Porsche 911 Spirit 70 is a ‘psychedelic’ special

Meet the latest Porsche Heritage Design special. Internal working title ‘Psychedelic’, the 911 Spirit 70 is the third of four collectors’ 992s, each marking a separate decade in the company’s history. After the ’50s Targa 4S Heritage Design Edition and ‘60s 911 Sport Classic comes a cabrio with the ‘70s (and early ‘80s) as its muse.

There will be 1,500 made with the base of each a 992.2 Carrera GTS Cabriolet – funky T-Hybrid powertrain and all. While you’ve a full palette of colours to choose from, Porsche has curated a few that suit its swagger best. Murky Olive Neo green is top of the tree and set to sweep up around 70 per cent of buyers, many of whom will be adding this to their burgeoning collection of Heritage cars. You can’t say Porsche doesn’t know its audience – nor how to extract the cash from their accounts… 

And what cash: priced from £187,700, it’s up £40k on its base car and nearly as pricey as a current GT3 RS. While you don’t get anything like the same track prowess here, you’re getting a different flavour of Porsche engineering nous, one that’s been lavished on aesthetics. The 541hp peak of its 3.6-litre flat-six and electric combo is unchanged, the know-how instead directed toward fine details like the classic Porsche crest design, which has necessitated new crash tests given it adorns the airbag hub of the steering wheel. Changing from a red to black Sport Response button on the drive mode dial has added a stocky five-figure sum to the development budget, too. 

Then there’s the frightening amount of design hours spent perfectly aligning the stripes that run across its fabric roof and down the front bonnet, the latter mimicking the ‘safety stripes’ optional on Porsches in the ‘70s to help sweep slower drivers from the left lane of the autobahn. There are colour options there, too, with amber, orange, and red for its 9 and 1s an especially bold choice.

If it appears too easy for enthusiasts to turn their nose up at eye-wateringly expensive paint and stickers – with a matching chronograph exclusively available to its buyers, naturally – the Porsche design team suggests its Sonderwunsch personalisation programme is an increasing favourite of GT car buyers.

“It’s one of my favourite conversations,” Boris Apenbrink, Head of Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, tells PH. “In the beginning, Andreas Preuninger was not a big fan of all our colour and trim; he always said ‘my clients are focused on the racetrack, they only want black interiors’. He changed his mind because our Sonderwunsch workshop is now 80 per cent GT cars. Their buyers are going crazy with colours, materials, and stickers because in the end, it’s the same kind of customer – very enthusiastic, very emotional.” He goes on to reveal that three-quarters of 911 S/T production left the factory fully adorned with the optional decals…

You surely have a heart of stone if you aren’t endeared by the reappearance of Pascha trim, which adorns nigh on every interior surface of the Spirit 70 and ought to be a welcome change from the sea of leather and faux-suede adorning most of the 911s we feature here. You’ll even find it lining the seat backs and inside the glovebox, another change which demanded additional crash testing. No wonder the price is so high.

But yes, it’s hybrid and thus PDK only. Given a ‘70s 911 special could have celebrated the 2.7 RS or 2.8 RSR, that might strike you as a missed opportunity, but Boris isn’t worried. “We thought about it. But today you can only have a manual transmission on the Carrera T, and we want to go with the upper engine derivatives; because of the cost of what we do, it makes sense to have a higher power output. And while a lot of our customers like a manual from time to time, if you ask them honestly they want PDK in their car.”

The fact Porsche is making more of these than the stick-shift 992 Sport Classic before it appears is no coincidence. If you’re not sold on the Spirit 70 – which is also soft-top only – expect to see the final car in this particular Heritage Design series within two years. Celebrating the ‘80s, it’ll be a mechanical overhaul more akin to that recent Sport Classic and may get three pedals too. A Porsche equivalent to the Singer Turbo Study, perhaps?

Many of us reading likely crave a ‘90s special too, but Boris reckons future specials can branch out farther than their current delineation. “I would like to transfer to other model ranges. We know we can’t just trim a Taycan in Pascha and say it’s ‘Heritage’, that would not be right. What we do must have a story and link to the car underneath. 

“I think a lot about the Cayenne at the moment. This could be the next entry gate for being a Heritage model. I really like the E1s now, especially when they look off-road-ready with a roof tent and all the stickers. I like that very much.” Not unlike this one, in fact. “I’ve even seen the first Cayenne groups at top-level car events like Amelia Island, all set up with their barbecue grills. It’s fun to see it develop its own community.” Might be time to snap up a sub-£5k bargain in the classifieds now, then…