Porsche first arrived in Australia in 1951. To mark 75 years of that relationship, the brand built one car, one 911 Turbo S, through its Sonderwunsch bespoke programme, in collaboration with Sydney-based artist Werner Bronkhorst, and the result is one of the more considered anniversary commissions the programme has ever produced.
The Sonderwunsch name translates directly from German as special wishes, and the programme is Porsche’s route for clients and partners who want something that cannot be ordered through the standard configurator. Past commissions have ranged from customer one-offs to small anniversary editions, and the 911 Turbo S Land Down Under sits alongside the best of them in terms of the depth of thinking that went into every surface.
The most immediately striking element is the exterior finish, which Porsche developed specifically for this car and has never used on any other. Two new Chromaflair pigment colours, Terra Australis Red and Southern Cross Blue, were applied by hand in a gradient that transitions from warm earth tones across the lower body to deep blue from the shoulderline upward. The result is a finish that reads differently in every light condition, shifting between desert orange, dusk blue, eucalyptus green and sunrise gold depending on the angle. Chromaflair works through ultra-thin aluminium flakes encased in a glass-like transparent layer, whose varying thickness produces the colour shift. Seven layers, applied entirely by hand, required more than 300 hours of work to complete.
For the first time on a Porsche, the paint is also used to create what the brand calls a ghosting effect on the roof, using Bronkhorst’s own hand-drawn typeface to embed the number 75 into the paintwork. It is only visible at certain angles and in certain light, which is either the most subtle anniversary detail in recent automotive history or the kind of thing you notice once and cannot stop seeing.
Beneath the rear spoiler, Bronkhorst painted a message in the same hand-drawn font: “See ya later mate.” It is only visible when the spoiler deploys automatically above 80km/h, or when Sport Plus mode is activated. For anyone following the car closely enough to read it, the message is accurate.
The wheels are staggered 20-inch front and 21-inch rear Turbo Exclusive alloys, finished in Southern Cross Blue to carry the upper body colour through to the lower extremities of the car. One of the wheels also carries a hand-painted graphic by Bronkhorst, a detail that requires getting close to the car to find.
Inside, the cabin is trimmed in Dark Night Blue and a new shade called Coolibah Brown, developed specifically for this commission and named after the eucalyptus tree native to the Australian outback. The 18-way adaptive sport seats carry 14,417 individually placed perforations arranged to form a coherent visual pattern, referenced to Bronkhorst’s brushwork, and the headrests carry a bespoke 75th anniversary logo.
The standout interior detail is the headliner. It is embroidered with a star map depicting the Southern Hemisphere sky as it appeared over Uluru on the night Porsche first arrived in Australia in 1951. The number of stars, their positions and their relative brightness are all accurate to that specific date and location.
Porsche made no changes to the powertrain, which is the right decision. The 992.2 generation 911 Turbo S runs a hybrid-assisted 3.6-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six producing 710hp and 590lb-ft of torque, covering 0-100km/h in 2.4 seconds and running on to a top speed of 330km/h. No mechanical modification was going to improve on that, so none was attempted.
There is one. Porsche has not disclosed what the commission cost, which is standard practice for Sonderwunsch projects at this level of personalisation, and the car is not for sale. It exists as a commemorative piece for Porsche Cars Australia, built to mark a milestone that most car brands would have acknowledged with a press release and a special edition floor mat.