Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Celebrating F.A. Porsche’s 90th Birthday, with a Special 911 GT3 and a Matching Watch
Stepping into the Porsche Sonderwunsch program for an exclusive look at a one-of-a-kind 911!
Few names in the car industry spark a reaction as Porsche does. It’s responsible for some of the finest sports and racing cars ever made, and many minds instantly go to the 911 when Porsche is mentioned, the masterpiece created by Ferdinand-Alexander Porsche in 1963. This became a legendary sports car and to this day still follows F.A. ‘Butzi’ Porsche’s form-follows-function ethos, albeit with a bit more creative freedom in the form of the Porsche configurator and Sonderwunsch program. To honour F.A. Porsche’s birthday, the 90th to be precise, the Porsche family has worked closely with the Porsche Sonderwunsch team, and subsequently Porsche Design, for the very special 911 GT3 90Y F.A. Porsche. And while we were invited to the launch of this commemorative car, we also got a tour of the Sonderwunsch program’s facilities! And the work done there is pretty darn incredible!
Founded by Ferdinand ‘Ferry’ Porsche (1875-1951) as Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in 1931, the Porsche company is currently headquartered in Zuffenhausen, near Stuttgart, Germany. In the early days, Porsche would work as a consultant and automotive development company for others, with the Volkswagen Beetle as its most famous product before setting out to build its own cars. Shortly after World War II, Porsche started its own production line, although it experimented with a number of Porsche-badged vehicles in the years prior.
The first official car bearing the Porsche crest and being offered commercially was the 356 sports car, with No.1 seen above. While this was still largely based on the VW Beetle’s platform, it was a compact and lightweight sports car in coupe, roadster or speedster form, with the engine in the back. It quickly gained popularity for its nimble handling, and in racing, it would often compete and beat much heavier, more powerful cars, building the foundation of an unparalleled racing history.
F.A. Porsche, a legacy far beyond cars
Ferdinand Porsche’s son, Ferdinand Alexander, was born on December 11th 1935, and joined the business in the late 1950s after studying industrial design in Stuttgart. He started his career in the family company through practical training at the body design department of Porsche, before getting involved with designing a successor to the 356. To give direction to the design team for the new car, F.A’s father stated that it had to offer more space, improved comfort and better performance. So in short, improve on all fronts.
Ferdinand Alexander got to work with his team and penned what would become known as the 911. Although the initial sketches were already approved internally, the design director at the time, Erwin Komenda, pushed back and made several changes to the design. Not amused by this and determined to move forward with the project, Ferdinand Porsche took his son’s original drawings to coachbuilder Reutter, who was located across the street at the time, and thus gave birth to F.A. Porsche’s vision.
When presented to the public in 1963, the car was still designated as the 901, named after the internal project code. Shortly after it entered production, Peugeot knocked on the door, claiming it held the rights to name cars with a three-digit number with a zero in the middle in France, after which Porsche changed the 901 to 911. A total of 82 901s have been built before this name-change was implemented, and they remain among the most sought-after Porsche cars around. The 911, though, soldiered on to become the greatest sports car ever built, and is currently in its eighth generation with the 992.2 designation. Since the very first car left the factory in September of 1964, more than 1.3 million of them have been built. And with every new iteration of the 911, be it a completely new generation or merely a mid-lifecycle update, the 911 is updated and improved, often being a testbed for innovative technology such as variable turbo geometry.
But it’s far from all F.A. Porsche did, as by 1972 the decision was made to leave the company, after which he founded the Porsche Design studio with his brother Hans-Peter. Here, he had complete freedom to explore all he wanted to design. As avid MONOCHROME readers are probably well aware, the first product under the Porsche Design name was a wristwatch, the Chronograph 1. Much like the 911, this was an embodiment of his famous credo, “If you analyse the function of an object, its form becomes obvious“. Sounds rather simple on paper, but it is quite challenging to do in real life, I imagine!
This philosophy is regarded as the foundation of everything F.A. Porsche has done, from the cars to the watches, and from sunglasses to luggage, refrigerators, snow sledges and so on, and it’s still very much the DNA of Porsche Design. Every product represents F.A. Porsche’s devotion to functionality, practicality, precision and perfection. Despite the departure from the car manufacturing side of the family business in 1972, F.A. Porsche, the Porsche family and the Porsche company have kept close ties. To the point, even, that special bespoke versions of the 911 would be built for Ferdinand-Alexander, essentially creating an early version of today’s Sonderwunsch program.
The Sonderwunsch 911 gt3 90 F.A. Porsche
To mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, Porsche has created a new and very special car. After all, what better way to celebrate such an occasion than by doing what you do best: building amazing cars! For that reason, plus the fact that F.A. Porsche is directly responsible for the birth of the now-iconic 911, as well as the Chronograph 1, and spiritually the Sonderwunsch program, this rather special 911 GT3 Touring is a fitting tribute to the man’s legacy.
To explain what Sonderwunsch is, we had the chance to visit the Exclusive Manufactur as part of the launch of this car. And to put it simply, the Sonderwunsch program starts where Porsche’s configurator ends. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in there, despite the countless available options (including 192 Paint-to-Sample colours), or have a crazy cool idea for a one-off, the Sonderwunsch program is the way forward.
Stepping into the Sonderwunsch facility is literally stepping into a custom car workshop. Cars are either supplied by clients when it’s a model that’s no longer part of the catalogue, or taken directly from the production line. During a fully immersive process, the client’s ideas and desires are translated into a build scheme, and work is started on the project. Basically, one of three things is done: a bespoke car fully tailored to your desires, a complete one-off project such as Luca Trazzi’s bright yellow 993 Speedster (something that never existed during the 993s production life), or recommissioned work based on older cars. Depending on which route you follow, work can take several months to multiple years, and prices can get into the millions. Although unconfirmed by Porsche, the 993 Speedster (see below) has a rumoured price tag of close to EUR 5 million.
