PORSCHE 911 SPEEDSTER
Last-of-the-line 991 sees roof lopped and GT3 engine installed. A monster price tag and even bigger smiles follow
IT’S A low-whistle, head-shake number; $604,800, particularly for a Porsche. It could get you a 911 and a 911 Cabriolet, a mixed half-dozen used Boxsters and Caymans, a Lamborghini plus change – or exactly one new 911 Speedster.
Another remarkable number related to this drop-dead delectable reimagining of a classic is 1948 (enthusiasts/nerds will recognise it as the year Porsche built its first car.)
Despite admitting that it spent literally millions on engineering and specific retooling to manufacture this
unique, carbonfibre roadster (just the height of the windscreen alone, which had to look different to a Cabrio, cost a bomb), only 1948 Speedsters will be made. This, clearly, is a very special car; an affair-of-the-heart project for Porsche’s GT department and an effort to make something combining purity, pace and absolute perfection.
It is also that rarest of things: a supercar with a manual gearbox. And not just any manual. It has to be the most beautifully weighted and slickly gated transmission I’ve ever used. That choice to attach a six-speed and a clutch to a naturally aspirated 4.0-litre engine from the GT3, which has been tweaked to make 375kw at 8500rpm and 470Nm, means it can ‘only’ get to 100km/h in four seconds flat.
The Porsche folk say a PDK version, which they never considered building, would be good for 3.5sec or quicker, but it is the in-gear acceleration, and the incredible, instantaneous reactions to your right foot, that stagger you in the Speedster. This is largely thanks to the application of individual throttle bodies, which also help promote air tumble on the intake charge, creating a cleaner burn with lower emissions.
The challenge of shifting cogs swiftly enough in something this quick is aided by a new Auto Blip button, which I really didn’t want to use, because the pedal box is set up so perfectly for heeland-toe action, but found hugely helpful and entertaining when I did.
The Speedster smashes through 200km/h the way other sports cars destroy 60, but it is the way it handles, rides and looks that are the most mindboggling. This car soaks up cracks, bumps and potholes with superlative ease, yet makes you feel as bonded with the road as if Thanos was shoving you into it. To drive it fast along a winding road – the howling revs filling the cabin, the gear changes making your hand smile, the whole car so balanced – is perhaps as close to motoring perfection as I’ve been.
Which is just what the lucky 30 or so Australian customers who get to pay $600K for one want to hear. And terrible news for the 60 or so who’ve slapped down deposits but will miss out.