Porsche Cites Company History in Vision 357 Speedster

Porsche Cites Company History in Vision 357 Speedster

Published: August 17, 2023 | By: American Luxury Staff

As a surprise for this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, Porsche has a new vision to unveil: the Vision 357 Speedster. The concept is the open-top version of a self-reflexive Porsche homage that popped up this past winter: the fastback Vision 357, which in spirit harkened back to the Ferdinand Porsche-designed 356 model of the company’s watershed year of 1948.

The concept appears to follow in the wake of the ‘Unseen’ series of unproduced — but generally interesting — concepts that Porsche rolled slowly out over the course of about a year at the beginning of the decade. Among the more interesting were the Vision 960 Turismo, the Vision Spyder, and the Vision Rennienst. None made it to prototype as far as we know, but all were worth a look.

Unlike the vehicle visions ‘Unseen’ and the Vision 357 hardtop, the Vision 357 Speedster isn’t relegated to a full spread in a Porsche enthusiast’s coffee-table book or a fantasy press release. And, unlike the hard-top Vision 357, which would be loaded with the 718 Cayman GT4 RS’s 4.0L flat-six, the open-top Speedster 357 features an electric powertrain: the battery and motors are pilfered from the Mission R.

The chassis of the 357 Speedster has its precedent in the 718 GT4 Clubsport. In keeping with Speedster designs of the immediate postwar era, the car features a concise windscreen, which really emphasizes its stocky body. There’s a wealth of naked carbon fiber to be seen in the cockpit, and the design language has been updated to reflect the quicksilver lines of today.

The graphics, of course, highlight the 75 years that have elapsed since 1948, as well as the beginning and ending years of the story timeline. Up until now, that is.

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