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Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - The Last Day
Before delivery, that is.


Wednesday, July 19. The last day before that most specialistic of days ... the day we'd been dreaming of for the last three years. Now, you might think there would be a sense of impatience by now, but no. We were enjoying ourselves here in Stuttgart, enjoying being steeped in the workings and the lore of Porsche. And there was still a bit more of that to come: the Porsche Museum and our "exclusive" Exclusive Manufaktur tour!

The Porsche Museum

From my description of the previous day, you're already familiar with my general description of the Porsche Museum. Sandwiched between the Neuwirtshaus stop on the city's LRT and the Porscheplatz roundabout and its tri-911 sculpture, it was very easy to get to. As part of the Euro Delivery package, free passes to the museum for oneself and one guest (so for us, four people in total) are included. Not a particularly valuable perk, as it only costs 10 Euro to visit the museum, but still nice from a gesture perspective.
Museum Time
We elected to take our rental car rather than the LRT line today, as we were leaving our Stuttgart hotel today and our morning activities would take us beyond check-out time. We drove our rental car into the extremely white, clean environs of the garage under the museum. Rarely had I seen as pristine of a parking garage as this one.

We took the internal elevator up to the main floor, rather than coming in via the mirror-roofed entrance. We were early, it being only 9 a.m., but already the place was fairly busy. At the front desk, we handed over our Euro Delivery museum tour vouchers and received some museum passes coloured in the Porsche 75th anniversary colours of blue and red. We then headed over to the cafe area and bought ourselves a bit of breakfast. Behind the table where we sat eating, behind a glass wall, was a collection of porsche sports cars from various previous generations.
Mr. Porsche's First Car
Heading up the main escalators from the coffee bar, we entered the exhibition space. We were immediately presented with an item of turn-of-the-century (20th century, not 21st century) hardware: the very first car that Porsche's founder worked on: the Egger-Lohner C.2, from 1898. There was no company called Porsche at the time. The seating area for whatever reason hadn't been preserved, and instead there were two blue-tinged and inscribed glass panels to show where and how the seats were and looked. It is somewhat ironic to note that this was a pure electric vehicle (given the long arc of gas engines to the present day, with the increasing prevalence of electric vehicles).
And another first car
Next to the C.2, another car with a lot of EV in it: the Lohner-Porsche Electromobile. This was available as either a pure electric vehicle or as a hybrid, and also featured in-wheel motors (something that very recently is again being considered in certain EV prototypes). It was a stubby, tubby looking thing that apparently was extremely heavy. It actually competed in several racing events of the time (1900). It was a very niche sort of product, only available to wealthy individuals and only a few hundred were made.
Lohner-Porsche Electromobile
The flow of the museum next brought us to a 'history' section, which was a bit less focused on cars and more on the life and legacy of the company's founders: Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) and his son, Ferry Porsche (1909-1998). Although the senior Porsche founded the company - Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH - in 1931 , it was really Ferry Porsche that fully realized the direction of the modern sports-car focused company.

The museum does not attempt to hide the fact that Ferdinand Porsche was involved in the activities of the Nazi Government under Adolf Hitler, where he oversaw the building of military equipment, the design of the Volkswagen Beetle, and used forced labor in his factories. He was a member of the Nazi party and in fact was an SS officer. The position of the descriptions given in the museum states that he exploited the Nazi regime for the benefits of his company but did not share his ideology. Have no idea if that is really true or not, but in any case the panel discussing all of this ended with "Porsche AG acknowledges the past of its predecessor companies and considers dealing with this as an ongoing research process".

I was glad that this acknowledgment was present, as well as the fact that Porsche after the war adopted a stance that was apolitical, focused on engineering excellence and customer experience, became known for treating its workers fairly, and respected and took to heart reasonable industry rules and regulations.
Porsche and Nazi Germany
Now, you might think, with all of my talk about 2023 being Porsche's 75th year anniversary, that the math seems off. If the company was formed in 1931, wouldn't 2023 be the 92nd year anniversary? Well, it seems that Porsche uses the 1948 date as a sort of arbitrary starting point, as 1948 was when the first really completely Porsche car was built: the 356 (which we will see a bit later).

