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The GTS Chronicles Purchase and Delivery Adventure
The Short Version of a Very Big Story


Welcome to the "short" version of "The GTS Chronicles - Getting Two/True Sportscars". In brief, this is the grand accounting of how a couple of long-time car buddies got together and organized a purchase of two nearly-identical Porsche 718 mid-engined sportscars and, as part of that purchase, did a grand delivery trip over great roads (and a great track) in Europe.

This is a greatly shortened/abridged version of the full story. If you are interested in the full accounting down to the most minute of details, then start at this intro page and prepare yourself to read nearly five hundred pages of narrative. Otherwise, welcome to the "short" version!
Pondering the options
Background

Back in 2020, I floated an idea to my friend Luke (who I've known since university): Let's buy two mid-engined Porsche sportscars, get them delivered to us in Germany, where we could then drive them together on an awesome road trip on the great roads of Europe. After that initial idea took root, we spent the summer getting our minds around the concept. We hadn't ever considered getting cars at this ... "elevated" ... level. Throughout the years, we had gravitated towards lighter, nimbler, high-revving kinds of sports cars, and we also preferred understated, purposeful styling. All of these were attributes of Porsche sportscars, and upon reflection, it was a logical choice for us - it was just that our minds had not made that mental leap, up until this point. Our focus was on the lower-cost, mid-engined variety of Porsche sportscar: the 718 model.

Sealing the idea off was the existence of the "European Delivery" option - an arrangement with the manufacturer where a customer can pick up their car from the factory in Europe and is then permitted to drive in Europe for a period of time, after which their car is dropped off to be sent to North America (Canada, for Luke and I). I had done European Delivery before, with a BMW M2 in 2018, and that experience had been unforgettable. I simply had to do it again. Luke had accompanied me on that trip, and he also had found the experience unforgettable.
The Visiting Phase
Exploring
First look at a GTS 4.0
The Long Lead-up

With our goal of a two-car simultaneous European Delivery trip firmly in mind, we started on the journey to make it happen. That journey, it turned out, took three whole years - yes, you heard right: three YEARS, to complete. Through a seemingly unending series of ups and downs, ins and outs, we eventually managed to receive two "allocations" for two Porsche 718 GTS 4.0s: one a Boxster (for Luke), and one a Cayman (for myself). For a while we had allocations for a couple of lower-end models, but then issues surrounding Covid prevented us from receiving those cars in Germany in the spring of 2021. Faced suddenly with a long wait, we decided to switch to GTS 4.0 models. An even longer wait followed - a wait caused by a myriad of factors - supply chain issues, war, sinking ships, and problems at our dealership. The list was long.
Travel to Europe Restricted!
Felicity Ace Fire
Russia Attacks Ukraine
During our long wait, we decided to see if we could engage Porsche to work with us on media collaboration, as we wanted to create some special extended content to describe what we thought was a great, fun story. Out of that came the whole idea of "The GTS Chronicles", which in turn spawned an Instagram channel and a lot of fun interactions with media creators and influencers, along with fantastic helpers like Dave - our out-of-left-field Porsche Champion from Porsche Motor City in Detroit. Dave had been randomly browsing through through a 718 forum where we had made a post regarding media collaboration and had come across our posts, and thought our media collaboration idea was great. He introduced himself, we struck up a friendship, and he then spent many long months facilitating and tirelessly advocating on our behalf.
Porsche Champion Dave
Script for "The Pitch"
We wanted to be able to tell the story of a lifetime, and so we discussed how we'd capture the right photos, the right video. We bought gear. We practiced photographic and video techniques. We trained up a rag-tag set of crewmembers who would accompany us and assist us with media capture (with two cars, as it was not going to be possible to capture footage and drive at the same time, with only Luke and I).
Practice on existing vehicles
Mount testing
Crew Vetting Process
Training our crew
Complex Mount Testing
By the beginning of June, 2023, our cars were finally built. Our two Porsche mid-engined sportscars: a 718 Cayman GTS 4.0, and a 718 Boxster GTS 4.0. Not only had they been built, but they had been shipped to the Porsche center in the German city of Leipzig, and were patiently awaiting our arrival - scheduled for the following month.
Luke's Boxster, built
Andrew's Cayman, built
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