The Porsche 911 Speedster is much more than just another trim level of the German automaker’s prolific sports car; it’s basically an artful twist on one of the brand’s most extreme machines that also happens to be a six-speed manual convertible. And an homage to the outfit’s early legends, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Porsche fans and car people reading this will already know that the Speedster is basically a drop top 911 GT3. With a 4.0-liter six-cylinder engine, laid out flat like Porsche engines tend to be, this car is rated to over 500 horsepower and it doesn’t even have a turbocharger.
The brochure says stopped-to-62 mph can happen in four seconds and the top speed’s a hair shy of 193 mph.
After a road trip across Germany and into Belgium, I can confirm it it’s got enough energy to jump-start a corpse and the personality to finish bringing a tortured soul the rest of the way back to life.
I’m going to spend a little more time with this car and three of its friends, a pair of GT3 RSs and a GT2 RS Weissach, this week while we catch some of the Total 24 Hours of Spa.
If you’re wondering what these cars are like at the ragged edge, check out Robb Holland’s track test writeup from last May. If you’ve got any road trip questions or want to know about the Speedster in particular, ask away and I’ll try to answer as many as I can in a story soon. I can even take the roof on and off in no time, now!