Before we got to the first "true" Porsche, we came to an interesting vehicle. Well, really the shell of a vehicle, as there were clearly no mechanical components or interior. But it's shape was extremely familiar. This was the Type 64. It was more of a design experiment / record-seeking vehicle that wasn't ever made into something mass produced. Its mechanicals were all Volkswagen-based. But you could definitely see the general Porsche-ish shape in this car. It was essentially the basis for the design elements of many of Porsche's most famous sports cars to come: the 356, the 718 and the 911.

The shell was unpainted, and there was a certain beauty in the marks and scuffs from the hand-beating of the aluminum into this streamlined shape.
Type 64
Closeup, type 64
The First "Real" Porsche
Next we came to the first ... I suppose ... "real" Porsche. The first iteration (actually an initial 1-off single model) of the Porsche 356 - a compact, lightweight roadster convertible, with a 35 horsepower 1.1 litre flat-four boxer engine. From this, the initial production series coupe and convertible were soon derived. Look at the delicate windscreens on that thing. Hard to imagine they would be able to stay in place at speed!
Next we came to an area documenting early involvement in motorsport. There was the type 360 - an open-wheeled racer version of the 356 that Porsche manufactured for the Italian company cisitalia. Then we jumped ahead ten or so years to the much more capable, more more successful 718 racecar. This flat-four engined racer won a ton of races in the late 50s and early 1960s. And, of course, this model was the inspiration for the much later revival of the 718 nameplate in 2016, when once again, Porsche utilized a flat-four engine (although later on with flat-six engines in the upper models, like our GTSes).
Porsche Type 360
Porsche 718 RS 60
718 RS 60 Cockpit
We kept wandering along to the next area, passing displays showing the evolution of the Porsche emblem/logo and of the innumerable enthusiast clubs that have sprung up, worldwide. There was an example of Porsche's brief dip into the world of agriculture - a shiny bright red Porsche-Diesel super farm tractor. There was a slightly art-deco aspect to its classic lines.
Evolution of the badge
Clubs a-many
Porsche-Diesel Super
Next came the model that was the inspiration for all GTS-level models to come - the mid-engined 904 Carrera GTS. It was originally intended as a race car, but was built as a road-going car to satisfy racing rules. It was a hit, though, and sold quite well. In many ways, I consider this car to be a sort of ancestor to my new mid-engined 718 Cayman GTS.
The Porsche Museum
The first GTS
Our walk through the museum was now bringing us to all of the greatest hits - Porsche in full-stride towards becoming the premiere sports-car company it is today. There was a very early example of Porsche's most famous (and still-produced) sportscar - the iconic 911. Then a pristine example of the 914 - Porsche's attempt at a low-cost mid-engine sportscar, jointly built with VW.
Early 911
The 914
Sprinkled in amongst the various series models were famous racecars of the 70s and 80s - the so-called "pink pig" Porsche 917 from early 1970s Le Mans, painted up to look like a diagram of cuts of meat; the 956 racecar of the eighties, mounted upside-down on a ceiling section to symbolize its use of super-high downforce; and a beat-up time-tested example of the off-road racer 911 Dakar - in full classic blue-white Rothman's livery - which was basically an off-road variant of the mighty 959 supercar.
The Pink Pig
911 Carerra RS 2.7
The Original Dakar
Then a pristine example - in classic silver - of the Porsche 959. Considered to be Porsche's first true road "supercar", with extremely elevated performance not before seen even in the likes of Ferraris or Lamborghinis of the time. With a 450-horsepower 2.8L twin-turbo flat six, four-wheel drive, and only about 3200 pounds in weight, it was one of the first road-going cars to manage 0-60 in under four seconds (3.6, I believe). It was also one of the first supercar applications of four-wheel drive (although some of Audi's efforts at sportscars in the four-wheel drive space should be noted, although the road-going versions were not nearly as powerful as the 959).
The iconic 959
MacLaren MP 4/3
Original GT2
Luke's Thoughts
[on the Porsche Museum...]
It's a different feel to the BMW museum from a couple of years ago in Munich - both excellent and extremely well put together - but I can't put my finger on the difference really. Perhaps it's that I'M different this time around, as I'm more directly invested in the experience now - not just a ride-along companion. That's not to say going along on one of these things isn't worth it even if one isn't getting a car - it is - and the BMW ED will always be a special trip in my mind, but this one is different (for me)


Presently we came to the Porsche Boxster - the first in the series line that very directly descended down to the cars Luke and I had purchased. This was the prototype model, penned by designer Grand Larson (as you may recall, an acquaintance of our Porsche champion Dave). How far things had come from that first spindly-looking 356!

