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Thursday, July 20, 2023 - Delivery Day
T-Minus-Zero.
July 20. 2023. The day had finally arrived. After three years and one month of planning, waiting, planning, waiting, and ... well, you get the idea, the day had arrived. Luke and I would be receiving two brand-new Porsche sportscars today.
Luke's Thoughts
[on the arrival of "The Day"...]
I'm feeling the enormity of the day, and am in a properly good mood, full of fizzing excitement and anticipation. The fresh air and quiet walkways are just the ticket to stretch out the legs and allow myself to soak up the atmosphere. This clearly is more than 'just a car' for me and I'm bound and determined to 'feel' the whole experience.


Our delivery-day schedule had us slotted in for arrival at the Porsche Leipzig visitor facility at 12:30pm. Although this meant that we weren't going to get started on any road-tripping today, it did mean that there was no need for an early rise - which I think our trusty crewmembers appreciated.
Morning Prep
I myself got up fairly early. I wanted to process some of yesterday's images and post some new content for the GTS Chronicles Instagram feed, and I wanted that all out of the way before the day got started. I knew in the back of my mind that the day's momentous events would themselves be the basis of much new and excellent content, and I didn't want any backlog.
Waiting for the shuttle
We checked out of the hotel around 11am. We weren't staying another night here; after we received our cars, we would be moving to a new location, one on the city's outskirts with lots of space and a nice big parking lot - a parking lot more than large enough to allow a couple of nervous new Porsche owners to park well away from everyone else.

We hoofed all of our heavy stuff across the street to a cafe. It was time for a late morning coffee and a bit of a break before the day's big ceremonies began. Porsche had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and transport us to the Porsche visitor center, and with a clear view back to the hotel entrance, this was where we were going to wait for it to arrive.
Waiting for the shuttle
Checking out of our hotel meant that we had every gram of that big pile of luggage you saw in the photo from the day before. We had thought through the logistics of this in advance; we had called ahead and verified that the facilities at Porsche would be able to hold our luggage securely during our activities there.

The day had dawned grey and cloudy, and now, it started to rain. Fortunately our cafe table was situated under the building's wide portico, so we didn't get wet. It wasn't looking that great for our afternoon track session (a track session was part of our delivery day activities).
Mid-day rain
The shuttle - a very standard-looking cream-coloured German Mercedes Station Wagon taxi - arrived shortly before noon. It was really pouring now, and we tried to load it as quickly as we could to avoid getting totally soaked. Then, a bit out of breath and steaming up the car's windows, all four of us piled in. We started rolling towards destiny: the Porsche Leipzig Visitor and Delivery Center!

It took about twenty minutes to ride from downtown to Porsche's facilities, located on the outskirts near the city's airport. The first thing that came into view was the iconic inverted cone of the visitor building itself; round and with the large red "Porsche" logo wrapped around its topmost circle. We had seen this building many times in many pictures and videos. It was super neat to see it for real. The taxi dropped us and our luggage off and Luke and I did a little celebratory handshake. Congrats on making it allllllll this way, buddy!
Luke's Thoughts
[on the approach to Porsche Leipzig...]
Lots of butterflies in my tummy. I actually feel quite queasy, and not due to any wild driving by the taxi driver. She's quite a sedate old lady who guides us serenely through the busy streets towards our destination. As the building approaches, my butterflies start to go nuts - you can see it from a distance away - so the anticipation is building rapidly!
Our badges are ready
Welcome to Porsche Leipzig
Congrats on making it this far
We shuffled and hauled all of our stuff into the entrance and up to the front desk, where friendly assistants were waiting to check us in. It was a bit of a hotel-like process. They didn't bat an eyebrow as we pointed to the huge, heavy pile of stuff that they had agreed to hold for us (although they did wheel out a hotel cart to carry it all away). Before letting them leave with our luggage, I quickly grabbed the photo gear that we would use to record our day, and distributed it to crewmembers Jenn and Brian. The instructions given: record everything! (well, everything that was allowed to be filmed). I wanted the memory of this special day fully captured.
Front desk
With check-in out of the way, it was time for the first activity on our schedule: lunch. We went up one floor to the large dining area, arranged in a huge semi-circle around the outer curve of the building. The down-sloping windows of the inverted-cone architecture meant we had a bird's-eye panoramic view out over the facility's test track. Rows upon rows of Porsches (mostly sports car Porsches) were arranged below us.

