
Three years later, and for a lot less money than that, you could get yourself a Zender Speedster, which was based on the open top 1.3 liter Suzuki Swift GTI. Zender was satisfied with the engine’s power output at 101 horsepower, but shortened the cabrio’s windscreen for that ultimate speedster look.
According to Hungarian Swift experts at the Suzuki Swift Blog, they only managed to sell about 15 units.
That might be due to false advertising, because the Speedster’s brochure was full of pictures of Zender’s next prototype, the unpronounceable Swiftster.
As Michael Banovsky points out on Weird Cars, the wonderful kei roadster, the Suzuki Cappuccino never made it to Europe, so the Speedster almost made sense as a fun, affordable fiberglass wonder. But the Swiftster went even further, only to remain a prototype after getting a respray.
If you do have a Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift/Pontiac Firefly/Chevrolet Sprint/Holden Barina, you know what to do now.
Photo credit: Zender via John Lloyd
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