Yahoo Autos Take a deep dive into Porsche's one-off Sonderwunsch program with an 8-year waitlist
Remember the one-off Porsche 911 Classic Club Coupe? Or perhaps more prolifically, the 911 Sally Special? Those are projects taken on by Porsche’s wonderful and mysterious Sonderwunsch division. Sonderwunsch means “special wish” or “special request” when you translate it from German into English, and that defines the program perfectly.
We’ve seen some of the division’s more recent creations, but at Rennsport Reunion 7, we got a chance to speak to Alexander Fabig, the VP of individualization and classic at Sonderwunsch. Did you know that the waiting list for one-off creations is currently at 8 years? Or that you could bring Porsche an old car, tell them to paint it any new Paint-To-Sample (PTS) color you want, and they’d do it? And to take it even further, Porsche will print you an official, new monroney with the new color and upholstery. After all, it’s a factory build.
Those fun facts and more are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Sonderwunsch can do. It’s essentially a playground for the ultra-rich to design and customize the Porsche of their dreams. Fabig tells us that Sonderwunsch is currently working on nine one-off projects in parallel, but with the high demand, Porsche hopes to extend output to 15 cars per year. That may not sound like a lot, but if you look at the complexity and custom work that comes with putting together a car like the 911 Classic Club Coupe, you’ll understand why it takes so long.
Of course, the sheer cost of ordering a one-off through Sonderwunsch also helps to keep the demand at a doable amount. When you commit to a one-off car, you’re effectively hiring a Porsche team consisting of design, engineering, product leads and more. Put these people to work, and Fabig says you’re looking at a number of at least $100,000 once pen goes to paper for the one-year design phase. How much higher it goes from there is entirely up to you and the sort of work that needs doing. Choose to have Porsche develop a new paint with fancy effects to it, and that’ll be $200,000. You can pay even more money to make sure that color remains exclusive to your car instead of ending up on the Porsche configurator one day. Ask for a special interior upholstery, and that’s another $50,000. The main point here is that you have to be ready to write a blank check to make that Sonderwunsch come true.
