Porsches are special cars. Fast, dynamic and rich in heritage they are a true icon of sports cars.
Imagine how special it would feel then to have your own Porsche, one custom designed by you, literally with your name on it.
That’s what Porsche Australia just did for Matt Campbell, the Aussie ace plying his trade for Porsche in its Le Mans Hypercar program in the USA and around the world. The company built a one-of-a-kind 911 GTS in honour of Campbell’s win in the 2024 Bathurst 12-hour, finished in a bright green inspired by the famous ‘Grello’ colours worn by Mathey Racing at Bathurst and the Nurburgring and with a raft of special touches from Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur and its Sonderwunsch department.
And we got to drive it (even before Campbell has).
“It’s truly special and I feel very honoured to have a Porsche with my name attached to it from my local market,” Campbell tells Torquecafe. “Having started my Porsche journey in Australia just over 10 years ago now I would have never expected something like this all these years later. Also to have the car linked to a special race in 2024 when we won the Bathurst 12-hours, a race that I absolutely love, just makes it that much more special.”
For sports car racing fans ‘Grello’ is an iconic paint scheme, the combination of green and yellow has adorned Manthey’s 911 racers for decades and carried it to numerous wins. But driving down the street, it really stands out.
Grello isn’t subtle – but it’s not meant to be. Just like it helps Manthey stand out on the racetrack, Porsche chose it for this unique 911 because it wants it to stop traffic (which it did on multiple occasions).
This isn’t just a car, it’s a 398kW, 0-100km/h in 3.0 seconds billboard. This has been built to showcase the full potential of Exclusive Manufaktur and Sonderwunsch, letting everyone know that they can have their own unique Porsche if they have the desire and the dollars.
For those unfamiliar, Exclusive Manufaktur provides an array of pre-designed options that owners can choose from – think different wheel designs, aerokits, sticker and trim packages.
The next level up is Sonderwunsch (German for ‘special request’) is the brand’s in-house customisation program that allows owners to personalise their car to their heart’s content (or at least as much as their wallet allows). As Porsche says itself “almost anything is possible” with Sonderwunsch, with the department able to customise both new and old Porsches to whatever the owner wants.
In the case of the car we’re driving here, that means the bespoke colour, plus purple wing mirror (because they were purple on the Bathurst winning 911 GT3 R) as well as unique headrests with ‘Bathurst’ and the sillouhette of the Mt Panorama circuit stitched into them. The seats themselves are 3D-printed bodyform buckets with yellow mesh highlights that are seemingly inspired by modern racing seats with air-conditioning vents built-in for endurance races like the Bathurst 12-hour.
Exclusive Manufaktur adds tinted HD-Matrix LED headlights, the popular Motor Sports Decorative Sticker set in yellow plus yellow ‘Porsche’ logo on the side. This department is also responsible for the optional Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes fitted to the car.
The Grello treatment helps turn the 911 GTS T-Hybrid from an understated supercar into something that looks as outlandish as it performs. As we’ve written previously, the new GTS is a modern masterpiece for the brand, combining its decades of handling fine-tuning with a brand-new powertrain that will carry the 911 into the future.
A new 3.6-litre flat-six engine combines with an electric exhaust gas turbocharger and an integrated electric motor, positioned between the compressor and turbine wheel to allow for near-instantaneous response. On top of this, there is a permanent magnet synchronous motor integrated into the new eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.
The result of all this technology is 398kW of power, 610Nm of torque and the previously mentioned 3.0 second 0-100km/h time. The performance of this new generation GTS is nothing short of phenomenal thanks to this new hybrid assistance.
It’s an appropriate choice of model for this project too, more so than a 911 GT3, because even though the GT3 racer doesn’t have a hybrid system, Campbell gets to enjoy the performance benefits of hybrids in his 963 LMDh prototype – so it’s fitting the car with his name on it also gets an electric boost.
As mentioned in our previous test of the new GTS, hybridisation is turbocharging for this era, introducing a new level of performance through cutting-edge technology. The punch it provides is breathtaking and has really elevated the 911 GTS even amid the many great variants of the famed sports car.
And while the standard 911 GTS T-Hybrid (or any 911, for that matter) is a fantastic sports car, there’s no doubt that Exclusive Manufaktur and Sonderwunsch can elevate it to something even more fantastic and truly unique.
Due to the nature of these programs, and the popularity of Exclusive Manufaktur, it’s hard for Porsche Australia to exactly quantify how many of these special cars are in the country. But when it comes to special Sonderwunsch creations like ‘Matt’s Grello’ there are only “a handful” in Australia.
So you don’t even have to win the Bathurst 12-hour to get your own personal Porsche… but it helps.
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