We were guided to a finely-prepared table and sat down to review the menu. Pink-tinted rosewater in Porsche-monogrammed glasses were promptly brought our way.
Elegant Dining
Elegant Dining
P-P-L
As you would probably expect from the visitor center of one of the world's most respected high-end auto marques, the dining experience was nicely upscale. Our food was brought in a timely fashion, was excellently-prepared, and was of high quality. In between courses, I couldn't help but get up and wander over to the huge windows, gazing down at all of the beautiful machinery. Which cars would be the ones Luke and I would soon be piloting on the track?
Chilling at Lunch
Course One
Checking out the test cars
The Leipzig Test Track
Test Track Cars
Test Track Cars
GTS and GT4 RS
Still wet
After lunch, we had a bit of free time before our next scheduled event (which was a tour of the Leipzig factory). The Leipzig visitor center has its own museum, and so we decided to visit it. It is located on the level directly above the restaurant.
Luke's Thoughts
[on the afternoon's events...]
It is actually good to have a bunch of things scheduled, as well as all of the logistical stuff we are managing with our gear and hotel arrangements and all of that, because it keeps my mind occupied from thinking too much about the actual big moment. The butterflies seem to have gone away for now.
It wasn't nearly as extensive as the Zuffenhausen Museum, but it was still respectable. Owing to the ever-widening floor space with each higher floor, the museum's space was larger than you might think. The layout was essentially a big circle.
Porsche 911 GT1
Sponsered by IBM
Cutesy warnings
We left the museum shortly before our appointed factory-tour start time. The start point was outside the cone-shaped visitor center, on a walkway leading to the very large factory buildings, located just to the north. On this tour we were mixed in with a bunch of other guests, many of whom seemed to be non-delivery visitors; locals and such, out for a day trip to see some cool factory stuff.

This was the plant that produced the Porsche Macan (an SUV) and the Porsche Panamera (a sedan). One thing that was immediately apparent was the newness of the facility compared to the 911/718 line at Zuffenhausen. Also apparent, especially as we walked through and along the various parts of the assembly line, was the much greater degree of automation. There was a lot more hand-finished or hand-assembled work on the line assembling the 911 and 718.

As was to be expected, personal photography in the factory was not permitted. The photos below are courtesy of Porsche, and are illustrative of several of the points we visited along the tour.
Leipzig Factory
Much more automation
Macan on assembly, Leipzig
Being a large group (relative to the tiny five-person group we were on the Zuffenhausen tour), we had to work harder to stay all together and to hear our tour guide. In more than a few places, we had to carefully time our movements to cross the path of various automated transport robots, moving back and forth carrying parts and tools from one place to another. The whole place was decidedly high-tech.

The factory tour lasted about an hour, after which we were dropped off back near our starting point near the big inverted-cone building. Happily, we noticed that the rain had lifted and the ground was drying out.
The track layout
With our various activities thus far (eating, museum, factory), our attention had been diverted away from the excitement surrounding our soon-to-be-revealed cars. The next activity, however, certainly put us in the right mindset: the track session. That's right: as part of the Porsche European Delivery experience, you got a one-hour track session with qualified instructors. Driving. At high speed. With Porsches. Bring it on!

Back inside the cone building's main floor, we walked over to the big lit display of the entire facility, which included a good view of the track. We spent a bit of time studying it, curious about which particular configuration upon which we would be running. The track was constructed with bits and pieces arranged in the fashion of sections of famous bits of the world's famous race circuits: Monza's Parabolica; the Nordschleife's Karrusel; Spa's Bus Stop Chicane.

