Porsche Expected To Green-Light New 911 Speedster For 2019

Ever since Porsche revealed its new 911 Speedster concept, we’ve been wondering when it would put it into production. Now it appears that decision is imminent.

According to Autocar, the German automaker is expected to decide on when the new Speedster will enter production.

Zuffenhausen produced Speedster versions of the previous 930, 964, and 997 generations of its iconic rear-engined sports car. More streamlined than the four-seat cabriolets, the 911 Speedsters have always featured two-seat cabins with chopped-down windscreens and a cowled rear deck where the extra seats would be.

The latest concept, created to celebrate the marque’s 70th anniversary and showcased at Goodwood this past weekend, follows that same formula. It borrows much from the 911 GT3, including its 500-horsepower, 4.0-liter, naturally aspirated flat-six and six-speed manual transmission.

Of course, we’ve already seen the new 911 Speedster testing on more than one occasions, and apart from the shorter windscreen and signature rear cowl, it also has an intricate arrangement for the rear wing and third (or is it fourth?) brake light.

The production run could be more limited than the 2,000 examples of the 997. Given the celebratory nature of the car, the smart money would be on 1,948 examples – symbolic of the year in which Porsche was founded seven decades ago. Its launch should be made either at the L.A. or Paris Auto show, and production will probably kick off sometime next year.

The big question for potential customers is whether it’d stick with the stick-shift from the concept or go with the seven-speed DCT that’d deliver quicker shift times. Purists will undoubtedly hope for the former, and given the focus on light weight (and the PDK’s relative heft), we’d say it stands a decent chance of going old-school.