► Vision 357 concept revealed
► New Speedster version comes to Goodwood
► Based on the Cayman GT4 RS
Porsche has revealed a roofless version of its Vision 357: the Speedster. The new Vision 357 Speedster will be on show during the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Porsche has had a bit of fun, creating a brand new concept car that’s got a heavy retro twist. It’s called the Vision 357, and it’s meant to imagine how Ferdinand Porsche – the brand’s eponymous founder – would design his dream car if it were now, rather than in 1948.
The Vision 357, then, is a smashing together of Porsche’s past with its present and is meant as an anniversary gift to itself after 75 years of performance car building.
‘The concept car is an attempt to combine the past, present and future with coherency,’ says Porsche’s vice president at Style Porsche, Michael Mauer, ‘featuring proportions that are reminiscent of its historical archetype and details that visualise the outlook for the future.’
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Porsche’s vision, then, aims to modernise the lines and ethos of that original 356 No.1 Roadster. The smooth, curvy bodywork hides tonnes of retro details, with points like concealed door handles and lights that shine through the bodywork are designed to keep it as clean as possible. The A pillars in the windscreen are designed to echo the one-piece windscreen that wrapped around the car from 1952 with black pillars, too. For the Speedster, hints of Miami Blue are used instead of the red used on the coupe.
The 357’s wide footprint is furnished with four wide, 20-inch wheels made from magnesium with carbonfibre aerodynamic hubcaps and centre locks. They’re designed to give a nod do the 356 A and B that featured wheels with large bolt circles. Modern details have been intertwined, too, like a carbonfibre front splitter similar to the all-electric Porsche Mission R.
The Vision 357 coupe uses the running gear from a 718 Cayman GT4 RS, developing 493bhp from its shrieking 4.0-litre flat-six. Porsche says the engine is designed for use with synthetic fuels, too.
Look at the Speedster, though, and Porsche says it deploys some of the 718 Cayman GT4 e-Performance’s electric technology, including its e-motors and battery tech.