We were soon introduced to our companions and guides for the next couple of hours - one for myself, and one for Luke. They would see us through the track session and the actual delivery our cars: INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW and INSTRUCTOR_LUKE. What should be their titles? I dunno ... let's call them our Porsche consultants.

Note: I cannot for the life of me remember their names, and when I asked via the visitor center's contact page, I got no response. So I'm just calling them INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW and INSTRUCTOR_LUKE for the time being. if anyone knows the first names of these guys, let me know. I would very much like to humanize them with their real names.
The iconic cone
Our instructors
INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW and INSTRUCTOR_LUKE led us out into the long paddock area that flanked the the big inverted cone building to the east. The official European Delivery documentation says that "a vehicle comparable to your delivered vehicle will be offered [for the track session]". Hm. How comparable? Exactly? In the ballpark? I guess they wanted the flexibility.

A long line of Porsche sports cars were angle-parked down the line of the paddock. INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW and INSTRUCTOR_LUKE led us to a couple of actual GTS 4.0 models - one a Cayman and one a Boxster. So ... the answer to the "which model" question was, for us, exactly the same models as ours - with one key difference. These cars were equipped with PDK (Porsche's double-clutch automated gearbox). Likely they didn't blindly trust unvetted customers with potentially damage-able manuals.
Getting prep
Brian heading out
We broke up into two groups: myself and Jenn in the Cayman, and Luke and Brian in the Boxster. Our respective instructors then took the wheels while Luke and I rode as passengers, doing a couple of laps while the instructors gave us a standard set of basic instructions and showed us the particular track configuration we would be following (the track has many variations, and is only configured a particular way for any given session, typically with barriers and cones to block off the branch-off points).

It was fantastic to finally be sitting in a true Porsche sports car, feel it be alive underneath you and listen to the mechanical whir and howl of its boxer engine.

It was then time for us to drive. I swapped positions with INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW, taking the driver's seat, and we headed out. For the first couple of laps, he had me take it easy and observed my general demeanor. I imagine this was pretty standard, as really, you couldn't know the driving pedigree of anyone that came to one of these delivery track days. I could have been a Le-Mans level driver or a person who didn't know understeer from oversteer.
Andrew on track session
Friendly Advice
Faster than a GT3RS?
Gradually, INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW got the sense that I wouldn't totally bin it, and I started to drive harder and faster without any complaint from him. I was finding a chicane on the back part of the track a bit difficult to negotiate smoothly and quickly. On the other hand, I felt like I was really starting to get the Spa Francorchamps bus stop chicane section.

It was a bit funny when I started catching up to a couple of 911 GT3 RSes that were ahead of us on the track. There is no way in hell that a 718 GTS 4.0 would be able to catch a properly (or even semi-properly) driven 911 GT3RS - a car with a much more powerful engine, much more sophisticated suspension, much stickier tires and a dumbfoundingly high amount of downforce. Clearly the folks driving these cars were not up to running the car at even a quarter of its potential. We soon passed the toodling RSes and sped around for another lap.

My Cayman demo car felt tight, responsive, solid. Although not equipped with my preference - a fun manual - the PDK gearbox was superb, and very enjoyable in its own right. It certainly allowed me to keep my hands on the wheel and concentrate on my curve entry points and lines.

Luke was also out on the track, with his instructor in his chalk-coloured Boxster GTS. He had decided to keep things a bit slower and we passed them a couple of times.
Getting more comfortable
Our track session lasted about an hour - perhaps a touch more. Our crew members Jenn and Brian also were offered seat time, and spent a few tentative laps on their own with our instructors. Luke was even offered a drive in a 911 GTS model. He reported it as being fast but also a bit more ponderous than the small nimble feeling of the Boxster.
Jenn's ready
With the track session over, we headed back into the visitor center. We all knew what was coming next: The highlight of the day. No, the highlight of the year. Actually, no: the highlight of three years! An amazing highlight, no matter how we defined it. We were about to meet our two brand-new Porsches!

