964 Speedster
There were two very distinct incarnations of the 964 Speedster. The first was the 1989 model year Speedster. Shown at the 1988 Frankfurt autoshow beside the upcoming Carrera 4, the 1989 Speedster actually shared more in common with the 930 turbo than with the upcoming 964 generation 911s, causing it to be looked upon, in retrospect, as a much inferior "driver's car" to the later 1994 Speedster. More than three quarters (641) of the 800 built had the "Turbo look" wide-body option.
The 1994 Porsche 911 Speedster was available either in standard or lightweight trim called “clubsport." Unlike the 1989 model, the 1994 Speedster was based on the new Carrera 2 platform and was not initially available with the "Turbo look" wide-body style. The 1994 Speedster was designed to be a more focused "driver's car" and served as a hybrid between a 964 Carrera 2 Cabriolet and a 964 RS. While it featured a softer suspension set up than the 964 RS, it offered almost none of the comforts of a normal 964 Carrera 2 Cabriolet, though power windows were standard and it was available with air conditioning and a stereo. Porsche planned to build 3000 examples of the 1994 Speedsters in 1992, but only 936 examples were built and sold during the two years of production. Once again, the United States was the most important market with 427 Speedsters heading Stateside. Right hand drive versions were exceptionally rare this time, with only 14 cars having the steering wheel on the ‘proper’ side compared to 139 examples in right hand drive of the pre-964 911 Speedster. In addition, 20 special examples were finished at Porsche Exclusive's workshop at Werk 1 (Factory 1) with the optional “Turbo look” wide-bodies.
For both incarnations of the 964 Speedster the manually folding "pram-like" hood was a basic contraption that required practice to erect quickly (Porsche referred to it as strictly an emergency soft top for inclement weather).
The last 964 Speedster produced was a RHD example finished in slate grey. Known as the Sonderwunsh "Special Wishes" Speedster Leichtbau for its extensive use of light weight materials and its Porsche Exclusive Werk 1 provenance, it is widely regarded as the most collectable version of all. Since 2008, the Sonderwunsch Speedster (pictured) has resided in Hong Kong with its current custodian, Mr. Kevin Yeung, a Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Yeung appeared with the Sonderwunsch Speedster in an episode YouTube show DigitalRev TV where Kai W - the presenter of DRTV - drove his car in a photoshoot. The Sonderwunsch Speedster was specified in the same shade of slate grey as the 1970 911 S used by Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans - and was the only 964 Speedster painted in this colour. Its 964 RS style seam welded chassis was fitted with a similar suspension to the 964 RS. It received the hydraulic brake boost system from the RS and Turbo 3.6 (normal Speedsters used the vacuum boost system from the Carrera 2) along with the same brakes as the Turbo 3.6; with four pot Brembo calipers (painted black) and cross drilled and vented 322mm, 32mm wide disks at the front and 299mm, 24mm at the rear. The car sat on 17 inch 7x17 (front) and 8x17 (rear) aluminum Cup wheels fitted with 205/50 and 255/40 tires. Where a standard Speedster made do with the standard 247 bhp 964 engine, the Sonderwunsch Speedster had 260 bhp. This was down to a blueprinted engine with remapped ignition and DME chip set with aggressive timing advance characteristics. To achieve further weight savings it borrowed the alloy doors and bonnet from the 964 RS while replacing the standard steel standard fenders with hand fabricated fenders made from super strong thin gauge steel. In the end, the Sonderwunsch Speedster took almost 9 months to complete (from start to finish) and was finally delivered to its original owner in London in September 1994 but it was first registered in January 1999 by its second owner in Edinburgh Scotland. In 2010, Spark Models produced a series of 1/43 scale models to salute this car.
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