Infusing your Porsche with extra personality

Porsche goes the extra mile for customers with Exclusive Manufaktur

Lisa Edgar began her career with Porsche in Australia in 2001, having worked in administration at a Porsche Centre five years earlier. She’s now the go-to for all importer production, managing allocation across the network while keeping a close eye on the order demands ahead of each car coming to market. Lisa’s got another string to her bow, too – she’s the conduit between the sales team at Porsche Centre Brighton and Porsche’s Exclusive Manufaktur area in Germany. Exclusive Manufaktur is a specialised area of Porsche where vehicles are altered to suit a customer’s desires. This happens on two levels. At the simplest, a sales consultant can work hand-in-hand with their customer and specify a car online to suit the customer’s preferences. The other level involves a more detailed degree of personalisation. ‘Many options are available through the online car configurator, which are already feasibility-checked and available for order,’ explains Lisa.

‘Then there’s the next level up, which is highly personalised and consultationbased. In this sphere, I’m frequently liaising between the dealership and the factory. ‘Even if a salesperson believes a given option isn’t available, I can ask the factory to check if it’s feasible, or if we’ve already had that request from another client.’

The online Exclusive Manufaktur option allows customers to tick the car configurator when the company has already completed all feasibility checks. The company has converted these most-requested options into easily available choices. Labelled Exclusive Manufaktur options by the car configurator, they form part of each model’s production cycle. Special requests are also available to make the changes even more individualised. Termed the Sonderwunsch Program, this innovation is only available for Taycan, 911, and 718 vehicles built at Porsche’s Zuffenhausen plant.

Feasibility checks are vital to ensure that the changes requested are technically possible (not all requested changes are). The factory must then discern a price based on factors such as time involved, materials required, and extent of the changes. Lisa acts as the contact between the dealership and the factory, a crucial role requiring specialised knowledge. In exceptional cases, she also arranges an online consultation between the salesperson, the client, and the factory. As changes to these special Porsches are made after production has concluded, Lisa conducts extensive coordination work depending on when materials, specialist technicians, transport, and floorspace become available within the dedicated Exclusive Manufaktur workshop. ‘The level of expertise is extremely high, with old-school craftsmanship skills and many changes done by hand,’ she says. ‘It’s all about building the car of the customer’s dreams, creatively imbued with their own personality. We get requests from people seeking to mimic their yacht’s interior or aiming to transfer some favourite concepts into their next 911.’

The customer becomes part of a project team consisting of experts from Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, Porsche Classic, and the Style Porsche design department. They experience the development of their idea from a project manager’s perspective – from the initial design and technical feasibility check right through to construction of their individualised sports car. If the Porsche experts consider the idea feasible after an initial assessment, they invite the customer to a project meeting. A specification is then produced in collaboration with designers and experts from the respective departments, where the project is examined from all sides and described in detail.

Depending on the project's scope, this process can take up to one year and can cost a six-figure sum through the involvement of development engineers, designers, and vehicle technicians. At the end of this process, the customer decides whether they wish to proceed. In the third and final phase, components are developed and the vehicle is built. The design, engineering, and development departments work closely with the mechanics, bodybuilders, and paint specialists of Porsche’s own Manufaktur facilities. The dream vehicle thus becomes realised through meticulous craftsmanship, carried out under the customer’s scrutiny. Spectacularly demonstrating this initiative’s unique possibilities is the 911 Targa 4S (pictured), with an exterior finished in custom Forest Green Metallic and an interior in two-tone leather Slate Grey and Crayon, with decorative stitching in a contrasting colour and Agave Green seatbelts. A host of refinements have been added, including high-gloss Carrera Exclusive Design wheels, LED matrix headlights, Porsche logo LED door courtesy lights, sports exhaust … the complete list runs to 31 items long. ‘We specified this car to inspire by showing what can be done,’ Lisa explains. ‘It’s a drawcard. We always get offers from customers wanting to buy it, and I’ll always remind dealers that they can create this car for their customer.'

In the last 12 months, there have been five 718s (Boxster Spyder and Cayman GT4 RS) and 34 911s ordered from Australia on the Sonderwunsch Program. To discover how to indelibly personalise your Porsche, get in touch with Porsche Centre Brighton for a detailed consultation.

What better way could there be to show your love of this timeless marque? •