Canadian piece of Porsche history for sale for first time

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A Canadian-built one-off sports car that some argue inspired the Porsche Boxster is coming up for sale for the very first time, with a firm asking price of US$450,000 (CDN$616,000), per the classifieds section of classic-car magazine Hemmings. Best of all, with just 2,325 miles (3,741 km) on the odometer, it looks just as good as it did when it graced the cover of Motor Trend in June 1988.

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For those who haven’t heard of it before, let us introduce you to the Spexter, by Montreal-based Wingho Auto. The car was dreamt up by Wingho proprietor Clyde Kwok, a Porsche enthusiast and collector, and styled in 1987 by designer Paul Deutschman, also of Montreal. Kwok wanted a modernized interpretation of one of the classic Porsche 356 Speedsters in his collection, and tapped Spex Design, run by Deutschman and Kell Warshaw, to engineer the thing.

The builders of the Wingho Spexter started with a 1981 Porsche 911SC Targa, removing almost all of the bodywork and cloaking it in new pieces made from Kevlar and fibreglass, and extending the nose while maintaining the 911’s wheelbase. The interior was similarly completely refitted with a fibreglass tub inspired by the 356. A “speedster” in the purest sense of the word, the Spexter wears a cut-down plastic windshield, with no A-pillars bracketing it—and don’t go looking for a roof, side windows, or any other kind of cover, either.

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The 911’s 3.2L flat-six engine and five-speed manual were retained, though some exhaust tweaks apparently raised the output to about 252 horsepower.

The project had been started in the mid-’80s, after sketches of Porsche’s own 911 Speedster had come out but before that car had been unveiled at the 1987 Frankfurt Auto Show. The Wingho Spexter dropped not long after, apparently stealing the show from the real deal, and winding up in all the buff books and, as mentioned above, on the cover of Motor Trend, alongside the headline “Porsche’s New Speedster?”

Deutschman has said that, during a visit to Porsche studios a few years after the Spexter came out, he got the impression the stylists there “had noticed the Spexter, but didn’t express any kind of obvious significant reaction.” When Porsche took the covers off of its all-new Boxster in 1993, though, the similar looks – not to mention the similar name – raised eyebrows, with many industry insiders suggesting the little convertible was directly inspired by the Canadian Wingho.

The Wingho Spexter has lived a pampered life since its late ’80s heyday, seeing just over 100 km of pavement under its wheels each year, and the whole time remaining in the Kwok collection. Kwok let go of another one of his Wingho one-offs in 2020, but we’re not sure what’s prompted him to let go of this particular icon. We do wonder, though, whether we should to expect to see any of the other one-off Wingho specials listed for sale soon, too.