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Mike. That's the exact same tape as I used and your appreciation looks perfect. The edges will naturally taper into the stitching recess with heat, use and time. The red will get a bit darker with use and time (had mine on now for 10,000km inc 10 track days), but I actually enjoy it more now even though it's a bit darker. It's really only to make it easy for me when watching the smartycam videos.
Mike. That's the exact same tape as I used and your appreciation looks perfect. The edges will naturally taper into the stitching recess with heat, use and time. The red will get a bit darker with use and time (had mine on now for 10,000km inc 10 track days), but I actually enjoy it more now even though it's a bit darker. It's really only to make it easy for me when watching the smartycam videos.
Thanks, Mark. Seeing the pic of your own DIY wheel stripe inspired me. Like any new thing, it keeps catching my eye and I'm pretty pleased with it...wish I'd done it sooner!
Thanks, Mark. Seeing the pic of your own DIY wheel stripe inspired me. Like any new thing, it keeps catching my eye and I'm pretty pleased with it...wish I'd done it sooner!
So I tried out the 1/2" red gaffers tape and am reasonably pleased with the result. It took a few attempts to get the length and technique just right but with 60 yards of tape, I certainly had enough to experiment with!
I wrapped from back to front so that the overlapping tape seam would end up underneath the wheel rim and pointing away from the driver. One wrap seemed adequate and made it easier to tuck the edges of the tape into the seam. I used a sharp edged plastic upholstery trim tool to do that but honestly a fingernail would probably work pretty well.
It would look more professional if one didn't have to cover the stitching but there's really no way around that. I'll live with this for a while, or at least until the 3M 1080 vinyl trim sample that awew911 suggested shows up and then I may play with that. But for now, this is a pretty decent $10 mod.
That looks great! Wonder if it would look as nice on Alcantara...?
^That's right, good memory bronson7!! I did order mine in alcantara from the factory as a CXX option. It was custom made in the Custom Tailoring area. They had to take the wheel apart and resew it apparently! (this is unlike the RS and GT4 where they're available standard) The marker is a bit wider than the standard ones, probably because it was custom made. The most detailed description from the factory, as emailed to me, was: "Sport Design steering wheel Alcantara black, Platinum Grey stitching, 12-clock-mark yellow, $4,960 CAD MSRP, 10 days." As I was the first (and perhaps only person insane enough) to do so, at least in yellow (evidently M. Mueller has one in red), it took several months for testing and approval. Here is a close up photo.
Hold up...you paid HOW much for your yellow 12-o'clock??
Hold up...you paid HOW much for your yellow 12-o'clock??
You know the old saying, "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". Just kidding!!! I'm sure when Daniel chimes in he can give you or point you to his Fashion Grey thread on how this yellow 12 o'clock marker came to reality, quite the story. It's "possibly" the only factory yellow marker in existence on a 991 gt3, although there's another red one out some where.
I tried with the burgundy gaffer tape and it matches recently well with my garnet red interior.. Darker, less red, but actually looks sporty yet classy on my wheel. Waiting for the full red tape to try and see which one looks better.
In the meantime, if 200 or so of my favorite friends want to have a top center marker tape in burgundy on their car.. I can help.
Will be an interesting comparison vs. the red tape but for now I really like the burgundy colour, it's somewhat subtle and is a fairly close match with the rest of the interior.
Hold up...you paid HOW much for your yellow 12-o'clock??
Yep, you heard right Phil. Here is the whole story as posted in the fashion grey thread, as bronson7 alluded to, in case you're interested.
Originally Posted by lessthan3mph
As for the steering wheel, here is the longer story...
After placing an accepted order for PTS, I was curious about what Exclusive was able to do beyond paint. There were several things that prompted me to do more than mull it over:
2. There was a red marker stripe on a car at the Zuffenhausen factory that I'd seen while on my GT3-less ED trip:
3. RLer reidry had been making inquiries into the wing end plates and mirrors in a deviating colour, and had obtained info which he selflessly shared with me about the steering wheel marker stripe option (all of which were seen on El Jefe's custom car, in addition to red wheels, below):
4. I contacted Melissa Witek in July 2014, who along with Matthew Henry also at Porsche Exclusive and my dealership coordinating things, made it all happen. Essentially the wheel marker stripe had been approved in red, it turned out. But yellow had not. So with a CXX custom order request in to Porsche Exclusive, I waited for feasibility testing ("to test quality/wear") and approval of the yellow stripe. By October, apparently the factory was underway with testing, and by November rumours of its approval were confirmed by Ms. Witek, but she needed to find out the cost for Canadian customers like me (pesky little details, those currency exchange rates). As it turned out, they had a "formula" for CXX items, which I imagine attaches prices to all CXX requests of various levels of complexity, workmanship, materials, etc. The red marker went for "roughly $3500" and the yellow one was on par. Pricey, but I conceded on the cost as I was expecting to pay over $200K for the car including options and taxes anyway (costs more in Canada, plus recall our dollar was worth ~80 cents on the US dollar, so we get a relative break there).
