SONDERWUNSCH.
It's one of those gristly German words where you have to chew through the consonants and spit out the vowels. Its translation 'special wish' - is positively light-hearted and amiable, but it's not some charity. Rather, the genie that can grant you any Porsche wish of your dreams. And today, I get to rub the lamp.
Stumbling around Exclusive Manufaktur (an atelier and autocorrect nightmare repurposed out of a historic Porsche Racing repair shop in the courtyard of Zuffenhausen) is as close as you can get to physically walking down your keyboard and into one of those time-sapping online configurators. It's just this one has seemingly endless boxes to tick and many drains to pour your money down.
See, Sonderwunsch is the top level of customisation that Porsche offers. It was officially established in 1978 with the 930 Turbo Flachbau (Flatnose) - a race-inspired launchpad for sporadic limited-run series production cars. But hardcore Porschephiles were going off-piste with bespoke requests way before then.
The first ever off-menu item was humble; a rear wiper for a 356 coupe back in 1955. But there have been plenty of potty requests since: from a fur-covered 356 to Count Rossi's road-legal 917 and Mansour Ojjeh's one-off 935 Street. There was even a retired fighter pilot who wanted to have a pilot's seat in his 911 Turbo.
Noticing the demand for customisation during the tuning boom of the Eighties, Porsche set up a dedicated department just for tailored tastes: Porsche Exclusive. In 2017 it was renamed Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, and given the array of wacky bespoke GT, Taycan, Panamera and 911 models on display today, it's obviously a lucrative and prosperous business. But this modernist showroom is not for public consumption. It's home for the elite: people with flexible attitudes to spending money and dubious taste.
This story is from the September 2022 edition of Top Gear.
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This story is from the September 2022 edition of Top Gear.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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