Roadsters have been a part of Porsche history since its earliest days—since before even the Speedster. Jonny Lieberman had the chance to drive one of these proto-Speedsters alongside the latest and greatest
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Hi there.
00:09 I'm driving an incredibly special Porsche.
00:13 This thing, it's a 1953 356 America Roadster.
00:18 One of 17 ever made.
00:23 16 were aluminum like this one, one was steel.
00:28 This is the very last one ever built.
00:31 So this car is remarkably light and there's nothing to it.
00:39 It has headlights.
00:41 Actually, it didn't even have turn signal indicators
00:44 when it was new.
00:46 There's no door handles.
00:47 There's no windshield wipers, so I hope it doesn't rain.
00:51 But that's okay, this car was designed in California
00:54 for Californians by a Californian.
00:57 So it's cool, man, don't worry about it.
00:59 'Cause nothing's been drilled into this body.
01:04 It's extra gorgeous.
01:06 It's this sumptuous shape, just mind blowing.
01:09 So anyways, it's got a 1.5 liter flat four,
01:12 it's a little boxer that makes 70 horsepower.
01:16 Now that may not sound like a lot,
01:18 but remember the standard 356 made 40 horsepower.
01:23 So this was almost double.
01:25 And because this car has nothing on it whatsoever,
01:29 it weighs 1,334 pounds.
01:33 So it's shockingly light.
01:36 It's just you, an engine, and a steering wheel.
01:39 And it's wonderful, I love it.
01:42 So what's it like to drive?
01:45 Well, it's so analog.
01:50 Now, it's a complete handful.
01:53 You gotta be on it, and you gotta commit.
01:56 You gotta commit.
01:57 You're not gonna be making a lot of mid-course corrections
01:59 in this thing, but that's okay because,
02:02 you know, like most great cars, like all great cars,
02:06 let's just say it, it loves to be driven hard.
02:09 It wants to be pushed, and it feels better.
02:11 It feels more alive.
02:13 And it's so great 'cause you can just see,
02:16 I can actually put my head over the windshield,
02:20 so you can really see when you turn into a corner.
02:22 You can really get a good look.
02:24 But yeah, this thing is just a hoot.
02:26 But what we're doing here is we wanna see
02:29 how far the Speedster's been evolved, right?
02:32 So if this is the predecessor, right,
02:33 if this is the daddy of the Speedster,
02:37 where is it at now?
02:38 Well, what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a look at
02:41 the new Speedster.
02:44 Out of the 356 America Roadster
02:49 into the 991 Speedster.
02:53 Now, comparing the two, is there any similarity
02:57 besides lack of roof?
02:59 No, there's just kinda not.
03:03 Look, the 991 GT3, with a manual, I've long said,
03:08 is literally the best car ever made.
03:10 Sorry, every other car ever made.
03:12 It just kinda is, you know?
03:14 And this is an open-top version of that
03:16 with a slightly different engine.
03:18 So the four liter flat six, naturally aspirated,
03:23 in the regular GT3, 500 PS, German horsepowers.
03:27 This is 520 PS.
03:29 How individual throttle bodies, that's the big difference.
03:32 They're cuckoo clock expensive,
03:35 but if you are wealthy and you collect Porsches,
03:37 this is so totally worth it.
03:39 What a motor, I mean, 9,000 RPM redline,
03:44 manual transmission, life doesn't get better.
03:47 It actually doesn't, I've checked a lot.
03:49 Oh, why couldn't I have been rich?
03:52 (upbeat music)
03:55 (upbeat music)
03:58 (upbeat music)