When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
A few months ago when I was anticipating the arrival of my new 991.2 Targa GTS I e-mailed Rennline about buying some of the front grilles for my car. I previously had a Panamera and the amount of debris that accumulated in my front air intakes (leaves, stones, cigarette butts, etc.) always amazed me, although I never installed any grilles to keep all this stuff out. I got a prompt response that they hadn't finished the development of the grilles for the new GTS yet, and to please check back with them in a couple of months.
I reached out to them again in early August and they said they have a prototype set fabricated but they needed an actual car to verify them on. If I was ever in the area, they would love to try out their prototypes on my car and they would leave the test set installed on my car for free. I have been curious about Rennline as a company for a while, and I've been a customer in the past, so I was interested to learn more about them so I offered to come up and offer my car in sacrifice! Unfortunately I made that suggestion before I determined how far north into Vermont Rennline is located (5 hour drive!). Oh well, road trip!
So this past Friday was the day that we set for me to drive up and test fit the grilles. I left early and had a great drive up and got there at 10am. The Rennline team was prepared for my arrival and had a set of grilles fabricated and powdercoated black as I had said would be the best color for my car.
I received a very warm welcome from Dave Molnar (Design Engineer) with whom I had been corresponding. He introduced me to several members of the Rennlist team including Paul Jacques, the President and Tom Rittenburg, VP - Automotive Division. Everyone I met was friendly and enthusiastic. These guys all work in a super-fun environment of high tech machines used to fabricate hyper accurate metal components for automotive and aerospace applications. By comparison, these grilles are pretty rudimentary!
They started by taking the front bumper off my car (in the picture are Paul and Dave):
Once they had the bumper off they test fitted the grilles they had fabricated, made some minor final adjustments and a list of hardware needed to attach the grilles in place:
I acknowledge the Zunsport grilles can be installed without removing the front bumper, but the quality of these grilles is top notch and they look amazing installed. Frankly, they should have been installed like this from the factory:
And here's a teaser picture of another project I undertook while the bumper was off to install the grilles. That will come very soon in a separate thread:
Rennline is an amazing operation that fabricates nearly all of their parts on site in their Vermont factory. They have a series of great machines including CNC routers and waterjets for cutting metal parts and they have a great range of products they produce. I had a great visit with them and have the utmost respect for the work they do. Here are a few other pictures of the operation. For the official record, I have no affiliation with the company other than being a long term and enthusiastic customer.
If anyone has a 991.2 Carrera or a 991.2 Turbo and are willing to make a drive to Milton, VT, they need an example of those cars to test fit their prototypes for those cars also. You could share an experience like mine!
Rennline is a great company that makes great products primarily for the Porsche brand. The people are great and it was a lot of fun to meet all of them.
P.S.
I drove back Friday evening. I ended up spending 10.5 hours in my 911 and it was comfortable and enjoyable the whole way!
This is what I been waiting for. I didn't like how the zunsport covered the horizontal slates of the 991.2 GTS. Do you have and ETA when these would be available?
I JUST finished installing the Zunsport grills on my 991.1GTS without parking sensors. They DO NOT cover the horizontal slats on the openings beneath the headlights. Three seperate grills are installed between the upper, middle and lower openings on each side. I did not have to remove the bumper and the look as solid as the Rennlines. It only took me an hour. I will supply pictures when the weather improves here so I can have the appropriate light available.
I JUST finished installing the Zunsport grills on my 991.1GTS without parking sensors. They DO NOT cover the horizontal slats on the openings beneath the headlights. Three seperate grills are installed between the upper, middle and lower openings on each side. I did not have to remove the bumper and the look as solid as the Rennlines. It only took me an hour. I will supply pictures when the weather improves here so I can have the appropriate light available.
Thanks for the write-up Brian, it was great to have you up here! We now have the GTS and Sport Design 991.2 screens live on the site available for pre-order! As Brian mentioned if anyone has a 991.2 Carrera or Turbo and wants to make a trip up here we would love to show you around and install your set for free!
08-27-2017, 12:43 AM
My Visit Friday at Rennline - New Front Grilles!