The next section of the museum dealt with how cars are constructed and also with design ideas that didn't go anywhere (like the awkward-looking Porsche 928 wagon prototype). Then, the modern era, with current or near-current generation 911s and Caymans and Boxsters and world-beater supercars like the Porsche 919 hybrid, which holds the record for the fastest lap - by far far far - at the Nurburgring Nordschliefe (5 minutes and 14 seconds, if that means anything to you. Trust me: it's leagues faster than anything else)
The Boxster Prototype
911 Cutaway
911 Cutaway
Weird one-offs
The 911R
The new 911 Dakar
The 919 Hybrid
We were getting a bit blurry-eyed after about an hour of wandering through the museum. Quite an array of specimens and exhibits. Given our time constraints, we couldn't truly cover everything in detail.

We headed back out around 10:30 a.m., wanting to make sure we left plenty of time for us to make our next appointment - our private tour of the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur Sonderwunsch facility.
Exclusive Manufaktur
The Sonderwunsch Tour

We drove out of the Museum parking lot, went right at the Porscheplatz roundabout, and drove only a few hundred metres to the south, before turning again right into a quiet area of low-rise industrial buildings (several of which were Porsche-related). At the end of one of these little streets, we arrived at a low building that stood out from the rest; it was emblazoned with a very colourful mural, which wrapped all the way around the building, and the Porsche Logo and the word "Werkswagen". Luckily we managed to find a spot in the small parking lot adjacent to the building. We made sure we had our id handy (and emails from Bernd and our contact Simone), and made our way up to the front door.

A couple of well-dressed security folks stopped us on the way. They checked our identities and then called up to the building. No random visitors getting in here! After a short pause, we got the all-clear and were welcomed inside.

We were directed into a large lounge area, with various new cars scattered about, and in between, couches arranged around tables, allowing for multiple separate conversations. A tall lady greeted us here. This was Simone, the contact with which Bernd had arranged the tour. She introduced herself and one of her colleagues - a smartly-dressed gentleman who introduced himself as 'Pino' (short for Giuseppe, I would guess). A quick glance at Pino's online resume shows he is a specialist in the Sonderwunsch custom build program. Both he and Simone would be giving us our tour.
The lounge had some amazing cars scattered about it. As far as I could tell, only the highest-end models were on display: 911 GT3s, 911 Turbo Ses, 911 GT3 Tourings, high-end Panameras and Taycans, and including - for us for the very first time - a 718 Spyder RS (it had only recently been announced as a new model and this was the first real instance we had seen of it).

Simone explained a bit about the purpose of the lounge. This is where customers who had paid for the privilege of embarking one of the services of this Exclusive Manufaktur facility are welcomed. In the most exclusive of cases (as you'll read below), such customers meet up with a design team in one of the facilities in Weissach - the hallowed hamlet of Porsche research and development.

Main garage at Sonderwunsch
Pino and Simone took us around to an office-like room, then into a large garage area, where all sorts of high-end Porsches were being carefully massaged in some way or another. A huge 'Sonderwunsch' banner hung across the bays. This wasn't a typical sort of mechanic's shop where old, oily transmissions or rusty exhausts were being replaced. Everything was clean and spotless, including the cars. Because, of course, these cars were mostly brand-new factory vehicles that were being enhanced in specific ways before being delivered to their customers.

First off, let me remind you that "Sonderwunsch" is German for "Special Request". Pino explained to us that there were different "pillars" of the special request program:

  • Factory Commission
  • Re-Commission
  • One-off
Factory Commission was, I suppose, the most basic of the programs. With Factory Commission, a customer essentially has an expanded range of options, colours and trims for their new cars. These are items that you would not see or have available in the standard Porsche online configurator, for example. I wasn't 100% sure, but this sounded analogous to the CXX program. Perhaps they were synonymous.

Secondly, he explained Re-Commission. This is when you brought a classic Porsche from years past back to Porsche, and they re-furbished it and modified it to your liking. The Sonderwunsch program would consult with you and refurbish the car such that it had the options you could have specified (but maybe didn't) back when you had bought it. Sort of uh ... sort of a refurb-and-re-option program!

