Ever since I was a teenager, I've loved Porsches. In fact, my first girlfriend drove a Porsche 911. I don't know, maybe that's where my sports car infatuation started.
At any rate, I recently discovered a company by the name of Special Edition, Inc. that teamed up with Beck Development back in 1986 to create some of the best looking Porsche replicas that I've ever seen.
These aren't your garden-variety kit cars, though. They're fully-assembled Porsche replicas.
Beck products include the fabulous looking Speedster (my personal favorite), the 550 Spyder (which is air-cooled), and the Spyder 550S (which is water-cooled). These classic convertible-top replicars have been featured in major auto magazines such as Car & Driver, Motor Trend, Road & Track, and several others.
The chassis for all three of these gorgeous vehicles is built using a 3" DOM tubular design, which provides the rigid kind of platform that is needed for a convertible roadster.
Some of the standard features that Beck replica vehicles include sound more like luxury options to me. Stuff like full leather interiors, hand-laid glass, high-quality convertible tops that even include really nice looking side curtains, and base coat/clear coat Sikkens paint jobs.
In case you aren't familiar with Sikkens paint, this is the top-of-the-line paint that typically graces the elegant lines of Audis, BMWs and Mercedes.
Another feature that really impressed me is that the Speedster comes with a full-sized spare conveniently stowed away in the trunk of this curve-hugging beauty.
Now, here's something else that I thought was really cool. As a general rule, Special Edition, Inc. has Speedsters and Spyders ready as demos for guys like me to drop in and take for a spin. Very, very nice. Of course, during their normal Spring sales rush, these demo cars get sold in a hurry.
