From Reel Life to Real Life: Blade Runner Star’s Custom Speedster
For a replicant looking to elude Deckard in style, it’s hard to beat this 911 Speedster. Just don’t expect to blend in.
Porsche 911 Speedsters aren’t particularly common to begin with, but this one is one of a kind. Found recently on Hemmings and offered up for sale by Beverly Hills Car Club, this smoothed-out silver Speedster looks more like a styling study or a concept car than something you’d see driving around.
It was once owned by the Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. That name should trigger the blush response for fans of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick and director Ridley Scott. Hauer famously played “Roy Batty” in Blade Runner, the leader of a gang of fugitive replicants — the smartest, strongest, and deadliest.
Perhaps that role stuck with him and attracted him to the futuristic looks of this particular 911 Speedster. While we will admit that it might look a bit dated now, it certainly doesn’t look like something out of 1989. In fact, this car appeared on the cover of European Car Magazine in 1995.
The smooth, sinewy curves of this Speedster are offset by the subtle silver paintwork. The builder most definitely took a less-is-more approach, and while the body underwent a total transformation, it definitely looks like something the factory would have built. The understated gestalt of the total package is likely a major factor as to why this car looks so good to this day.
Like a suspicious replicant confused by false memory implants, there is something troubling about this car’s past. Although it’s traveled a mere 44,340 miles in its lifetime, it has a salvage title. No further information is given in the ad, and we wonder if a severe accident was what necessitated the extensive bodywork in the first place. We’d definitely want to have a trusted Porsche mechanic look it over, and administer a Voight-Kampff test.
Regardless, we’re happy that the car was given new life instead of scrapped. Unlike Nexus-6 replicants, they’re aren’t building any more 1989 Porsche 911 Speedsters.
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