The delivery area was not far from main paddock entrance doors. We followed our instructors through a couple of locker-room type areas (presumably where people got suited up for more formal racing events), and then into a long area of car bays. Each bay had its own garage door leading out into the paddock area of the track, as well as two sliding partition walls. That meant that each bay could be made to be completely closed off, or completely open. Today they had the partitions set to about 2/3rds of the way from the garage doors to the back wall. This created an open hallway along the back of each bay. Our instructors kept walking, walking ... Bay 1, Bay 2, Bay 3, ...

INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW and INSTRUCTOR_LUKE stopped, turned, and waited for us to catch up. They had stopped beside Bays 6 and 7. And in each bay was the sleek shape of a small sportscar, hidden under a silky black Porsche-crested car-cover.
The Walk of Excitement
The beauties await
The Unveiling
There they were. Our two special machines. Only a few metres away from us, patiently waiting.

It was thrilling, knowing that in a few short minutes the silky covers were going to be whooshed away to reveal the gleaming specimens underneath. But first, setup: this needed to be properly captured. I decided that we'd have three cameras filming the moment: one at the front of each bay, looking back at the front of the cars, and on the back wall, on a tripod - the GoPro - in wide-angle mode, looking forward to the back of the cars, and positioned exactly halfway between each bay, so that they would be both visible at the same time from that point of view.

Jenn and Brian took up their positions with the handheld cameras , and I started record on the tripod-mounted GoPro. Luke and I stood beside each other, behind each of our respective cars. We gave slight nods to INSTRUCTOR_ANDREW and INSTRUCTOR_LUKE, who were already positioned with a fistful of car-cover in-hand, waiting for our signals. And then...
The Unveiling
And then, the silk car-covers were pulled back, silently sliding over elegant curves and then billowed backwards out of our sight. And in front of us, now as real and as three-dimensional as anything, were our cars. Luke's 718 Boxster GTS 4.0 and my 718 Cayman GTS 4.0. Both in deep, rich Carmine Red. With beautiful two-toned silver Carrera Sport wheels. The same, yet different. Twins, but not siamese. Fraternal twins. The cars of The GTS Chronicles. Now real.

Luke and I gave each other awkward pats on the back. It was a strange moment for me. I felt slightly numb, and perhaps not as outwardly emotional as I would have expected, but at the same time, the moment had deep meaning.

Luke's Thoughts
[on the unveiling of the cars...]
We manage to synchronize it; the black satin sheets being pulled back simultaneously, and I feel the enormity of it all well up as we goofily chuck each other's shoulder in appreciation of one another's support over the extensive waiting period. I think our back and forth, daily 'Porsche drips' of news and info, constant discussions of the option choices and strategies with Porsche London to snag allocations - it's all come to this moment and it's not lost on me. Thankfully there's now something right in front of me to fully explore and divert the attention. I dry a few tears and step forward to drink my new car in.

(to read more of Luke's thoughts from the delivery day, check out his blog post)
Congratulations
We just stood there for a moment and eyed the cars. The comments and observations came haltingly: "Look at those wheels ..." and " ... They make quite a pair ..." and " ... They're gonna look special on the road together!"

After a few minutes of standing, mostly silently in a kind of reverence ... we each circled our own car, moving a few steps and taking it in from a slightly different angle, and moving a few more steps and observing yet again from a slightly different viewpoint.

