With its eye-catching fiberglass tonneau cover and lower, removable windshield, the one-year-only 1989 Porsche Speedster is instantly recognizable to committed Porsche enthusiasts. Designed as a lightweight, racy homage to its 356 ancestor, the Speedster was reintroduced following a 35-year absence, with most examples of the highly desirable two-seat variant quietly disappearing into private collections.

Though the Speedster name had entered the automotive lexicon with the Ford Model T racers of the early 20th century, it was Porsche that popularized the term with its spartan and nimble rear-engine 356—a car that built its reputation on the race circuits of southern California while carving out its place in 1950s pop culture. Fitting, then, that the nameplate would be revived for the final year of the Carrera 3.2, with a limited run of two-seat Speedsters (option code M503) built between January and August of 1989—1,943 of which featured wide bodywork based on the 911 Turbo and 196 of which featured narrow bodywork like that of the standard Carrera 3.2.

The example offered here completed production on 22 May 1989 and is one of only 17 wide-body Speedsters to have been allocated to Canada. It left the factory finished in Black with a Black canvas top over a Black partial leather interior and was equipped with power sport seats, a shorter gearshift lever, heavy duty windshield washers, headlight washers, and air conditioning. A stamping in its original warranty book indicates that the car languished in showrooms until 30 October 1991 when Heimrath Porsche of Scarsborough, Ontario sold the triple-black Speedster to its first owner with 35 kilometers logged on the odometer. It was last registered in Canada in October of 1994, after which it was registered in Alabama, according to its Carfax report and a previous registration document.

Consistent with its importation to the United States, the speedometer and odometer have since been changed to miles per hour. Overall, the car remains well-preserved and is accompanied by a tool kit and factory books with leather pouch. The Speedster is among the rarest of the long-running G Series 911 models, making this rare Canadian model highly sought after.