RM Sotheby’s will auction online the one-off ‘911 Turbo Remastered’ during this year’s Icons of Porsche festival in Dubai. The car was first unveiled at last year’s festival to kick off global celebrations for the ’50 Years of Turbo’ anniversary.
The auction will commence online on Wednesday 20 November 2024, and will conclude during the evening on Sunday 24 November while the car is live on the main stage at Icons of Porsche.
“Icons of Porsche has cemented itself as the annual highlight for the car community in this region, and RM Sotheby’s is truly excited to be a part of this year’s festival,” said Duccio Lopresto, Business Development Director, RM Sotheby’s.
“Concluding the auction at Icons of Porsche will bring new attention and excitement to the festival.”
The one-of-a-kind ‘911 Turbo Remastered’ is a modern-day interpretation of the original 911 Turbo prototype gifted to Louise Piëch in 1974. It is also a showcase of the extensive capabilities of the Sonderwunsch special request program. Sonderwunsch is the special request arm of both Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur and the Porsche Classic department, which takes personalisation to the highest level where almost anything is possible, hence the slogan: ‘you dream it, we build it’.
911 Turbo Remastered by Sonderwunsch
The 911 Turbo Remastered project was a collaboration between Style Porsche, Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur and the Porsche Middle East and Africa regional office.
“This very special car is not only a showcase of what is possible with our Porsche personalisation programs,” said Manfred Bräunl, Chief Executive Officer, Porsche Middle East and Africa FZE.
“It also highlights the brave and pioneering Porsche spirit as we look back to the inspiration for this project, the very first 911 Turbo.”
The inspiration for the project was the original prototype commissioned for Louise Piëch, daughter of Ferdinand Porsche, back in 1974. The 911 model with chassis number #9115600042 which was a prototype that left the Zuffenhausen factory on 17 July 1974 and was given Piëch for her 70th birthday on 29 August 1974.
Unlike the regular production examples of the 911 Turbo, this car featured a narrow-chassis 911 Carrera body, yet debuted the large, Turbo rear wing. It was distinguished by its use of chequered Tartan fabric on red interior that was personally chosen by Piëch to go with its silver exterior.
“The initial idea for this project began two years ago,” said Bräunl.
“We wanted to create a modern iteration of a car that was truly unique. Luckily for us, there is no shortage of Porsche cars that people label as icons. We elected to ‘remaster’ one of the greatest icons of them all, the original 911 Turbo prototype from Louise Piech.
“This car is interesting not only because of the engine, narrow body and large rear wing. It also had a unique interior that was our focus point to be recreated for the new car.”
New twist on exterior features
With very few silver choices available in the early 1970’s, the original car featured a standard silver exterior colour. The Sonderwunsch Turbo features the historically significant ‘GT silver’ that is available as a metallic standard colour for all 911 Turbo models.
The Exclusive Manufaktur options fitted are also available on the car configurator, including its Sport Design Package and body colour-painted rear side intakes as well as exterior mirrors. However, some components are offset with matte black paint, specially requested to recreate the appearance of the original car from 1974. Unique decals were created by Style Porsche designers in Weissach, with an added twist of a subtle decal under the rear wing. Special approval was also provided by Porsche Classic to use the old turbo rear badge from the first ever production turbo.
“This badge was not on the original car because it was a prototype, but it’s period correct and looks great,” said Bräunl.
One of the key identifiers of the early 911 Turbo was the black Fuchs alloy wheels. Exclusive Manufaktur has managed to recreate this look with a bespoke paintjob on the available five spoke 911 Turbo Exclusive Design rim.
The painted rim resembles the style of the original car. While the rim itself is available, the way it was painted through the Sonderwunsch department makes it stand out from the regular look of the wheel.
Unique fabric pattern, two-tone interior
The interior features a modified version of the Heritage Design Classic package, which includes the retro-looking green illuminated dials at the ref-counter as well as in the Sport Chrono dial as an historic reference. However, portions of the usual leather and pepita fabric that comes with the Heritage Design Classic package made way for a fully bespoke, customised trim to match Piëch’s request on the original car.
