1995 Porsche 911 Speedster Tiptronic 993 by Workshop 5001

Spotted loves a special 993 – as witnessed by last month’s one-of-one 993 GT2 Evo Harlequin – and we’ve found another rare-groove car for sale at noted Porsche specialists Workshop 5001 in California (www.workshop5001.com). It’s the 993 Speedster, the car that never was – at least in series production guise. Porsche made one in 1995: the green Tiptronic 993 Speedster built as a 60th-birthday gift to Ferdinand Alexander (Butzi) Porsche. Another followed in 2001, when American comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld asked nicely that Porsche take back the 993 4S Cabriolet he’d ordered in 1998 and turn it into a Speedster, and Porsche obliged.

Two ‘factory’ 993 Speedsters officially exist, then – which means this car isn’t one of them. It’s been fastidiously recreated using the same 964 Speedster parts the two official cars feature. It’s also a bit more faithful to the true idea of a Speedster – and if you think it looks familiar, that’s because it featured in.

If you don’t have that back issue handy, here’s a bit of the backstory. It was built by a couple who owned a number of other 993s, and wanted their own version of the 993 that Porsche didn’t build for series production. It had to be true to the two cars, using OEM parts from the 964 – including the Speedster’s lower and more steeply raked windscreen, the double hump rear body cover, and the somewhat rudimentary hood that sits beneath it.

They found a 993 Cabriolet that had already been stripped in preparation for such a build; usefully, it also came with a number of the necessary 964 parts. The couple tasked John Fogg, a certified Porsche Master Technician, to build it. He undertook the conversion as the factory would, reinforcing the chassis for the widebody rear, then sourcing and fitting the Turbo S rear panels with their punctured intakes fore of the rear wheels, as well as fitting out the interior, before finishing it in Guards red.

While it’s glorious outside, it’s actually inside where this Speedster stays particularly close to the original idea. There are RS door cards in carbon-fibre, with the rest of the interior featuring the lightweight weave, all created by the same German technician who built it for the factory cars. A pair of lightweight colour-coded bucket seats, stereo delete and other neat details give this Speedster a particularly authentic look. It really could have come from the factory. Unlike Butzi’s, this Speedster’s got a manual transmission, which is as it ought to be. What’s interesting here, given the rest of the work, is that the engine remains stock, which presents something of an opportunity.

Workshop 5001’s Marlon Goldberg explains that while they’re just handling the sale of this special 993, the stock 1995 3.6-litre engine is “an ideal starting point for a hot rod”. Given Marlon’s reputation as a builder of some incredible Porsche engines, his comment that the buyer of this car would be prioritised in his busy schedule for a hot engine, if they want it, makes this rare, desirable Speedster an even more appealing purchase than it already is. As we said, Spotted loves a special 993, and this one’s very special indeed – even more so if you take Marlon up on that offer, as we most definitely would…