2010 PARIS MOTOR SHOW NEWS SPECIAL
This is the Porsche you may never get to read a road test on. Only 356 of the new Porsche 911 Speedster are being made worldwide – and of those only about 70 will be made in right-hand drive.
And of those 70, it is believed just three are coming to Australia which means that Porsche is unlikely to put one on the road as a demonstrator model – for customers or the media.
There is further bad news for Australian Porsche enthusiasts: the first car has been sold, sight unseen, leaving just two without names on them.
After the press release came out last week, a Melbourne businessman rang his local Porsche dealership and left a sizeable credit card deposit – believed to be close to $20,000 – for the $520,000 car.
"This car is all about exclusivity," said Porsche Australia spokesman Paul Ellis in Paris overnight.
"Just 356 Speedsters are being made worldwide and the factory is yet to confirm how many we are getting in Australia, but we believe it is very small number. You could quite possibly count the number of cars on one hand."
Porsche Australia accounts for 1 per cent of Porsche sales globally – and 1per cent of 356 is 3.5 cars. If Germany is feeling generous, this means Australia may get four, but the Carsales Network believes we may only get three.
The spokesman for Porsche in Germany Michael Baumann told the Carsales Network: "The order book is not open yet, but already we have strong interest in this car."
It is understood the current generation 911 still has about 18 months remaining before an all-new model arrives, hence the recent spate of special editions.
The 911 Speedster is loaded with every available 911 option, including carbon ceramic brakes and PDK transmission. Ironically, it is named after and was inspired by historic, traditionally lightweight, Porsche Speedster models.
Porsche has only made three Speedsters in its history: the 356-based model (hence the build of 356 of the new one) made from 1954 to 1959, a 964 911-based model in 1989 and a 993 911-based model in 1993 and 1994.
This year is the 55th anniversary of the original and 16 years since the last one. It will likely be one of the stars of the Los Angeles Motor Show in the first week of December given that Southern California had a special significance in the creation of the original Speedster.
According to the history books, the North American importer of Porsche cars in the 1950s requested a special, lightweight version of the 356 for customers on the West Coast "given the fair weather, cruising scene and lots of amateur racing".
Over its five-year lifecycle, the original 356-based Speedster was powered by a number of engines ranging in size and power -- from a 1300cc with 32kW to a 1600cc with 44kW. At the time, the cars weighed only about 760kg.
The 964-based model was powered by a 3.2-litre six-cylinder engine with 173kW which gave the car a 0-100km/h time of 6 seconds. The 993-based model was powered by a 3.6-litre six-cylinder engine with 184kW which gave the car a 0-100km/h of 5.7 seconds.
The 997-based Speedster is powered by an uprated 3.8-litre six-cylinder engine with 300kW/420Nm. Porsche quotes a 0-100km/h time of 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 306km/h.
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