The original red and blue chequered Tartan fabric trim was recreated for the interior, including in the glove compartment and in the frunk, and with the help of the Sonderwunsch department, the interior has emerged as a two-tone design not seen on current Porsche interiors.
Compared to two-tone interiors on current Porsches, the Remastered Sonderwunsch Turbo features a Lipstick Red on black theme that only uses red on the carpet, the seats and centre console, leaving the dash and doors in black, which is in contrast to the current two-tone options available on the 911 type 992 model range.
“It’s a new way of doing two-tone on a 992 using a unique mix of fabric, leather and two-tone you don’t see today,” said Bräunl.
“We wanted to use this opportunity to promote and highlight what the Exclusive Manufaktur department can do through Sonderwunsch, so we really pushed the boundaries and utilized many unique features that you won’t find on the car configurator including a cross stitching on the upper dash and upper doors, which is all done by hand.”
The seats also utilise the original Turbo lettering theme from the rear badge into the interior with headrest embroidery, and is complemented by period-correct, tone-in-tone piping bordering the leather.
Final touchpoints for the interior include a PDK gear selector in aluminium from Exclusive Manufaktur as well as a tailored key that features the chequered tartan pattern in the middle with GT Silver along the sides, which is now a combination that is available for all 911 type 992 keys through Porsche Tequipment.
The 911 Turbo (type 992.1)
The Porsche 911 Turbo type 992 needs no introduction with a 3,745 cm3, six-cylinder boxer engine that features symmetrical VTG turbochargers with electrically controlled bypass valves and boasts an output of 427 kW (580 PS) or 30 kW (40 PS) more than its predecessor.
Using an eight-speed PDK gearbox with a Turbo-specific set-up, its acceleration, power and torque figures match those of the previous generation 911 Turbo and achieves a 0-100 km/h time of 2.8 seconds with a top speed of 320km/h.
About Sonderwunsch: the ‘special request’ program of Porsche
In the spirit of truly luxury, the Porsche Sonderwunsch program provides bespoke customisation services for unique sports cars with a combination of skilled craftsmanship and attention to detail. The sports car manufacturer thus reinterprets its legendary Sonderwunsch program from the late 1970s to enable individualised, one-off cars – co-created by the customer and professionally produced by Porsche.
The range of services encompasses individual customer colour and material requests directly in production, as well as subsequent modification after the car is delivered to the customer. Practically speaking, everything complying with local regulatory requirements is possible, from new colours and equipment for existing cars to the creation of individual one-off cars at the customer’s request.
The Sonderwunsch programme takes attention to detail to the next level, and helps you make your very own Porsche dream come true, no matter the age of the car. Whether it's a new vehicle you've not taken delivery of yet, a vehicle you already own or your own classic Porsche, whether you want a very specific design, feature or even if you want to drive a true one-of-a-kind vehicle, you can make your dream come true together with the Sonderwunsch team.
This program makes dreams come true, even beyond the options available in the online Porsche car configurator. Together with the Sonderwunsch (which literally means ‘special request’ in German) team, personal design and equipment requests are checked and installed in the vehicle right at the factory.
The option exists to have your vehicle restored in the factory and returned to its delivery condition. But possibilities also exist for those that may want to add new ideas for the vehicle's colour, equipment, or even its technical features. The Sonderwunsch (special request) programme provides the option of redesigning your vehicle according to your wishes. Create a limited edition car as the project manager in close collaboration with the Sonderwunsch (special request) team and make it a reality in custom production at Zuffenhausen.
Sonderwunsch can take many shapes, from personalisation and special material combinations in the interior and high-quality design paintwork on the body and wheels, to custom-designed components including eccentric fabrics and bespoke leather. If desired, personal logos and design elements can be integrated into the interior and exterior by hand with the finest attention to detail.
Completely new vehicle concepts as well as tailored adjustments to the vehicle body are possible, for example a custom-designed gear knob and modified rear wing as an homage to racing icons. The owner of a Sonderwunsch order is essentially its project manager, leading a team of designers, engineers and specialists to develop their unique factory limited edition Porsche, built over a period of up to three years. With the Porsche Sonderwunsch programme, you can quite literally build your dream car and pursue your next dreams in it.
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