Just got back from a few days in Germany, first time there. Just wanted to recommend to anyone interested that the factory tour is awesome. Very cool. No pictures allowed, but we got to see the engine shop, tannery, production line and a few other places. It’s about 2 hours long, and you have to make reservations well in advance, but all it takes is some planning, and in my case some help from my dealer. It felt a little bit like being on the ***** Wonka factory tour (the gene wilder one), but alas, not an Oompa Loompa in sight. Frankly, one of the best parts is the parking lot inside the gates. The place is riddled with what I’ll call specialty cars. Literally everywhere. There are more GT3, GT3 RS, GT2 RS and Exclusive series turbos (the gold one) than anything else. Driving out of the factory, parking and then waiting for transport. (This is where you think of the scene where the golden ticket winners come through the little door into a field where everything is eatable, err...edible, you can eat it...ahh, poor Augustus). Anyway, they make all the 2 door sports cars on the same line, 911s, boxsters and caymans and all the variations thereof. In fact, I would say that fully one-third of the cars on the production line are specialty cars like these, including the touring. And we even saw 3 cup cars being built and an open spot on the line that our guide says was for another cup car (they get sent out for the full cage to be installed off site, but they keep a spot on the line for when they come back to the factory). Pretty cool actually, she said when there is an open spot, the workers all know it’s for a cup car to come back into production. Not sure why these cars are so hard to come by, they are making them as fast as they can. However, with the solid 35 hour work week in Germany (that’s a seven hour day, less an hour for lunch and another 5 minute break every 55 minutes) I guess I understand why demand exceeds the supply. Everyone was very friendly, if you are planning a trip, that tour, the museum and the Mercedes museum just down the road are a must see.

And the even better news, I came back to find an email from my dealer that my build is now V250 with a mid September delivery date. Made an audible color change at the last minute, this car is not going unnoticed no matter what color it is, and subtle GT silver didn’t feel right at the last second. Less than 60 days to go. Now I need to go back through older threads and re-decide what harness bar to install, what sticker I want for the rear wing and who is going to do the ppf. Woo hoo....

Not really a tannery, just where they sort and cut the leather hides, and then another station where they do the sewing and apply it to pieces like the dash and car doors. Very cool all around.

Having just returned from Europe, I took a very interesting tour of the Zuffenhausen plant. What I am reporting to below isn’t top secret (or why would I know?). It did feel like I was learning something but upon reflection it was all information given to not just me but a larger group on a tour:

Our tour guide took us through the engine shop and the interiors shop – both interesting. However, when it was time to tour the assembly line we were taken to the very end of the line and allowed to observe just a few cars coming off and part of the door assembly area which is in the same place. No PTS cars ( or door assemblies) witnessed. Several GT cars were being completed including a GT2 RS and a GT3 RS. At the moment there are a ton of Turbo Exclusives around the factory as it seems they are trying to knock those out. If you have one coming, it won’t be long now. One gold Turbo Exclusive I saw at Exclusive was getting a full leather Funk(front trunk). Very cool. Our group was told that we could not see the assembly line that day because they had some 992 cars that were being produced earlier on the line in testing and we could not see that. Seems reasonable as there are 992 cars in the wild today as has been photographed (see the 992 section of Rennlist) and they had to get produced somewhere.

I found this interesting that the tour guide would divulge this so I asked more questions directly with him when the group was milling about. Most of those on the tour were just tourists and perhaps not Porsche nuts like us so it didn’t seem to phase anyone. What I learned from him (he is a tour guide so not sure how informed he was or wasn’t) was that after the August summer vacation, the factory would reopen in September and begin producing and delivering 992 cars. This can only mean that the 992 is pending official announcement any day now unless I missed it already while on vacation! LOL! The guide said that the 992 and the remaining 991.2 cars would be produced on the same line through the end of the year and then that would be the end of the 991.2. The really interesting thing I picked up was that a new updated color pallet is being tested as well. Based upon one of the colors that I personally witnessed driving by in front of the museum, Frozen Berry Metallic, at least that color will be polarizing i.e. loved and hated which I believe is the right approach! Also a new 718 pulled off the line into an alley while our group was walking by with a full cover on it. You could tell what it was by the interior dash and the bottom of the rear end of the car. Apparently the updated version of that car is coming shortly too!

I was also able to tour through Exclusive. There were several terrific GT cars underway and some PTS cars worth noting. Probably the most interesting color I witnessed was Albert Blue – a Targa GTS was being completed with Pepita’ s etc. Beautiful color and I am aware of one Albert Blue GT3 coming to the US as well. I also saw a GT3 and GT2 RS in Y83 Weidengrun which I think originally was a 914 color – both cars were headed for UAE. Terrific color close to Olive but on the Kermit side of green. I also saw a Deep Sea Blue getting a full brown interior (maybe Espresso?). Not sure but every piece of leather on the interior was brown. Interesting combo and think it an EU car as it had a roll bar. While I photographed these cars I will not share them here out of respect for their owners at least until later next year after they have been delivered. Discussing the prices that the GT2 RS’s are commanding in the US, surprised my host and he remarked that the GT2 RS was not a limited car and that very close to 2000 would likely be produced (that is still limited) but not super limited and still double the production of the R. Talking to him, I think there will ultimately more GT3 Tourings produced than what has been speculated on here. He mentioned that when they announced the Touring, that 70% (said like just an estimate) of the then outstanding allocations converted to Touring configurations but the final count would be forthcoming in the future. Perhaps that was just the case after the announcement because it does seem delivered allocations since then have been 3:1 winged vs. touring. I supposed we have to wait to see. Generally I was surprised how small the 911 plant it. I have toured several car plants in the past and in comparison the 911 plant is tiny.

He also drove us around showing off the new Taycan plant which is enormous compared to the 911 plant. I have many photos of that if anyone cares to see. One thing is clear, Porsche is betting huge on an electrified future.

He may well have been but production and delivery are very different. My car will finish production on 11/6 and delivered 12/28 - two month spread.

Thank you

Sadly No. I would have loved to! I’m a green fan too with an Olive Touring on the way.