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The GTS Chronicles European Delivery Adventure
Double the Adventure. Double the Fun.


Welcome to a car enthusiast's ultimate trip of a lifetime. A buddy-buddy car-centric, roadtrip-focused experience, where my good friend Luke and I cap a forty-year long tradition of grand automotive outings.

The broad outlines: Luke and I have ordered two Porsche 718 GTS 4.0s. One a Boxster convertible. One a Cayman coupe. Undeniably-excellent, enthusiast-focused roadgoing sportscars. We have selected an option called "European Delivery", which allows us to pick up our cars directly in Germany, directly from Porsche, and then to drive them as we please throughout Europe, coursing over the finest sportscar roads known to humanity, experiencing the sights and delights of Europe along the way.

The lead-up to this big road trip is a story in itself. In fact, many stories, over many years. I've packaged that lead-up into a separate section of this trip report, and if you've got the time and inclination (and haven't already read it), I encourage you to go read that now. But be warned: to say it is a long lead-up would be a gross understatement.
Luke's Thoughts
[on being a better recorder...]
For this grand adventure, I intend to keep better notes than the last European Delivery trip. This one has been a much longer time coming, with a lot more of a roller-coaster of emotion leading up to actually winging our way across the Atlantic to pick up our dream cars. I shall try to capture some details about what we are doing and how I'm feeling as we do it!


Now, assuming you've now read the lead-up - or if you've skipped the lead-up and just want to read about the actual delivery trip, let's get started. There are two principle characters in this story, of course: myself (Andrew) and my long-time friend Luke. We're both into sportscars and have been for many years. There are four other supporting characters in this story, who have graciously agreed to tag along as crew members, mostly in service of taking pictures and videos to document the trip. But of course, also as good and dear friends with whom we will share our adventure. Their names are Jenn, Brian, Chris, and Andy. And if you are regular readers of alavigne.net, you've read about them many times before.

On Saturday, July 8, Brian and I headed off to the Ottawa (Canada) airport, bags bursting with gear. Brian and I were off on an outdoors "pre-trip", to the Italian Dolomites in northern Italy, via flight to Paris, train to Stuttgart, and then a car rental to Italy. That trip lasted nine days, and at the end of it - on July 17 - Brian and I drove our rental car back to Stuttgart. We booked ourselves in to the hotel Porsche had reserved for us, the Jaz in the City Stuttgart. Normally with Porsche, we would be staying at the more classical and stuffy Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin, but apparently that had been fully booked on the days we required. The Jaz was more of a trendy/hip/flashy sort of place. Think Psychedelic colours.
Brian and Andrew departing
Woah, Luggage
The New Route
Jaz in the City
Jaz Hotel Room
Arugula bottomed with Pizza
At roughly the same time Brian and I were booking into our hotel room in Stuttgart, Luke and crewmember Jenn were departing Ottawa, leaving on the same flight we had taken nine days prior. It was an overnight flight, arriving in Paris early in the morning, where they would then catch a train eastward as far as Strasbourg, arriving shortly after noontime. Strasbourg is about an hour or so drive from Stuttgart, and Brian and I then planned to take our rental car and go pick them up, and transport them on their final leg to Stuttgart.
Luke departing
AF 332
Tuesday, July 18

Tuesday dawned beautiful and clear in the Stuttgart area. We could legitimately say that this was going to be our first true "GTS Chronicles Euro Delivery" trip day. I checked in with Luke over chat and confirmed that his and Jenn's flight from Ottawa had safely landed in Paris. They were now getting their luggage and making their way to the Train à Grande Vitesse that would soon whisk them eastward, towards Germany. But not quite as soon as we would have liked, as you will understand when reading the next segment.
Luke and Jenn, Paris Train Terminal
Tuesday, July 18 - The Zuffenhausen Factory Tour

As part of the European Delivery experience, all four of us were eligible for a free factory tour of the Zuffenhausen production plant, where the 911 - and importantly for us - the 718 - was being built. But, due to a number of factors, this special part of the experience was going to be impossible for Luke. This was the kind of situation we had foreseen and feared ever since the beginning of the year, but were powerless to prevent, because:

