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European Delivery and or Porsche Experience CenterThis forum to ask questions and get answers about collecting your Porsche in Europe or the outstanding Porsche Experience Center.
Wow, production really hummed right along. Mine started last week (Boxster GTS4.0) so I should be getting an update pretty soon. Just curious, do you have a confirmed delivery date as well? How flexible are Porsche when it comes to actual pick-up at the factory? I was hoping to delay until July. Congrats!
Yeah, my pickup date at Leipzig is locked in for 6/4. Given the demand for ED, I don't think there is any flexibility right now. My impression is that if you gave up an existing ED date, you would go on a waiting list for a later date.
If you are going to the Grossglockner make sure to stop here, FAT Mankei , its a restaurant owned by one of the Porsche family and the person behind the GP ice race. Its open already but this Friday and Saturday is the season opening party so there will be lots of other Porsches there. I'll be there on Saturday.
Thanks, will definitely look for the restaurant, we'll be there on Wednesday morning, so we won't catch the opening weekend.
After that, it's on to Cortina d'Ampezzo for a few days in the Dolomites, with a loop around the Tre Cime and a run across to hike at Seceda being the highlights. Then a couple spa days near Lago di Garda for the copilot, one night in St Moritz to do the nearby passes, then hopefully over the Gotthard on the old road and into Zurich for the last few days. The route is here, including most of the planned side-trips: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?m...8I&usp=sharing
Thats a good route, will be a really nice drive. Lots of varied scenery too, the Dolomites look very different to the Austrian and Swiss areas of the Alps.
We picked up the car yesterday in Leipzig! The delivery experience there was fantastic. Thanks to Alex (@lepetitgarage) I found out they offer PPF before delivery in Leipzig! Looks like they did a great job, she'll be protected from day 1, and it was less than half the quote I got from the dealer.
The track session was super, we used the longer outer track. At first I was disappointed that we wouldn't get to drive The Corkscrew and Karoussel, but then I realized how much smaller the inner track is, it's limited to like 100kph. The outer track was a blast! This was my first time driving a 718 with the 4.0 and I was astounded how different it was from my 981 Cayman S. The 4.0 is freaking awesome, I still can't believe they offered it in the GTS! I had my wife signed up to drive as well, and I knew she was apprehensive, since she's never been on a track. But she jumped in for her turn, and I wasn't surprised when she was puttering around getting lapped each lap by a pair of GT3 RSes doing lead-follow. But after a few laps, it clicked, and she was hammering it down both straights! She loved it. Here she is in the chalk BGTS PDK we drove on the track:
After the drive, it was time for the big moment. They're good at building the suspense in Leipzig, the cars are covered and parked in a series of bays. They just let me walk until I spotted my car, which was the only Boxster being delivered. It was so fun pulling the cover off the car and seeing it for the first time. So happy with all the choices I made in spacing the car, the highlights being Guards Red, the GTS interior, and debadging. On the drive later, I would get very happy with my choice of 18-ways and non-buckets!
After the handover, we reviewed the car, went through the settings, etc. It was pretty familiar from my 918, so this didn't take too long.
We had 30 minutes to kill before the tour, so we ran up to the historic car display. They must rotate cars from the Museum, and they had an assortment of great race cars and a full set of 911 generations. I thought it was impressive that they had the 911 RSR Hybrid which is so prominent in the 992.2 promotions, but the Gulf 917K was my favorite:
The tour was way more interesting than I expected. I have to admit I wasn't that excited about seeing Macans and Panameras being built, but it was as fascinating as when I toured the 911 line in Zuffenhausen ten years ago. It was especially cool to see the new electric Macans coming down the line. That "skateboard" chassis is amazing, the battery pack is absolutely the lowest component of the chassis other than the suspension, they're really optimizing the center of gravity.
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After a nice lunch in the restaurant, which overlooks the track, we hit the road.
This was our longest travel day, I wanted to get to the mountains without pushing too far. We did about 600 km to Zell Am See. Traffic wasn't too bad, we had periods of unrestricted autobahn broken up by construction. Managed to clock 125 MPH without really trying too hard, the 4.0 pulls so much harder at speed than the 3.4 did. It's also amazing how easily you adjust to cruising at 100MPH.
We made it to Zell am See around 7:30 last night. I didn't pay too much attention to this route as it really was a transit day, but we got lucky. The last 90 minutes of the drive was through quaint Austrian village connected by lovely forest roads. Almost no traffic and our first views of the Austrian alps. We stayed at a simple ski and sport hotel in Zell Am See. I chuckled to myself as I pulled into their gravel parking lot, glad I'm not trying to find a white glove garage for a priceless GT car. Can't wait to drive the hell out of this one.
Heading to Italy and the dolomites today via the Grossglockner! Fingers crossed for decent weather and good pictures to follow.
Hey @disden, I looked for your car and didn't see it. There was a grey S/T, or maybe it was a GT3 Touring, but it had regular plates, not ED plates. Have a great trip, we'll keep our eyes out for you on the road!
04-27-2024, 09:02 AM