Everything looked perfect on the cars: correct wheels (in our worst nightmares, we imagined a scenario where Porsche had accidentally fitted our cars with the standard black GTS wheels). Our cars were affixed with German temporary license plates: S 33N for Luke and S 78N for me. For some reason I had thought our license plates would be sequential, but maybe the point of licensing was more tied to the production time than the delivery time. On the front of the cars, we were relieved to see that they had affixed the plates with double-sided tape. Our front bumpers were not drilled with any undesirable holes.
Revealed!
Finally, we cracked open the doors. Our hosts both sat down with us in each of our cars and started to give us a rundown of the controls, the infotainment system, and a few other tips relevant to our journey. How to pair your phone, how to use the cruise control, how to adjust the seats. Since we had both obsessed over the 718 model for years now and had explored multiple times and multiple dealerships, we kind of knew most of this, but it was still kind of nice to bathe in a bit of the hands-on care we were getting, and also ... it was gratifying to just sit in these brand-new pristine interiors.

This hands-on instruction activity probably lasted about fifteen minutes or so.
Getting the lowdown
The rundown
Paperwork
Time was drawing on. This section of the facility closes each day at 6pm, and it was already 5:30pm. We got out of the cars and joined our respective hosts at a couple of desks positioned near the wall of each bay. The desks contained some final paperwork that needed to be signed and given to us before we departed.
Paperwork
Our hosts gave us a rundown of things we needed to know about the road-trip part of our European Delivery. Road services (Porsche's roadside assistance was provided for us during the time we piloted the cars in Europe), where to drop the cars off at the end of our road-trip, along with all of the necessary forms and papers. They went over our registration papers and insurance, showing what was what and what would need to be shown to authorities should we end up in a situation where we needed to provide it. They gave us each a Euro standard emergency vest, which all European cars need to possess, our owner's manuals, our front license plate bracket (which we had chosen to not have installed, as mentioned above). And finally, of course, our four (two for each car) key fobs.
Paperwork
Luke and I had planned a 3-week road-trip for The GTS Chronicles. Porsche provided 16 days of insurance as part of the European Delivery experience, but offered extra insurance for a cost. We knew from our chats with Michael Maternicki at Porsche European Delivery North America that we would be required to pay for this extra time (we wanted an extra week of coverage) at delivery time. We mentioned this to our hosts and they said that this would be done at the front desk of the facility (where they had the payment machines). Made sense.

We were nearly ready to go. Excitement began to rise in us again as we anticipated that first turn of the key and the firing up of the engines. We had Jenn and Brian move our luggage (thanks!) up the hallway to the front desk and out the main front doors, so that Luke and I could do a sort of ceremonial parade-like exit from the garage. The exterior garage doors of Bay six and Bay seven were opened and I quickly went outside to place a recording camera on a tripod, looking back along the building towards the big inverted cone. The exact same vantage point that is often seen in official photos of Leipzig and of European Delivery. We were going to recreate that shot.
Into the sunlight
Luke and I both sat down in the comfy leather-and-racetex sport seats+ of our respective 718s. We inserted our key fobs into the classically-positioned left-side slot, and turned. Instantly our naturally-aspirated 4-litre flat six engines roared to life, then settled into a fast idle. Musical, mechanical melodies, overlapping with each other. And then, on a count of 3-2-1, we slowly let out the clutches with no throttle and inched out of the bays, with Luke slightly ahead to give us the best possible views of us coming out of the bays.

We emerged into what was now a beautiful sunny evening. Immediately we turned left along the narrow paddock-way and idled ourselves towards the entrance area, which is at the base of the big inverted cone building. Our cars were alive! They were real underneath us, and we could feel that they were ready to tackle our impending road adventure.

As our hosts waved goodbye to us, we slowly inched our cars around to the main front entrance. There's a long promenade area enclosed by two low arms of the first-floor building, ending at the main doors. The area is precisely aligned with the main inverted cone tower, which looms directly overhead above the doors and provides a commanding backdrop. We backed the 718s up into this area and positioned them one on each side, angle-parked, facing away from the entrance. This was going to make one kick-ass picture!!