  • Way back at the start of January, long before our July 20 date had been assigned, we had expressed worry to our dealership that we might get assigned a delivery date during the high-vacation period in the middle of the summer ... and then when we were tentatively assigned July 20, we had asked for at least an attempt at negotiating a slightly earlier date.
  • Right from the beginning of January, I had known that the factory tours had a summer holiday shutdown - and I had communicated this along with the above statement.
  • And finally, our dealership requested that we not have any co-ordination with the European Delivery coordinator until very late (mid-June), which meant that...
  • We had no choice but to book our flights and itineraries without really knowing what dates were available for the final tours of the summer, and unfortunately, Luke had picked a flight that was going to cause him to arrive ... just five hours too late.
That's right - five measly hours. The last available 911/718 tour available to us before our delivery ceremony was 10am on the 18th of July. And Luke and Jenn were only going to be arriving by around 2pm on the 18th. That meant only Brian and I going to be were able to take this tour. This was frustrating: I had heard Luke express many times about how it was going to be very special to be able to see, feel, hear, and smell the fascinating process that built our very cars. A further connection to his very special Boxster. I'll say it outright: I was angry. This mis-timing probably could have been avoided, if just one of the above items could have been adjusted just a wee bit.
Porsche Zuffenhausen overview
So, just the two of us. Just Brian and I. We headed off from our "Jaz" hotel at around 9am. A light rail transit line led more or less directly north from where our hotel was located to the suburb of Zuffenhausen, where the Porsche industrial complex is located. The 911/718 assembly line is comprised of a number of different building groups very near the central Porscheplatz plaza, in the heart of complex.

We disembarked from the transit train at Neuwirtshaus (Porscheplatz) stop, and strolled a few metres over to the roundabout of the central Porsche Plaza, where a modern sculpture of three soaring white spears reached into the sky. A pristine white example of three of the eight generations of Porsche 911 was glued (or otherwise affixed) to the tip of each spear. It was an iconic monument that was now instantly recognizable to me, having spent the last three years drooling over all things Porsche.
LRT stop at Porsche-place
From the Museum Overhang
Porscheplatz
The meeting point for the factory tour was at the front desk of the Porsche Museum - a glassy angular building that almost seemingly overhung the plaza. We headed over to the nearby front doors and waited for 10 a.m. to arrive.

There were very few people milling about near the front desk - certainly no large crowd. Michael Maternicki, our European Delivery coordinator, had said that this was a bit of a special Euro Delivery specific tour slot, and not one of the generic tourist factory tours. That was probably why.

Near 10 a.m., a young, slim man approached us. He introduced himself as Bedran, an engineering intern working for Porsche. He would be giving us our tour today, and went through what we would be seeing and the rules (one of which, regrettably, was no photography). On the positive side, he said that given the special nature of our tour, that he would be able to fit in a special visit to the engine plant, where all of the engines for Porsche's sportscars are built. Cool.
Engine works
It turned out that we were a very small group today, as only three other people stood with us as we listened to Bedran. They turned out to all be Italian (and seemed to know each other). It was nice to have a very small group. We would always be up close to the action, and we'd be able to easily ask questions of the tour guide.

Bedran led us back outside and across the Porscheplatz plaza. We were headed first to the engine plant, housed in a building complex just to the east. After walking about 300 metres, we turned into "building #23 - Components Production".

We were led upstairs and into a small customer-specific area, where a big flat screen played a short preparatory video. Bedran then led us through a series of glass doors on the far side of the room, down a short corridor, and out onto an upper-level walkway that ran down the length of a large open area of factory floor. Laid out before us, a sea of people and machinery worked on row upon row of silvery engine blocks, in various states of assembly.

(Note: all tour photos from this point onward are images from stock media produced by Porsche. I tried my best to select pictures that reflected the things I specifically saw during our tour)
Flat Six Assembly
We never actually went down to the factory floor itself, instead slowly walking along the upper walkway, with Bedran explaining the engine build processes along the way.