And then, finally, One-Off. This was the ultimate item. Here, one would essentially come to Porsche to consult with them about any idea you might have - be it for a new Porsche or a classic one. With the One-Off program, there was an initial 100,000 Euro consultation fee - before the price of the vehicle and the modifications. At this point, the only outcome is a statement about whether or not Porsche is able to realize your idea (based on various criteria). If your idea passed muster, a team of designers would then work with you to refine and implement the specifications of the car you wanted built. There is great latitude in this program, with of course the caveat being that the price of the final product will vary proportionally with the sophistication of your dreams. And whatever you chose to have built, it had to be such that safety regulations were not violated. But, in the end, what you got was a completely unique custom model, of which there would only be exactly one in the entire world.

Pino also revealed another jaw-dropping stat about the One-Off program: only about three One-Off cars per year were built, and there was an eight-year wait list for the program. Hm ... that's a long time, and ... that's only 24 people accommodated over eight years!

Pino and Simone then led us into a sort of storage area of the building. Racks upon racks of interior parts were stored here. Seats - so many seats! some custom, some normal-looking. From so many different eras of Porsches as well. It was quite a collection.

Choosing fabric types and stitching colours and exterior paint, Sonderwunsch Facility.
Luke's Thoughts
[on the Sonderwunsch visit...]
It is some impressive customization work that they do here, truly. If money is no object, Porsche will do pretty much anything you want. Change the seats? Sure, no problem. Wrap the steering wheel in a houndstooth fabric? Why not? Take parts from a GT3 and put them on your 911 Targa? Certainly sir, just sign here please and give us your credit card. Your unobtanium credit card.

(to read more of Luke's thoughts from this day, check out his blog post)

Down another corridor and we arrived at a small back room that was entirely devoted to upholstery and leather-finishing. Everything in this room was basically non-electronic (maybe there was something, but primarily that was my impression). Rollers, cutters, scissors, sewing machines, rulers, pencils. This was where artisans worked on the custom interiors of these special projects, carefully cutting and stitching and embossing. Really old-school feeling.

Interior of the Sonderwunsch 911 GT3 "Shark"
We were then led back towards the front of the building via a different route, passing through a number of enclosed rooms, each of which had space for one or two cars. This is where we got close up looks at different special projects that were nearing completion. There was some fascinating stuff here, much of it not repeatable. There was a car that had custom paint that had flecks of actual gold in it; and there was a 911 GT3 "Shark" (at the time we visited this was still in development, but the car is now publicly on display in the Porsche Museum). It had this really cool polychrome paint that faded from purplish at the roof down to white-ish the bottom of the car. The theme was purple-y and blue-white, with lots of intricate blue-white leatherwork everywhere - even in the frunk there were lots of custom shark-themed leatherwork. The idea was to mimic the theme of a Great White Shark.

Another example of the super-customized work that the one-off program does is with the 911 GTS - "30 Years of Porsche Supercup". We didn't actually see this particular car but I want to bring it up because it shows what is possible. The most amazing thing about this one-off from the Sonderwunsch team is that this exterior finish is NOT a wrap - that checkered design is 8 different colours of actual paint, somehow carefully painted directly into the car's finish. That is some precise handcrafting there.
Closeup of the GT3 - 30 yrs supercup custom paint job
Pino and the "30 Years of Porsche Supercup" GT3
After touring some of the exclusive cars getting built, Simone and Pino led us back to the main customer area. Simone took a snap of Luke and I, we shook hands with both her and Pino vigorously, and thanked them for their hour of valuable time, and we were on our way. As a parting gift, we got a few sheets of some Porsche Classic / Exclusive Manufaktur stickers (some of which I affixed to our official GTS Chronicles laptop). Again, it was an honor and a privilege to be given a glimpse inside this special place (without actually having been a real Sonderwunsch customer). Thank you, Bernd, Simone, and Giuseppe.
GTS Chronicles at Sonderwunsch
Mementos of Sonderwunsch
We emerged into the bright sunlight of a sunny summer day. A happy summer day, because the next exciting phase of our countdown to delivery was about to begin: the journey to Leipzig!
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