Sonderwunsch – a mythical name among Porschephiles. For around four decades, this small department has created dream Porsches far beyond the sports car marque’s catalogue – and at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2025 it presented its latest creation, the 963 RSP built for Roger Penske, alongside the car’s inspiration, the Porsche 917 converted to road use for Count Gregorio Rossi di Montelera.
Although Sonderwunsch as an entity was set up in the 1970s, the origins really go back much further, says Grant Larson (pictured above) – director of Special Projects/Style Porsche and Design for Sonderwunsch. “The first Sonderwunsch-style project was a rear wiper on a 356; when somebody requested that, Porsche developed it, engineered it and then built it,” he says.
Sonderwunsch made its name with the flamboyant 964-inspired Flachbau 911s of the 1980s, but it took a break until 2021. “The timing was right, because there was an increasing demand – you could feel it,” Grant explains. He’s well placed to take the temperature of the Porsche faithful. After a spell at Audi, he joined the Stuttgart brand in 1989 just as the firm would enter one of the most challenging periods of its history. Since then he’s played a key role in helping Porsche bounce back, as well as in cars such as the Carrera GT: “There was definitely an increasing demand for individualisation.”
Prior to 2021, such special requests were put through the exclusive options department. “It was more geared towards options you could order out of a catalogue, such as wood trims, carbonfibre packages and special paint, different wheel options and things like that,” Grant says.
That intermediate level of customisation still exists as part of what Grant describes as the pyramid of choices. “At the bottom, you have things you can order out of the catalogue, and the next step is paint to sample (PTS) and project consultation, such as coming to Germany and specifying your car,” he explains. “The next step is Sonderwunsch – we started with a big bang in 2021 with the one-offs: these are the cars that could take three or four years to build.”
The first example was the Porsche 993 Speedster built for Milanese designer Luca Trazzi, revealed in 2024 (pictured above). Using a 1994 911 Carrera Cabriolet as the basis for the project, Sonderwunsch worked with Trazzi to create not only a bespoke 993 – a Speedster model was never officially offered for this version of the 911 – but also its paint. Called Otto Yellow, it was developed especially for the car, which also features conical exterior mirrors inspired by 1960s models, but with four-point daytime running lights from current Porsche cars. It was unveiled at Monterey Car Week 2024.
Grant says there are five projects currently in build – and thanks to the publicity around some of the projects, what were originally one-offs have been replicated. However, this is very much down to the customer behind the original project. “There’s a car that hasn’t been announced yet, but somehow the one-off customers find each other, not through us – they are talking behind our backs, in a good way, and they’re co-ordinating among themselves to use the same data to make another one,” Grant explains.
The current projects are more geared toward water-cooled models – and not just 911s. Sonderwunsch has worked on the above 1981 928 S for singer-songwriter Álvaro Soler, which features not only a 360-degree sound experience developed in tandem with the Porsche Development Centre Weissach, but a guitar painted in the same colour as the car and a case trimmed with the same leather as the interior. At the moment there is a Cayenne in the Sonderwunsch workshop, as well as several 911s.
Grant says the most full-on transformations are more in-depth, creating versions that never existed. “One of them has a very strong motor sport character – it’s barely street legal,” he smiles. “It’s very lightweight and track-focused. The customer requested that Manthey Racing get involved, not just with the engine, but also with everything else – the spoilers, the suspension and so on.”
Grant says that while in theory there isn’t anything Sonderwunsch would turn down, close collaboration with the client helps to focus the project. “To a certain degree there are things we cannot do. For example, with the Luca Trazzi 993 Speedster project, some things in his original idea didn’t work – we deviated slightly, but it was a common agreement,” he explains. “However, most clients never question what we do. In the case of new projects, a customer could have several ideas, say three to five, and from those that are too strange we manage the ideas into what is doable.”
Other manufacturers with bespoke departments in the same vein as Sonderwunsch have chosen to keep body design very much an in-house thing, ruling out working with external design houses. However, it’s something Sonderwunsch is willing to take suggestions on. “It hasn’t happened yet, but it would depend on the customer,” says Grant.
He finds that there isn’t a unifying ‘style’ defined by where bespoke commissions come from: “Anything can come from anywhere – some things really surprise us.”
The Goodwood Festival of Speed saw the UK public debut of the Porsche 963 RSP. As an idea formed by Porsche North America, it meant Grant wasn’t involved in the first phase of the project. “We researched the colour of the original 917, and fitted a luxurious beige leather interior,” he says. “It involved all kinds of research, and we hit it just right. In January and February we started the talks; we specified the car in Germany and executed it in the US, and it was ready just in time for Le Mans.”
Grant sees Sonderwunsch’s appeal only increasing; with two more creations due to be unveiled in 2025 and more coming down the line, the future looks special.
You can find out more about Sonderwunsch here.