The tour size and composition had turned out to be ideal for me, as I seemed to be the only true car-nut asking questions. Our three Italian tour co-members seemed to be more of the slicked-back wealthy this-Porsche-is-my-showy-toy types than anything else, and didn't seem that interested in the specifics of what they were seeing. I inquired as to what type of models they had ordered, and I think at least two were getting blacked-out 911 Turbo S models. Probably the right choice for those guys.

The assembly of the engines was neither fully automated nor fully done by hand; At some stations, orange multi-jointed robots efficiently spun engines around, placing camshaft covers and oil pans into place; At other stations, assembly workers carefully inserted pistons and hand-torqued cylinder heads.

Seeing as Porsche was essentially the last car manufacturer actively producing products with a flat-six boxer engine, we were likely looking at the only place on the planet making this type of engine. And for sure, at some point in the last few months, my and Luke's 4.0 litre flat-six boxer engines came down this very line.

Presently, Bedran led us back to our customer welcome room and then opened a different set of doors, which soon led to a diagonal raised glass walkway that led over the street we had walked down. At the far end of the walkway, we entered works building #3. We had entered the first of the assembly areas for the 911/718 line.

I refer to this assembly line in the singular, because it really is. At their core, the Porsche 911 and Porsche 718 are based on an architecture that is shared. In fact, looking at some of the bare bodyshells early in the assembly process, you can clearly see how all of the models have the same bones (especially from the middle of the car forward). The biggest difference is in the rear, where the 718 has its engine bay ahead of the rear axle and the 911 has its engine bay located behind the rear axle.
Unpainted Boxster
The first step in the creation of a 911 or 718 is the creation of the monocoque frame and the metal body panels, followed by base coating, painting, and undercoating. We didn't actually get to see any of those steps, as they occurred elsewhere in the plant - places we did not visit. I include one stock shot of a bare-metal body of a Boxster here for completeness.

Bedran led us through an area of the assembly plant where bits and pieces of interior trim were getting prepared. Huge sheets of tanned, coloured leather hung in racks. Spools of thread positioned on racks attached to desk upon desk of sewing machines. We watched as workers carefully wrapped and glued pieces of dashboard and interior trim with stitched, cut pieces of leather.
Deviated Stitching
Door forms
Leather finishing
Here in the general assembly area, we were much closer to the action (than we had been at the engine plant). We stayed behind yellow lines drawn on the floor but otherwise we were just a metre or two away from factory workers who were actively on the job. They seemed to be assigned to specific stations doing specific tasks.

In one section, partially-completed dashboard assemblies slowly moved down on a pedestal. The pedestal was surrounded by racks with parts and bolts and tools, along with a computer terminal and flat screen, all moving with the partially assembled dashboard. On the screen, you could see a bunch of information about specifically what car the dashboard belonged to: model, VIN #, and a bunch of other stuff I couldn't quite make out. I distinctly recall watching one slightly portly employee working on the dashboard that I clearly recognized as being from a 718. On the screen I could clearly read the stylized script of the model: GT4 RS. A very top-end GT-variant of the 718 Cayman. I could smell the glue as the worker affixed a sheet of white-stitched alcantara ("racetex" in Porsche-speak) to the top of the dashboard assembly, and carefully worked it around edges, smoothing out the larger flat sections. Quite a lot of hand-built work.
Dashboard assembly
Up close and personal
Boxster Roof Assembly
Bedran led us to a later point along the assembly line. Here, we could see the point where the "marriage" occurred: the merging of the powertrain/suspension with the bodyshell and interior. You could say that it was at this point of merging where the assembly could legitimately be called a "car".
The "Marriage"
718 Boxster GTS near completion
Nearing completion
From here we were led down next to cars that were increasingly in a finished state. I noted that while there were 718 models being produced, the majority were 911 models - including some pretty nice specialty models, like the off-road oriented 911 Dakar model (saw two of those getting made). It wasn't that surprising, however. Porsche had recently opened a new assembly line in the city of Osnabruck and was now performing most 718 assembly there. Apparently a surge in sales had meant that the 911/718 Zuffenhausen line had not been able to handle the load.
The Final Table
Eventually Bedran led us to the end of the main assembly line, where each car stopped underneath a big yellow overhanging gantry. The moving floor of the assembly line stopped at this point, and the gantry moved down, rotated four bottom lift arms into place, and swiftly lifted and twirled the car around 180 degrees, where it was then moved sideways and dropped onto a different conveyor assembly moving off in another direction (probably to some sort of finishing area). Point of note: this is the exact spot where the camera that takes the final "production complete" picture for customer-specific builds (like ours). It was neat to stand at this point, looking at the very spot where our cars had briefly sat several months ago (five for me, two for Luke). If you haven't already seen them, here are those very pictures, of my Cayman GTS and Luke's Boxster GTS:
Andrew's Cayman on final spin table
Luke's Boxster on final spin table
Our tour was now complete. Bedran led us back out into the sunshine, back across the busy traffic circle of the Porscheplatz, to the overhanging entrance of the museum. We thanked Bedran for his time, posed for a few photos, and I explained a bit about our GTS Chronicles adventure to him. We exchanged contact info and I pointed him in the direction of the @gtschronicles Instagram feed. "Watch this feed", I said ... "we'll be posting to it over the course of our trip!".
Bedran, Andrew, Brian
Andrew and Bedran
Tuesday, July 18 - The Fetching of Luke and Jenn

