Porsche and Thailand - The Second Rising of the Asian Tiger

In 1993, which happens to be the same year I was born, an Arctic Silver 964-generation 911 Turbo arrived on the shores of Thailand. Being the first Porsche to be officially imported into Thailand, that was a pivotal moment in Thai motoring history.

Fast forward 30 years and Porsche Exclusiv Manufactur has launched an exclusive line-up of limited edition 911 GTSs. On the surface, the range of 911 Carrera GTS 30 Years Porsche Thailand Edition cars might just seem to be an application of Paint-To-Sample colours from the Porsche archive, but I think it is leaps and bounds beyond that.

For one, this represents the first time a Southeast Asian Country is being bestowed with a market-specific limited edition model. According to (unofficial) sources, projects that give rise to such limited edition models are only undertaken once in 2 years. Throughout the world, offices in each market have a chance to submit a proposal to the Porsche Sonderwunsch team (special request), a division of the Exclusiv Manufaktur department.

Working with Exclusiv Mankfaktur, each team (or local office) goes through an extensive evaluation process before being awarded with the rare opportunity to produce such cars. Imagine  vying for a spot with the many Porsche offices throughout the world!

But most importantly, and as Porsche Asia Pacific CEO, Hannes Ruoff coins eloquently, "Porsche has found its way into the hearts of the Thai people, and, reciprocally, Thailand has found its way into the heart of Porsche.” It is a proud and pivotal moment to have Asian culture being represented on the world stage, especially for a brand like Porsche that carries such a large cult-like following.

I may not be Thai, but being a fellow South East Asian and having spent quite a bit of time in the land of a thousand smiles, you do feel a great sense of honour when the folks at Stuttgart take the time and effort to immerse themselves in a culture that is foreign and more than 10,000km away from where they call home.

What was most remarkable about the 30 Years Thailand Special Edition project (as the word on the streets goes), was that the idea of paying homage to the 7 Thai lucky colours for each day of the week was proposed not by an individual from the Thai office, but from one of the members from Exclusiv Mankfaktur.

Whilst in Bangkok, we had Grant Larson, Director of Special Projects at Exclusive Manufaktur-Porsche AG personally talk us through the nuances of bringing the project to success. It really gave us a sense of the level of involvement of the team at Exclusive Manufaktur from conceptualisation to delivery of the finished product.

Larson, a figure in his own right, is most famously known for bringing designs like the 986 Boxster, the Carrera GT and most recently, the beastly looking 911 GT3 R Rennsport to life. Hearing him and Muan On-Sri, lead designer of the Adidas Ultraboost 21 and Pureboost models talk through their design process, inspirations and challenges during an exclusive Q&A session at Soho House Bangkok certainly helped one look beyond fanfare of the finished product, and into the compromises and multiple balancing acts that had to be performed throughout their design journeys.

Understanding the challenges faced by Larson and his team in the late 90s and early 2000s also gave us a sense of enduring passion he has for the brand. It is a language that any Porsche-phile will immediately understand. Having him describe how teams were struggling to make ends meet, and yet were able to give birth to icons like the 968 Boxster and the E1 Cayenne at the same time was inspirational, and definitely stoked the Porsche fire for the local community.

As if there was not enough passion and soul, the 8th edition of Das Treffen, held in December 2023, marked a record turn out for any Porsche event organised in the region, with a turn out of more than 600 Porsches and more than 2600 attendees.

The theme for the 8th edition was ‘Freitag’, which means celebration in German. It was chosen because 2023 marked Porsche’s 75th Anniversary, 60 years of the 911 and 30 years of Thailand. With such a turn out, in particular with cars arriving from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore, coupled with the atmosphere, this edition of Das Treffen was one to remember, and occupied a space in the record books.

2023 was a bumper year for Porsche in the region. On top of the 30 Years Porsche Thailand Edition models, we also saw the release of the limited Porsche x Puma California Pro 911 ‘Dreams in Colours’ Edition line up of sneakers, the return of Porsche World Road Show in Singapore and the opening of the Porsche NOW pop-up store at Guoco Tower.

As we move into 2024, we are already looking forward to the official opening of Porsche Studio Singapore and some news of another foray into electrification for the brand with the Macan EV. Is this the second rising of the Asian Tiger? For Porsche Asia Pacific, it certainly is shaping up to be so.

Photos by Horizon Drivers Club, Porsche Asia Pacific

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