Porsche 550 Reborn - the Porsche BlueSport?

Porsche 550 - Porsche's Bluesport?

It is being reported that Porsche are about to revive the Porsche 550 as the Porsche version of the VW BlueSport Concept.

The whole VW Bluesport saga seems to have been rumbling on forever, but perhaps the latest rumour – that Porsche are about to revive the Porsche 550 – means the pieces of the BlueSport puzzle are now starting, finally, to drop in to place.

It’s an interesting proposition, the VW Bluesport. Designed to be a lightweight and affordable 2-seat Roadster, it debuted as a concept at Detroit in 2009, and we’ve had rumours and counter-rumours about how it will go in to production ever since.

VW made it clear early on that for the BlueSport to be viable it would have to be produced by at least three of its brands. And because it was designed to be ‘affordabale’ we assumed that meant it likely that the Roadster would end up being a VW, perhaps and Audi and maybe a SEAT or Skoda.

That view made even more sense when Porsche’s R&D boss Wolfgang Dürheimer said shortly after that Porsche weren’t interested in joining the BlueSport project. But that was when Porsche thought they could wag the VW head;things have since changed and Porsche is a more compliant, more ‘corporate’ animal than before.

Which explains why – post the Porsche failure to take control of VW – Martin Winterkorn said that Porsche would be looking at a smaller roadster to add to the range. That could only be the Bluesport.

So the Porsche Bluesport will be delivered to the public as the Porsche 550? Perhaps; it’s as decent a moniker as anything else and, if the latest rumour churned out by Auto Express has any truth to it, the Porsche 550 will be powered by a 1.6 litre, turbo 4-pot with around 200bhp, arrtive in 2014 and cost a bit over £30k, neatly slotting in below the Boxster.

Which all makes sense, although the concept of an ‘affordable’ Roadster from VW seems to have gone out of the window somewhat if this is what’s happening. We do thing that the ‘Baby R8’ – the Audi R4 – will be the second pick for the BlueSport (which won’t be cheap eaither), which just leaves aoption number three. VW? Skoda? SEAT? Lamborghini, even?

Any guesses?