With our excellent factory tour experience over, it was now time to turn our attention to our rendez-vous with Luke and Jenn, who were travelling eastwards from Paris. I was in touch with Luke over text, and he reported that their train was well on its way to their destination city of Strasbourg. Strasbourg is a French city just west of the German border. We all had decided that instead of transferring to a subsequent train that would bring them to Stuttgart, Brian and I would pick them up in our rental car (which we had still retained from our just-completed Dolomites trip). This was advantageous from a couple of perspectives: (a) it would mean that we would actually get to meet up with them sooner than if they had waited for the train, and (b) it positioned us well for the next exciting event of the day: meeting up with the Porsche contact to whom we would distribute a set of Porsche 75th anniversary plaques that we had brought over from North America.
Strasbourg Train Station
Streets of Strasbourg
Cafe in Strasbourg
Jenn and Luke had a bit of a lunch break in Strasbourg as Brian and I sped westward on the Autobahn towards France. It was about 1:30pm when we finally slowly drove past the Strasbourg central train station, texting and calling to coordinate with Luke and Jenn. A couple of U-turns and searching for a place to pull over on the busy streets, and we finally managed to connect. We quickly loaded them and their luggage into our little station wagon, and off we went. Back to Germany!

Tuesday, July 18 - The FLB Club Meetup

We were on a bit of a timeline. We had agreed to meet up with a contact that fellow enthusiast Dave Renner had arranged for us (you can read more about this meetup in "The Quest of the Plaques" section of the last page of the Pre-trip part of this report). At this meet up, we were going to distribute a batch of custom-made pewter plaques that our Porsche enthusiast friend Dave Renner had commissioned for Porsche's 75th anniversary year (which was this year - 2023).

Our mission was to drive to the headquarters of the Freunde Luftgekühlter Boxermotoren club, or Friends of the Air-cooled Boxer Motor, in english. This club was comprised of former and current Porsche employees who were enthusiasts of cars powered by the older air-cooled flat-configuration engines that Porsche had made for decades upon decades upon decades. The tie-in to authentic Porsche heritage was a very cool thing to consider, and we looked forward to the meetup for that reason alone.
The Logo of the FLB Club.


But that wasn't all. We had learned that the location of the club was in the town of Weissach. Now, to a non Porsche-phile, that might sound like a generic German town name. But to real Porsche-philes (which I suppose we had become, at least to some extent), Weissach was like ... I don't know, like ... like famous research centers: CERN, or say MIT, or maybe like Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where development of the first airplane occurred, or maybe the Lockheed Martin skunkworks, home to the development of the SR-71 blackbird - the fastest ever manned aircraft. Weissach was to Porsche like all of those places were to their respective fields: where advanced new ideas in the realm of sportscars were dreamt-up, prototyped, born. So we looked forward with keen interest to seeing Weissach in the flesh. Would we see prototypes driving around, we wondered?

