- Factory built special-edition celebrates Porsche NZ's 50th.
- Just 5 cars offered, featuring bespoke colour and equipment.
- Each car carries the signature of the late Sir Colin Giltrap.
Porsche New Zealand is celebrating 50 years in the Kiwi market with the first-ever model commisioned especially for local buyers, from the factory's Sonderwunsch ("special request") department: a special-edition GT3 Touring with a host of bespoke features, including the signature of the late Sir Colin Giltrap: founder of the distribution company that imports Porsche today and the man who brought the marque to the NZ market half a century ago.
Just five examples of the 50th-anniversary GT3 Touring are being built, all identical - but also a quintet unlike any other 911 ever made.
"Fifty years is a long time in any market, and it means even more in one as small and as far from Stuttgart as ours," says Porsche NZ general manager Greg Clarke. "We wanted to mark this milestone with something that could only have come from here: a car built for our roads and signed by the man who started it all."
The special anniversary model is based on the 911 GT3 with Touring Package from the latest 992.2 generation. Each car is finished in "Paint to Sample" Yachting Blue Metallic.
Porsche NZ says the GT3 Touring Package was chosen as the most appropriate for our country's "winding coastal roads, mountain passes and picturesque driving scenes".
The special Yachting Blue Metallic is "a reference both to NZ's rich sailing heritage, and to the first Porsche imported into the country which was blue," says the company. The exterior mirrors, front air intakes and bespoke wheel details are finished to complement the exterior body colour.
Each of the five cars carries the etched signature of Sir Colin Giltrap on the passenger-side dashboard inlay, "honouring the man whose enthusiasm, vision and lifelong commitment to motorsport established Porsche in NZ and helped shape generations of drivers and enthusiasts".
Further bespoke Sonderwunsch elements include woven blue Pepita cloth seat inserts and "50 Years Porsche New Zealand" anniversary embossing on the headrests and throughout the cabin.
How Sir Colin brought Porsche to New Zealand
After seeing a Porsche Speedster at the Sydney Trade Show in 1957, Colin Giltrap bought his first Porsche, a 356 A 1600 Super Coupe, in 1959. By 1974 he was running a successful Auckland dealership and, at the Geneva Motor Show that year, made a strong case to Porsche's export manager to convert his NSU import licence into a Porsche one.
A community had already begun to form around the marque. In December 1975, 10 Porsche owners responded to a notice in the NZ Herald and gathered at Milford on Auckland's North Shore, marking the start of Porsche Club NZ. Half a century later, the club counts close to 2000 active members.
NZ currently has four official Porsche Centres: Auckland, Newmarket (also Auckland), Wellington and Christchurch.
The Kiwi Porsche motorsport connection
Motorsport has been part of Porsche's New Zealand story from the beginning. Local owners were racing 911 models at Levin and Pukekohe in the early 1970s. Today, the Porsche NZ Championship Race Series remains one of the country's long-running national series, while a Porsche Trophy Series runs within the Summerset GT Series and is recognised by Porsche Motorsport.
NZ has also produced two Porsche Le Mans-winning factory drivers of the same generation, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley. Both grew up racing karts near Palmerston North and were supported early in their careers by Sir Colin Giltrap.
Team Porsche NZ, founded in 2019, continues that pathway, with alumni including Supercars winner Matthew Payne, and with Marco Giltrap and Tom Bewley now competing in Carrera Cup.
Pricing of the NZ celebration 911 GT3 Touring
The 911 GT3 50 Years Porsche New Zealand anniversary special is limited to five examples worldwide, all allocated to the Kiwi market. It's priced at $584,000.
Prospective customers can register their interest through any Porsche Centre. Deliveries will commence following Porsche NZ's anniversary celebrations in Auckland this September.
The anniversary special includes the following bespoke Sonderwunsch items:
- Exterior Paint to Sample Yachting Blue Metallic, including exterior mirrors, Airblades and front apron.
- 20-/21-inch forged aluminium lightweight wheels in Yachting Blue Metallic with Deviating Finelines in Brilliant Silver.
- "50 Years Porsche New Zealand" LED logo in the door courtesy lights.
- Bespoke door sill guards, brushed aluminium in black, illuminated with "GT3 50 PNZ" lettering.
- Interior with extensive leather items in black, cross-over stitching in GT Silver.
- Door knee pads, storage compartment lid and gearshifter in leather with crossover stitching in GT Silver.
- Adaptive Sport Seat Plus in black leather with GT-silver stitching and Crayon piping.
- Seat inlays in 991 Pepita Graphite/Crayon and individual embossing with "50 Years Porsche New Zealand" on headrests.
- Personalised keys in Yachting Blue Metallic with Black leather and grey stitching case.
- Signature of Sir Colin Giltrap etched into passenger-side dashboard inlay.
It also includes a number of extra-equipment items over the standard GT3 Touring, including brake calipers in gloss black, stylised fuel cap, tinted HD-Matrix LED headlights and modified tail lights, roof lining and pillar trims in Race-Tex Black, Chrono Package, Bose surround sound system and silver seat belts.
Porsche NZ's September celebrations
The anniversary will be celebrated publicly in Auckland this September. On the 20th, Porsche owners are set to gather at the Sir Colin Giltrap Raceway in South Auckland before driving in convoy to the Viaduct Events Centre, where their cars will be displayed as part of the celebration.
The program will include the public unveiling of the commemorative anniversary 911 GT3 Touring and a Porsche 917 "Kurzheck", specially flown to NZ from the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, for the occasion.
