DC from Cape Cod

I am looking at one of these with under $10K miles...anyone here have any personal experience with these cars?

Do these even come with rear seats? Any idea as to fair market value?

Thanks!

johnnyquest

I see them advertized in Pano and Excellence for $50-60,000. "Real" ones are rare. There are kits that allow you to convert a cab into a "speedster", but I don't know how to spot the fakes.

carrerachas

a couple months ago on a moutain run, someone had an 89 speedster w/ +100k miles on the clock. he was a retired engineer and used it as a daily driver. i imagine you can get the vin and decode the options to tell if it's real. i would like to have a speedster, but they seem to be typically priced higher than turbo cabs. I have seen them in the high $30s - $60ks dependiung on the miles. How many did they import in 89?

DC from Cape Cod

Somewhere around 800 were imported to the US but the word is that a good number of them have been shipped back to Europe for collectors.

The 993 (where I post the most) tells me that the Speedster is really a garage queen/collectible car and not a daily driver - too expensive and parts can be difficult to get. Looks like I am back hunting for a C2S...

Thanks for the help - I appreciate it!

JDaniel

If you're talking about the 84-89 Carrera based speedster, parts should not be hard to find. The body/suspension/brakes are from the Turbo, everything else (besides the windshield/top) is from the Carrera.

Prices are usually in the $40k-High $60k range.

J-McDonald

There is one other difference between Speedsters and "regular" 911 cabs - the doors and door glass. Speedsters don't have the front quarter windows that "regular" 911's have. A single piece of glass extends to the edge of the windshield header.

I spoke with a guy who owns two 1989 Speedsters (one with 9k miles, the other with ~40k miles) at a PCA show this past summer and he said that they're very difficult to use as daily drivers because visibility is bad out of the cabin with the top up and, because the seal between the top of the windows and the convertible top is poor, they leak water and whistle at highway speeds with the top up. Porsche recognized this and actually put a statement in the Speedster owner's manual that says something to the effect of "the convertible top is designed for temporary/emergency use only and should not be expected to provide complete protection from wind and/or rain."

The owner said that he put towels between the top of the windows and the convertible top to minimize the wind noise on the few occasions on which he drove one of his Speedsters with the top up.

He also said that putting the top up and down is 10-15 minute operation - not something you can do on the side of the road when a freak rain storm starts.

Other than that, a Speedster is a typically bullet-proof 3.2 liter/G50 Carrera.

Ed Bighi

Parts should not be hard to get at all. All the parts are standard carrera turbo-look stuff. With the exception of the top, windshield, and a few window mechanism bits.