Amazingly, that was still not the end to the coolness of our little mission. The person we were going to meet at the club - indeed, one of the heads of the club - was Bernd Stadler. And Bernd, as it turns out, is a very notable current employee of Porsche. He was none other than the head of Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, responsible for limited edition models like the 911 Sport Classic, the 911 Dakar, and the 911 S/T. He was also the head of the Sonderwunsch team, creating custom one-off cars for very discerning customers.

Whoa. Like whoa. We were excited, yes, and a bit nervous.
I had established text contact with Bernd a few days prior. We had agreed that we would meet at the entrance to the clubhouse, located on a little side-street in Weissach, at 5pm. We arrived at the town about an hour before that, which was good. We kind of just wanted to toodle around and see what was what.
The Mythical Weissach
At first, Weissach seemed like your normal ultra-quaint, ultra-attractive little German town. Perfect streets. A historic little old town-center with half-timbered buildings and such. But then we noticed the cars driving around. A very high percentage of Porsches: new Taycans were everywhere. 911s. What looked to be Macans and Cayennes with some camouflage over parts of them. A few boxsters ... hey, wait ... that Boxster looks different, and its covered with stuff. Oh shit ... that's a prototype of the new 983-generation electric Boxster! So yes. Lots of shadowy future stuff mysteriously buzzing around the streets and byways near town. Very cool.
Is this the FLB clubhouse?
We gravitated towards the address given to us by Bernd. This led us to an area that was very, well ... residential. Presently we arrived at an area with a couple of football fields and a sports center. Just beyond, was a nondescript warehouse-like structure. No obvious signs or logos adorned its sides, but as far as we could tell from our map and the address, this was the clubhouse.

No one was about. We parked the car nearby and tentatively walked up to the set of metal doors at one end of the building. Luke knocked. No answer. Did we need to go inside? Luke tried the handle, and ... it opened. He peered inside, where it was dim and dark. No one seemed to be around.
Meeting Bernd
Within a few minutes a pair of Porsches came up the road towards us. In fact, two Porsche 718 Boxster GTS 4.0s - the exact model of which Luke was now a proud new owner. The two convertibles zipped around to a back parking lot and then two gentlemen approached us. One was Bernd. The other was a younger co-worker - Sven - that had expressed an interest in tagging along and meeting us. Originally Boris Apenbrink - head of Porsche CXX - had also hoped to meet, but unfortunately his schedule had meant that he could not make this timeslot.

We exchanged pleasantries at the door, and then they led us inside, down a long (probably 200ft long / 70m) garage area, full of car-lifts and work stations on one side. Some porsches were raised up on the lifts, partially disassembled and in the process of some sort of work. Others were parked neatly, some covered with car-covers. It was almost all Porsche products - nine-elevens obviously, but also nine-fourteens, three-fifty-sixes, and on, and also a smattering of old Volkswagens. Some of the stuff hidden under car-covers looked pretty special, too.
FLB workshop
Luke took it upon himself to walk up to a club member who was working underneath a mid-80s 911 Cabriolet. He learned that club members were working on their cars in preparation of a big group roadtrip event to southern Italy. Interesting stuff.