Fortunately, my build and lock date had been pushed back several times (possibly due to PTS and LWB, etc), so that I was still able to add the wheel to my order despite earlier concerns about timing. I then received the following confirmation emailed to me:
(BTW, I don't know what S. Theis means, but assume it is a person, perhaps the person who approved this, or who would be making the steering wheel? If someone knows, I'd love to solve this riddle.)
It was only then that I realized I had not specified stitching on my request, and the default was black, unlike the rest of the platinum stitching in my interior. So, panicking only a little, I quickly asked about changing the stitching to platinum. Well, of course, Exclusive being who they are, platinum stitching was doable, however there was a catch, the order had locked already, but they were able to add it. Oh, and the other detail was that platinum stitching costs more. I was again forwarded an email:
So, that's how I got the little yellow marker stripe. While I was a little surprised by the additional cost, I now realize I should have anticipated this, and truth be told, I'd gone down this path so far, I probably wasn't going to back out over another thousand dollars or so.
It was pricey. I'm actually a little embarrassed at the wasteful cost per sq inch of fabric, at least by my back of the envelope calculations! But while one can create the same look with tape, I guess I wanted an original from the factory. Call me crazy, I know... In the end, from my point of view, working with Porsche Exclusive was a really worthwhile experience, and I enjoyed the process at the time as much as I expect that little bit of yellow will make me smile whenever I get in the car and go driving!
I hope this information might become useful to someone, so I figured I'd post it. And I'd encourage any of you reading to consider dreaming up doing something special and unique with Exclusive on your next build. It's a lot of fun, provided of course you're relatively price-insensitive.
Regarding pricing, as I understand it, there are a number of options that Exclusive offers. Some of them are generally always available (on the 911 e.g. power kit (not everything Exclusive does is cosmetic), aerokit, painted washer covers, coloured seat belts and gauges, CF trim, LED headlights in black; see http://www.porsche.com/canada/en/acc...exclusive/911/), are listed on the configurator with specific codes (for the RS e.g. XHN is RY seat belts, XSX is GR seat belts), and have listed prices which tend to be relatively on par with other non-Exclusive standard options.
Then there are the unlisted options, which you need to contact someone at Exclusive to discuss. They will take your request and determine if it is possible, and then price according to how much work this will entail (I'm not sure, but it may be based on estimated hours of work to complete, see the emailed descriptions above that stated "10 hours" for my steering wheel marker). These option are often listed by the generic code, CXX. For the GT3, RLer reidry was looking into ordering wing tips and mirrors in deviating colour, and we also know of the option to paint the wheels in a deviating colour, as seen on this much discussed car which also has the red steering wheel marker:
Next there are the cars that are specially designed by Exclusive, such as the 997 Sport Classic and Speedster, and some of the anniversary cars for the Netherlands, PCNA, UK, Italy, etc which I believe have been designed by the group known internally as VKS.
Originally Posted by lessthan3mph
Of course the Porsche Exclusive division does appear to have access to unique colours; for instance, we know that Boris Apenbrink's VKS ("Special Customer Cars") group within Exclusive has been responsible for putting together quite a number of very special cars in recent years (Rennsport Reunion edition GTS in modegrau, Club Coupe in clubblau, etc) with a non-standard palette.
FWIW, some of the same options that appear on these specially-designed cars can also be ordered through Exclusive (see anonymous918's gulf blue Targa, for instance https://rennlist.com/forums/991/912304-it-is-here.html):
Originally Posted by anonymous918
in the meantime here is the sticker showing how the car was spec'd out
To me, anonymous918's highly customized car approaches very closely the predecessor of Exclusive, the so-called Sonderwunsch program through which customers were able to request extremely customized cars and additions to their cars (like ski racks!). These of course could be extremely costly. They included the IROC RSR's for example.
Hope that might be of interest to you or someone else. I'm sure Eduardo, or others with more experience than me, will be able to offer a better explanation.
Hope that might be of interest to you or someone else. I'm sure Eduardo, or others with more experience than me, will be able to offer a better explanation.
Fascinating stuff, lessthan3mph. I commend you for your persistence and the wheel does look great, although it obviously came at a price.
Also, I might have questioned whether it was possible to spend almost a quarter million dollars on a production Targa. Now I know that it is! Thanks for your post.
02-05-2016 | 05:49 PM
Like any new thing, it keeps catching my eye and I'm pretty pleased with it...wish I'd done it sooner!
(https://rennlist.com/forums/991/7085...e-and-you.html).
