The Porsche 911 Spirit 70 is a GTS Cabriolet from the decade that style forgot
Porsche’s latest Heritage Design special takes style inspiration, for better or worse, from the 1970s and 1980s
The latest model in Porsche’s Heritage Design series is the new 911 Spirit 70, a convertible based on the 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet. Following in the tyre tracks of the Targa 4S Heritage Design Edition of 2020 and the 911 Sport Classic of 2022, it mixes a wild colourway and interior appointment with appreciable subtle detailing, to create a 911 that ‘embodies the essence of the 1970s and early 1980s’. Happily, that doesn’t also include a front bumper full of lead, a full-to-the-brim ashtray and the unwanted comeback of glacial turbo lag.
What it does include is that colour. The Olive Neo paint is contrasted with Bronzite grey-gold for the wheels and detailing at the nose and tail. There’s also a distinctive livery with ‘70’ in a roundel and the Porsche script emblazoned down the side, and three stripes down the bonnet, each leading into ‘911’ between the lights. They can also be seen tone-on-tone on the roof.
Those wheels come courtesy of the 911 Turbo-based 911 Sport Classic and are a modern interpretation of the classic ‘Fuchs’ design. Look closer at the 911 Spirit 70 and you’ll see a Porsche badge more like the one seen on 911s from 1963, than a contemporary GTS T-Hybrid. The front wings meanwhile feature gold ‘Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur’ badges, while a Porsche Heritage badge sits on the grille of the engine lid.
Open the door to the 911 Spirit 70 and the infamous ‘Icons of Cool’ puddle light is still a little cringeworthy. Then inside the big glaring spec choices continue – just look at that black/olive wavey, almost psychedelic pasha pattern. The Spirit 70 replaces the jacquard velour of the yuppymobile 930s of four decades ago with textile flock yarns. More pasha (beyond the seats, the door cards, the inside of the glovebox) is available on the dash, the seat inlays and even the boot floor if you’re that way inclined.
The detail changes go beyond the gold badging on the dash, too. With its all-digital dash, the 911 Spirit 70 gets its own classically-inspired green and white digital cluster with ‘Spirit 70’ written as it would be on an analogue set. A bit of appreciation before we address the mechanicals, for the smoke-filled 70s night club/bar setting it’s been photographed (or edited into), complete with disco ball, drum set and haggard dance floor.
The Spirit 70 is based on the 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet rather than being a unique model that’s a development of it, like the Sport Classic was in uniquely being a manual, rear-driven model based on the 911 Turbo.
That means it uses the same 534bhp, 450lb ft ‘T-Hybrid’ powertrain, which consists of a 3.6-litre flat-six, with a single electrically-augmented turbocharger, as well as a small electric motor between the eight-speed PDK transmission and the engine. That said, the GTS is currently our favourite Carrera powertrain, so the bones of the Spirit ‘70 are appealing in addition to (or in spite of) all the Heritage Design series addenda.
The 911 Spirit 70 will be limited to 1500 examples and can be ordered from Porsche centres now, with prices starting from £187,700. Buyers who own the Apple Vision Pro AR headset will also be able to download a special app, to ‘immerse themselves in the 70s’, whatever that means, and spec up their 911 Spirit 70 in virtual reality.
