Way back in the stone age of the 997-generation Porsche 911, the company offered a model which was basically a variant on the GTS formula, a limited edition Sport Classic with the widebody arches of a Carrera 4S, a special ducktail spoiler, a model-specific double-bubble roof, and 19-inch Fuch-style wheels. This extremely cool and special ride was limited to just 250 units, and was never sold in the United States market. As with any limited-edition Porsche, the prices on these on the secondary market have gone through the roof, largely because they’re extremely tough to find. Once they enter a collection, they’re a little difficult to get out of the hands of people who own them.
As luck would have it, Porsche is currently testing a new version of that same old formula based on the current 992 chassis. After an eleven year hiatus, the Sport Classic appears to be back. And Porsche is currently testing the car on the famed Nürburgring Nordschliefe race track in Germany. While the old model featured a naturally-aspirated 3.8-liter flat six, the new one will likely continue the 992’s penchant for forced induction. The 992 GTS has not been released yet, but we expect it to be unveiled soon, and this car could be a precursor to the GTS coming in the next year or so.
The old Sport Classic was rated at 408 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torqe, with a 0-60 time of 4.3 and a top speed hitting 188 miles per hour. From the new car, we can expect a bit better performance numbers. It wouldn’t be much of a throwback Porsche if it had the current Carrera-based 3-liter turbocharged flat-six, so we’ll assume this will be fitted with a detuned version of the naturally-aspirated 4-liter in the GT3, (or an up-rated version of the different naturally-aspirated 4-liter in the Boxster Spyder, Cayman GT4, and 718 GTS models) maybe something like 460-480 horsepower, how does that sound? It’s possible that the same engine will find its way into the 992-generation GTS models as well, which tracks with the way Porsche has given its mid-engine GTS models to a bit of natural aspiration, as a treat.
We can see from these spy photos that the car in question appears to have special center-lock wheels and front and rear bumpers cribbed from the Turbo S. The ducktail spoiler and double-bubble roof again make an appearance. This is just a test car, so it’s likely that the fascia of the car will be changed when it comes time for production, to feature something more distinctively Sport Classic in nature.
Based on how quickly Porsche has been turning out variants of the 992 lately, we expect this to drop sometime later this year with customer deliveries by early 2022. It sure looks and sounds cool!