Yahoo Autos The Porsche 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet America Pays Tribute to a Rare 356
Oh great, yet another new Porsche 911. It seems absurd, but you can't really blame Porsche for making so many model variants when it has a customer base that eats up every single one. So here's the newest, the 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet America Edition, an exclusive limited-edition for the North American market that pays homage to an ultra-rare 356.
The 356 America was a precursor to the beloved 356 Speedster. Conceived by the same guy, New York dealer Max Hoffman—also the guy who convinced Mercedes to turn the 300SL into a road car—the 356 America was an aluminum-bodied two-seater stripped out to an almost comical degree. I had the great opportunity to drive the example owned by the Porsche Museum, and it wasn't equipped with turn signals. The car didn't even get a Porsche badge up front. Just 16 were built, and 11 are believed to survive.
With 115 to be built for the North American market—100 for the U.S., the rest for Canada—the 911 GTS America will be far more common, but it'll still be one of the rarest modern Porsches. Unlike the 356 America, the 911 GTS America won't differ mechanically to the car it's based on. This is, essentially, a manual-transmission rear-drive Carrera GTS Cabriolet with unique exterior and interior trim.
The color is called Azure Blue 356, and it's an adaptation of a color offered on early examples of the 356, including the 356 America the 911 is pictured with. To keep up with the America theme, there are white and Guards Red accents throughout. The "911 Carrera" badge on the rear is white, while "GTS" is finished in Guards Red, and the decals on the doors follow the same color scheme. The wheels have white inner details with a Guards Red pinstripe, while the windshield frame is wrapped in black, a modern interpretation of the tiny chrome windshield of the 356 America. "We wanted to keep the car somewhere between invisible and strikingly loud," says Grant Larson, director of special products at Style Porsche. An American, Larson distinctly remembers the bicentennial celebrations of 1976 and all the commemorative products produced at the time. It's an aesthetic he didn't want to recreate here.
Red and white accents carry through to the interior, though instead of white stitching, Porsche uses "Pebble Gray" fabric, which doesn't clash as much against the black leather. All of this is optional, however, so if customers want a more subtle interior, they can have it.
The door sills have a plaque that reads "1952 - 1992 - 2022 - 70 Years America Roadster." What's the "1992" about? Porsche brought back the America Roadster moniker for a limited-edition of the 964, a wide-body Carrera 2 Cabriolet. Around 250 were built, and despite the current hype around air-cooled 911s, they're not particularly well known among enthusiasts. There are no specific details on the 911 GTS America that reference the 964 America Roadster, but they're similar in spirit. Both are, essentially, hotted up, open-top 911 Carreras built in small quantities.
With an MSRP of $186,370 Carrera GTS Cabriolet America carries a huge premium over the $150,850 Carrera GTS Cabriolet. The special interior package is an additional $7510, too. Despite this being a $35,000-plus color-and-trim package, there's no reason to expect that all 115 examples won't sell out very quickly. Given these circumstances, it's easy to see why Porsche builds these things.
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