Bernd then led us down some stairs into a lower section of the building, to the main clubhouse room: A large area with a bar at one end and all sorts of Porsche automobile paraphernalia everywhere - photos on the walls, bits and pieces of racing cars, tires, old oil drums converted into tables. Various nooks had comfortable seating arrangements. A large set of full-height sliding glass doors let in light from the north and allowed direct access to a large parking lot behind the building (and presumably also a place where outdoor tables or special cars could be placed close to the clubhouse, for various indoor/outdoor events and such).
The FLB Clubhouse
We headed over to the bar area and Bernd got us some drinks from the bar fridge. We then chatted for a bit about a variety of topics: the nature of our trip, when we were getting our cars, where we intended to go; Luke asked a bit about some of the historical images on the walls, then questions about the workings of the Porsche prototyping and research operations here in Weissach, and also about the value of keeping alive the long history of Porsche in motorsport, both on and off the track. We shared information and paraphernalia about the GTS Chronicles (cards and stickers and such), and encouraged both of them to follow us on our @gtschronicles instagram feed.
Next, we presented the batch of 75th anniversary commemorative plaques that Dave had sent us to deliver. We unboxed and unwrapped a couple of them, allowing Bernd to see what they were like. He explained that they are going to be taken on a southern Italian road trip that the club was soon going to be doing (and which we had heard about back in the garage area), and distributed there.
Bernd explains Porsche Prototypes
Unboxing the Plaques
75th Anniversary Plaques
Delivering the plaques
That trip sounded fantastic: thirty or so dedicated historic air-cooled Porsche enthusiasts heading to the sublime countryside of southern Italy, to experience the roads, food, landscape, and culture. They had commissioned some large multi-car transport truck trailers on which to load all of the club cars, and they would be transported en-masse from the Stuttgart area down to southern Italy, then unloaded for a week of driving enjoyment. That sounded like heaven. I would love to be able to get a group of like-minded folks together and rent a big transport to haul us all down to a particular good driving-road area. Will have to think about that!
Luke's Thoughts
[on the visit to the FLB Club...]
We meet Bernd and Sven at the local sports car club. We drink it all in (literally and figuratively) while chatting and hearing all about the club - a really nice welcome from them - a couple of lovely fellows and a nice way to really kick things off for us - all down to us meeting Dave through the forum and connecting us this way. Thanks Dave!

See? When you connect with people, and are generally nice, good things happen!


As of the writing of this trip report, that trip had long since occurred. The Porsche newsroom did a wonderful writeup about it - along with pictures of Bernd's attendance - and is available here.

We then spent some time wandering around the clubhouse floor, marvelling at the rich motorsport history hung on nearly every inch of the walls. Many famous figures were recognizable - Jacky Ickx, Steve McQueen, Michele Alboreto, Kevin Estre, Walter Rörhl. A large whiteboard with a central supersized FLB logo was surrounded by permanent marker autographs of all of the recent who's-who in the world of Porsche.
Amazing Motorsport History
A familiar shape
911 History
Who's who of famousness
After perhaps an hour or so of visiting, it was time for us to head off. We headed out the glass doors and to the back parking lot, where Bernd and his co-worker had parked their two (presumably company car) Boxster GTS 4.0s, and we took a final group photo. Bernd - I want to thank you for taking the time to meet us regular average non-GT customers, who share the enthusiasm you clearly show for the sports and motorsports products your company produces. It was an honor and a pleasure.
Goodbye photo
Bernd had a send-off present for us: he had arranged for Luke and I (and our crewmembers Jenn and Brian) to go on a tour of the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur Sonderwunsch facility in Zuffenhausen. The tour would be given by a couple of his head staffmembers there, with whom he had contacted and arranged the details. He gave us the necessary contact details, and told us to head over to the appropriate building at 11 a.m. the next morning. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

We walked back up the driveway and to the nearby sports fields, to where we had parked our rental car. Luke and I chattered excitedly about the special behind-the-scenes access we'd been given. We were very lucky and fortunate to have had Dave connect us up in this manner.

We headed back to downtown Stuttgart and into the designated parking garage for our "Jaz in the city" hotel (which wasn't under the hotel, but a block or so away, near a police station). We then performed a bit of subterfuge, staggering our entrance into the hotel so as not to alert the staff as to the fact that we were going to be four people in our hotel room that had been booked for two. The room was more than big enough, with a long multi-coloured couch that by itself could comfortably sleep two people head-to-food (not side-by-side, but head-to-foot. It was a really long couch!)

It had been a long and satisfying day, lessened only a little by the sadness that Luke did not get to see the 911/718 factory line. Tomorrow, however, would be full of more exciting experiences (especially now with our invite to Exclusive Manufaktur), and another step closer to our long-awaited delivery day.
Luke's Thoughts
[on his first jet-lagged day...]
I am pretty beat from the travel, and just the initial ramp-up excitement of this momentous trip, but actually have to do some quiet meditation to calm my mind and get some shuteye. "It's just a car, it's just a car!" I want to savour every moment, whether that's chatting with some nice enthusiasts, munching on delicious food, or bantering with my tripsters. Can't let the anticipation of the red machine be all-encompassing.

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