These Hips Aren’t Wide: Narrow Body 911 Speedster
Sean Rooks | February 2, 2024

1989. The last year of one of history’s greatest decades. Communism fell in Eastern Europe and the wall separating East from West crumbled to dust. The first internet service providers opened for business. A lone protester stared down a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square. And Porsche released a new 911.
1989 was the debut year of the 964 generation 911, which would replace the venerable G-Series cars that preceded it. To commemorate the retirement of a long-running model, manufacturers occasionally release a special edition. Unfortunately, these often amount to little more than an appearance package or upgraded trim level with no associated performance enhancements. Even Porsche is guilty of releasing special editions that are more marketing ploy than substance.

The G-Series impact-bumper 911 had a remarkable 15 year run and deserved more. To give the model a proper send-off, the factory designed and built something actually special: the 911 Speedster.

A sort of heritage edition, the 911 Speedster was designed by Tony Lapine to evoke the sporting 356 Speedster of the 1950s. With its short windscreen, lightweight top and twin camel hump tonneau cover the 911 Speedster’s design was controversial. You either loved it or you didn’t.

Most Speedsters from 1989 were built using the “Turbo-look” body style with dramatically flared wheel arches front and back, minus the enormous rear wing. While perusing the Porsche lots at Bonhams’ 2024 Les Grandes Marques Du Monde A Paris auction, we found something different: a “narrow body” 1989 Porsche Speedster.

Here at Wolf and Mare the only thing we like more than rare cars is rarer cars. While the 1989 Speedster is very uncommon, those built with the narrow body typical of the standard 1980’s Carrera 3.2 models are even less so. In fact, only 161 were constructed during early production.
The story goes that some European dealers had already begun specifying narrow bodies on their orders. Porsche honored the request, delivering the narrow bodied cars before fully switching over to the intended Turbo look.

The Bonhams car is said to have been delivered new to Sonauto, a very well-known French importer of Porsche cars founded by Toto Veuillet. You may know Veuillet as one of the vaunted drivers who piloted a Porsche 356SL coupe to the factory’s first class win at Le Mans in 1951.

Showing all the signs of being a genuine 24,000 kilometer example, the silver metallic over black Speedster includes many of its original accompaniments. Fortunately, the operating manual for the complicated low-bow convertible top is included. It does, however, assume you can read French.

Things to look out for on any G-body car this old are fuel leaks from rubber lines that are by now beginning to rot from age, a failing alternator that was good for only 40,000 miles and damage from water leaks. As on the original Porsche 356 Speedster, the top on these 1989 models is also considered more of an “emergency top” rather than a proper water-tight hood. When it gets cloudy and dark, start looking for underpasses.

In regard to the styling, your author vastly prefers the look of the narrow-body 1989 Speedster over the bulging flares version. With this car’s slim hips and silver color, the lineage back to the original 356 is even easier to see. Turbo-look Speedsters have a vibe more akin to a custom build versus a genuine factory look, but perhaps it’s all those obscenely wide-fendered fiberglass 356 Speedster replicas clouding my judgment.

Benefitting from years of refinement, the 911 Speedster’s 3.2 engine and G50 gearbox mean it’s fun to drive as intended: swiftly. With even less between you and the scream of the flat six to the rear, the experience must be sonic bliss.

We’ll close with this quote from Motor Trend magazine in 1990, whose assessment could be a contemporary take on any number of modern Porsche special editions:
“We have in the Speedster a bit of an anomaly; it’s built on the old 911 chassis, yet even at list price, it costs about the same as the much more advanced Carrera 2 Cabriolet that will be available this winter. Consider the Speedster’s drawbacks: it’s got less displacement, less power, no ABS, no power steering, no back seat, it leaks in the rain and it has an awkward manual top. Yet the people who pay well over list price for the car know exactly what they’re buying into”
Indeed they do. This 1989 911 Speedster is guided at an estimated €260-300,000.
Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and listing services for sellers and buyers of collector German cars. If you’re interested in this car or any other collectible, give us a call or drop a line!