PGO Speedster II History

The Speedster II was PGO's breakthrough: the company's first wholly original design rather than a replica. It debuted at the 2000 Paris Motor Show as a two-seat roadster inspired by the classic Porsche 356 Speedster silhouette — low, curvaceous, with a cut-down windscreen — but built around a modern tubular steel space frame with a mid-mounted engine driving the rear wheels.

Early Speedster IIs used a 2.0-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine producing approximately 140 hp. Because PGO sourced engines from the Mini Cooper parts supply, the two marques eventually formalized the relationship: in 2012 PGO signed an official supply contract with BMW Group and switched to a factory-fresh 1.6-litre turbocharged DOHC four-cylinder producing 184 hp (135 kW), also shared with the Mini Cooper S. The turbocharged car weighed just under 1,000 kg, giving it strong power-to-weight performance.

To fund production PGO listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 2001 and built a dedicated factory near its Saint-Christol-lès-Alès headquarters. All cars are built on special order, keeping annual volumes in the low hundreds. The Speedster II has remained in continuous production, making it one of the longest-running handbuilt sports cars in France.