At a very heady $513,000, it sits at the top of the Porsche and 911 model range, and is as exclusive as a production 911 can get. Porsche’s 911 Sport Classic is limited to just 1250 globally, produced by Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur, and revives the style of the 1970s. And at least four of them are set to arrive in New Zealand in January.
It’s also the second of four collector’s items from Porsche’s Heritage Design, as part of a four-car strategy that will release a new model every two years, according to Boris Apenbrink, whom we spoke to exclusively at the Goodwood Festival in June, during his 20th year with Porsche.
“There are two [specialist] arms,” says Boris, of Porsche’s exclusive division, and proud owner of a 964/911. “The GT cars driven by motorsport, and Exclusive Manufaktur cars are mainly driven by design and emotion, suitable for everyday but being special.
“This [Sport Classic] is part of our Heritage Design strategy, how we could bring back the most iconic things of Porsche past into modern cars. We started with seat patterns as the basic start of the idea: four iconic materials to represent the decades: from ‘50s (corduroy), ‘60s (pepita), ‘70s (pasha) and ‘80s (tartan).”
With the Sport Classic, the pepita houndstooth interior is coupled with the number 60 decal on the door to link it all together, along with a circular heritage badge on the engine grille that mimics the badges used in 1963 given to owners who had driven 100,000km.
Like its immediate predecessor, the 997-based 911 Sport Classic Speedster presented in 2009 (and the Targa 4S Heritage Design Edition in 2020), the appearance of this model is inspired by the original 911 (1964-1973) and the 1972 911 Carrera RS 2.7, which we also drove in Germany.
As with the first 911 Sport Classic launched in 2009, the designers were inspired by the Fashion Grey paintwork of the early Porsche 356 when choosing the paint finish for the new limited-edition model, the first vehicle to feature Sport Grey Metallic. There is also solid Black, Agate Grey Metallic, Gentian Blue Metallic or Paint to Sample, Porsche’s any-colour-you-like. Twin stripes painted on the bonnet, roof and rear spoiler in light Sports Grey also spell sports.
“The Heritage Design models represent the most emotionally driven concepts of the Porsche product strategy,” says Alexander Fabig, VP Individualization and Classic. “This unique approach sees the Style Porsche design… to reinterpret iconic 911 models and equipment from the 1950s through to the 1980s and to revive design features from those decades.” Porsche is launching four limited-edition models over an extended period. The first of these was presented in 2020: the 911 Targa 4S Heritage Design Edition, with design elements from the 1950s and 1960s.
A fixed rear spoiler is in the style of the legendary ‘ducktail’ Carrera RS 2.7, and the wide Turbo body gives a clue to its powertrain, the 3.7-litre, twin-turbo flat-six engine good for a massive 405kW, all funnelled to the rear wheels only, and a seven-speed manual gearbox! Yep, 405kW, rear-drive and manual!
The standard sports exhaust system is specially tailored to the model for an even more emotive sound experience, and there’s the auto-blip function, as used in other Porsche manuals.
Suspension is a cross between 911 Turbo and GTS models, with standard Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM), along with a 10mm lower stance.
Inside, the iconic pepita pattern is on the seats and doors, offering a unique look and feel, while two-tone, semi-aniline leather upholstery in Black/Classic Cognac provides an elegant contrast.
Porsche Design has also created a high-quality chronograph exclusively available to drivers who purchase the collector’s edition vehicle. The watch picks up on numerous details from the Sport Classic’s design.
With demand for specialist models, we probably shouldn’t be too surprised to see a few Sport Classic models heading to New Zealand. Boris says the Porsche factory communicates to its regions, and areas like New Zealand, handles by the Giltrap Group, speak to customers to get an idea of orders and requests, and the factory responds.
“We also do market specific cars,” adds Boris. “We did the GT3 Touring for Australia and we are very much interested what is locally very attractive. That is very important for us, and as it is so far away, the story of Porsche New Zealand customers is very important to us.
“We try to accommodate all our customers. For the Targas, we choose 2-3 shades of red that are available and match them to the concept, with white stickers. But, for example, we have a customer in the USA with the Secret All-White collection, but we didn’t want to have white stickers on white paint, but didn’t want to say no. So, we made him a white Targa Heritage and changed the white stickers to gold.
So with two more Heritage versions to come, Boris wouldn’t give too many clues but looking at the 1970s and 1980s Porsche icons, and the interiors, maybe we could see a whale-tail Turbo modern iteration.
“We like to do every topic only once, like a Speedster or trims and ducktail spoilers. We don’t want to overdo it; to keep them special and exclusive… we can expect 2024 and 2026, but in between [for those customers interested] we can also order the Heritage Design interior packages for other 911s.
Porsche 911 Turbo Sport ClassicENGINE: 3.7-litre flat-six twin-turboGEARBOX: Seven-speed manual, rear-drivePOWER: 405kW/600Nm0-100KM/H: 4.1secTOP SPEED: 315km/h
PRICE: $513,000
Keyword: Driven by design: $500k Porsche Sport Classic: 4 for NZ with exclusive watch!