Jenn and Brian were already hoofing all of our bags out through the main doors. Luke and I went inside and paid our 1-week extra insurance fee at the front desk (which, by the way, was 288 Euros for each car).

And with that, we were free to go. Home free! 6pm on July 20, 2023. A monumental milestone for The GTS Chronicles. The delivery day activities were complete!
We were clearly not quite ready to drive off; we still needed to pack up the cars and I really wanted to capture some iconic shots of us in the main entrance area. Before departing, we asked the front desk and our hosts about this; they were very friendly about it, saying that as long as we had completed all of our required administrative activities and were outside of the main entrance doors, that we could stay beyond the 6pm closing time. They would leave a note with the guards at the facility gates to let us through, and we would be fine. So nice!

Next, we carefully started packing gear into our beauties. I was ever mindful and thankful for our meticulous test-pack sessions back in Canada. We both knew that everything in these big piles of gear and luggage was going to fit, along with the four of us. And fit it did, easily and with space to spare. As mid-engine sportscars go, the 718 models (both Boxster and Cayman) are exceptionally commodious with regards to storage space.
First Pack
At last, the trunk, hatch, and frunks were latched satisfyingly into place. Our two Carmine-Red beauties were returned to their smooth, road-ready aerodynamic shapes, loaded and ready to take us on three weeks of adventure. But first, some final pictures in this incredibly car-photogenic place.

I walked one of the cameras back, away from the main entrance - far enough away to get a perfect shot of our two not-quite-exact-twins, angled perfectly in front of the dynamic architecture of the Leipzig facility. I put the camera only inches above the ground, directly aligned with a central pavement drainage rail. Looking through the viewfinder, the setup was perfect. This was going to be a photo for the ages!

I went back up to do a celebratory fist-bump photo with my long-time auto enthusiast buddy. We had come a long way from a couple of late 80s Honda hot-hatches to this - two pure-bred lightweight sportscars from Porsche on a grand road-trip through Europe. Thanks for accompanying me on this journey, Luke!
A Grand Moment
We took a ceremonial final walk up to our cars and did a slow parade down the entrance area and out into the main parking lot. And, as expected, when we got to the facility entrance (which was now closed off), the guards waved at us with a knowing smile and the gates swung open for us. Bye, bye, Porsche Leipzig! Excellent experience!

We moved in a slow convoy, generally headed west and south. We were headed to Linden - a nearby small satellite community on the outskirts of the Leipzig area. There we had booked a large room at the Hotel 3 Linden (I know, unimaginative name). We had chosen it for several reasons: it was not far from the Porsche Leipzig facility, had a nice big four-bedroom room with lots of space; was close to a the main line of the Deutschebahn (German Rail), and finally ... it had a nice big parking lot that would allow a couple of slightly nervous brand-new Porsche owners to park their babies well away from other cars.
Heading out
It took us about fifteen minutes to drive the distance between Porsche Leipzig and our hotel. We stayed to back streets, taking a relaxed route. We were gingerly feeling out our new cars, marvelling at the various touch points, the way the car responded underneath us, the way the hood fenders looked from the driver's seat ... all of the sensory inputs.

The Hotel 3 Linden - where we stayed the night after our delivery.
Soon we were at the Hotel 3 Linden. The as-advertised large parking lot was there, and we carefully parked our two 718 GTSes in a spot no normal person would park, save maybe if they were deliberately trying to get in their daily 10,000 steps. Inside, we hoofed our stuff up to a very large and spacious room, with single beds scattered around. We were fairly bushed and quite hungry, so we settled for the in-house restaurant and afterwards called it an early evening. What. A. Day.

Before heading off to bed myself, I wanted (no, needed) to get some content out about our grand delivery day for The GTS Chronicles Instagram channel. Here's what I whipped-up:

On instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu836GtM5HS. Or, you can watch inline in this page below:

The GTS Chronicles IG Post 082 - "The Delivery"
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