Butzi Porsche’s Speedster
The Porsche family grants Total 911 exclusive access to the rare 993 Speedster specially made for the 911’s founder, Butzi
Total 911 is granted rare access to a unique 993 specially built for the man who designed the original Neunelfer
3 56, G-body, 964, 997, 991. Random names and numbers to some, these are of course the generations and internal model codes for one of Porsche’s most revered product lines: Speedster.
This journey to what is arguably the ultimate expression of topless sports car began in 1952 with the 356 1500 America Roadster. Widely seen as the forefather of the Porsche Speedster, it flopped, incidentally, after costing more to make than sell, driving coach builder Heuer-glaser to bankruptcy in the process.
Lessons were learned, with production moving in-house at Porsche, the Speedster now a cut-down version of the Cabriolet and running off the same production line as other 356s. In 1954, the Porsche Speedster as we know it was born, chiefly to boost the appeal of Stuttgart’s fledgling sports car company in the United States under the tutelage of importer Max Hoffman.
The Speedster enjoyed instant commercial success Stateside, and nearly 60 years later its name is synonymous among enthusiasts with embodying everything Porsche stands for: a raw, emotive drive, its genius lying chiefly with its simplicity. 356 Speedster production ended in 1958, replaced by the Convertible D, but that raked windscreen, low-slung profile and spartan interior would actually realise its place on the 911 some 30 years later.
Debuting on the 3.2 Carrera, the 911 Speedster then featured on the subsequent 964 generation. For the 993 though, a production Speedster was just not to be: with the 911’s profitability dwindling, such an exotic variant which would ultimately sell in small numbers was not deemed worthwhile by Porsche, which by the mid-nineties was ploughing efforts into design of the first water-cooled 911 in the 996. It was a move which would ultimately save the company from going bust.
This didn’t mean that enthusiasts were robbed entirely of the spectacle of that Speedster profile attached to the body of the last air-cooled 911. In the best Porsche tradition, such occurrences are of course possible as one-offs, only via Exclusiv, the department born out of a need to fulfil well-heeled customers’ special wishes.
Your eyes are not, therefore, deceiving you: the 911 in our pictures is indeed a genuine 993 Speedster, built as a special wish, and for a special person. This was not an ordinary customer, but a member of the Porsche family itself. The 993 Speedster you see here was for Ferdinand Alexander ‘Butzi’ Porsche.
It might seem strange that the person who penned the Neunelfer’s iconic, flowing shape – as a Coupe, no less – should seek out an open-topped version of the car in its final, air-cooled iteration. However, Porsche’s predilection for the Speedster
“Clearly used and adored by Butzi, the Speedster wears 2,065 kilometres on its clock today”
predates even that of its treasured 911, and so the historical reverence behind this marriage of two iconic Porsche designs is palpable.
Based on a narrow-bodied 993 Cabriolet, Butzi’s Speedster features the shorter, raked windscreen and reprofiled side windows from the 964 Speedster before it, along with a double-humped clamshell and low slung (and manual) hood. Riding above 17-inch wheels, the body was finished in Aventurine green, in keeping with the Porsche family tradition in taking delivery of green-hued cars.
The engine and running gear is all from the 993, the flat six being a Type M64/22 with Varioram producing 285bhp. That engine code might cause Porsche connoisseurs to prick up their ears, as it gives away the transmission tasked with sending that 285bhp to the 993 Speedster’s rear wheels. For the avoidance of doubt, a cursory glance inside shows not a H-patterned manual shifter protruding from a leather boot between each seat, but the inline gate and buttoned gearstick of an automatic gearbox. That’s right, Butzi’s Speedster is fitted with the 993-generation’s four-speed Tiptronic S.
Such a revelation might prove startling at face value but as the saying goes, there’s a Porsche for every occasion, and this was no different. More on that shortly.
In the proper Speedster tradition, Butzi’s 993 is fairly spartan inside in terms of equipment, bringing forward the ‘Rs’-style interior utilised in the 964 generation of this special open-topped sports car. Hard-backed Sports seats are fitted, their rears colour-coded in Aventurine. The seats are otherwise bedecked, like the rest of the interior, in swathes of rich brown hide, elegantly punctuated by wood trim accents along the dashboard. Storage departments have also been deployed under the clamshell in place of the 911’s rear bench which, Speedster and Gt-car aside, usually features two small seats.
Back to there being a Porsche for every occasion: this stunning Aventurine green 993 Speedster was presented to Butzi on his 60th birthday on 11 December 1995. The car would be used by the