Simpler work, such as a fully leather-clad frunk (front-trunk), starts at around EUR 10,000. If you want custom body trim or a unique paint job, that can quickly jump to many more thousands of euros, with some clients requesting complete hand-painted liveries based on those from Porsche’s illustrious past, such as the Rothmans, Jägermeister, Martini, Gulf Oil colours and so on.
When asked during the visit, it was stated that some special paints could cost up to EUR 200,000 to perfect, with everything done by hand. If work demands structural changes, like cutting up a base 911 to something truly unique, Porsche’s Sonderwunsch team also takes care of the safety and legal issues that might occur. All with the goal of still being able to drive the car as intended, whether on the road or at the race track. Honestly, some of the numbers sound absolutely staggering, but the amount of work poured into each and every build is equally staggering, I must say! You can choose not only the colour of the stitching, but also the pattern, and if you want something that’s never been done before, Porsche will guide you along the way to see if it’s feasible or not. And if it is, they will do it! And fun fact, if you check out some of the latest spy shots of 911s being tested with all sorts of wrapping, I get the feeling some Sonderwunsch cars are being put through the wringer before delivery. I’ve seen shots of a Flachbau or Slant-Nose 911 based on what seems to be a 991-gen GT2 RS, but I can’t imagine Porsche using that to test something for the regular production 992-gen production line. But a Sonderwunsch? Why not?!
This particular 911 GT3, the 90 F.A. Porsche edition, was created in close partnership between F.A. Porsche’s youngest son, Mark, and the Sonderwunsch team, led by Alexandar Fabig. It starts out life as a ‘regular’ 911 GT3 Touring, and is given a makeover based on F.A.P’s own bespoke 911s, which started with an Oak Grun G-series 911 (the second generation car, built between 1974 and 1989). The video below beautifully tells the story of how this project came together:
F.A. Porsche’s ‘personalised’ 911 spec is translated into a new shade of green called F.A. Green Metallic, a Truffle Brown leather interior with embossed commemorative crests and a signed plaque, a wooden gear knob, F.A. Grid-Weave cloth inserts based on the houndstooth jackets often worn by Ferdinand Alexander, a more modern interpretation of the Fuchs wheels with centrelocks, and a special grill badge. It marks the first time a GT3 Touring is fitted with this type of wheel, and it will remain exclusive to the 90 F.A. Porsche edition. Finishing touches include a light gold-coloured Porsche decal on the side and a racing roundel with the number 72 in reference to the year Porsche Design was founded.
And since this is based on the 911 GT3 Touring, which technically is identical to the standard production car, any of the 90 future owners can make full use of that 510bhp 4.0-litre flat-six, which is bolted to a six-speed manual gearbox! To sort of get an idea of what that feels like to drive, albeit in the Renn Sport configuration (so with a massive big wing on the back), we recently had a spin in a fittingly green 911 GT3 RS.
To sum it all up, this 911 GT3 90 F.A. Porsche really feels like a full-circle celebration of not only the 911’s legendary status, but also of the work of F.A. Porsche and the Porsche company, through the Sonderwunsch program. But there’s more…
F.A. Porsche’s Chronograph 1, Recreated
As mentioned, when setting up the Porsche Design studio in 1972, the first product that followed was the Chronograph 1. This again proved to be a pioneer in the field as it was the first wristwatch fully coated in black, and later on, a vessel for the development of titanium watches. The Chronograph one garnered a cult-like status and even today is a much-loved icon of watchmaking history.
It’s this form-follows-function ethos that F.A. Porsche applied to the 911 that also shaped the Chronograph 1. It was directly taken from the black dashboards and instrument clusters in Porsche sports and racing cars. No glare (or at least as little as possible), and perfect contrast and legibility. It worked, and it worked well.
In turn, this new Chronograph 1 takes direct inspiration from F.A. Porsche’s personal watch from the 1970s. It obviously uses titanium for the case, yet is coated in black DLC to recreate that iconic muted look. For this one, the luminous inserts in the markers and hands are slightly more beige in tone, creating a more retro look. The hour and minute hands are also a bit broader, giving the watch a slightly stouter appeal.
Inside is Porsche Design’s Kaliber WERK 01.240, which is found in the entire Chronograph 1 catalogue. It is a so-called flyback chronograph, meaning you can reset it on the go (when you cross the finish line to start your next lap). A special touch is the Fuchs wheel rotor, tying it into the celebratory car. Finishing it all off is a Truffle Brown leather strap of the same type as found in the 911 GT3 90 F.A. Porsche, and on the caseback, there’s the master’s signature. Next to the special edition Chronograph 1, Porsche Design also presents a Truffle Brown weekender bag with F.A. Grid-Weave cloth lining in the front compartment and a commemorative badge, as well as a redesigned Porsche Junior ice sledge, made in carbon fibre and kevlar with the same cloth on the seat as found in the car. The reason behind the sledge is quite simple; it was one of the favourite winter activities of F.A. Porsche and his kids in the 1960s and 1970s.
Similar to the car, only 90 watches will be built, with the first one of both being reserved for Mark Porsche. For the 911, Porsche does allow some further bespoke work under the Sonderwunsch program, should a client want to. Each owner will also get the Chronograph 1 90 F.A. Porsche edition, which is included in the price of the car: EUR 352.111. And that is not a price by accident, but I’ll leave you to figure out what it represents on your own…
For more information, please visit Porsche.com or Porsche-Design.com.
Editorial Note: All information and images are sourced from previous articles or sourced from and used with permission of Porsche AG, unless stated otherwise.
