European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 5, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cars catered Toth individual Al the porsche factory cars Are made by  above a stack of 911 body Shell tops wait Tor Assembly and welding. At left a me chanic works on a 911 engine. Cars that Cost rom $20.000 up Are not just any cars. They re not made like average cars either a big reason the Cost so  car is made by hand. They re All hand welded said porsche employee Thomas naga a during a tour of the factory. Not quite everything is done by hand. Robots for example do the painting. But the construction of the engine the soul of the porsche is not an Assembly line affair. Mechanics Are assigned to individual stations responsible for certain aspects in engine building. When they finish their part they sign a Pink card attached to the engine in a space allotted for their Job completed engines Are put through a thorough test. If there Are problems the tester sends the engine Back to the individual whose work was faulty. It s time consuming. But they Don t turn out cars by the thousands at porsche. The company produces just 235 cars per Day representing All four models. The 4-Cylinder 944 is the most popular a total of 105 both Turbo and Standard models Are made daily. About 30 of the less expensive 4-Cylinder 924s Are turned out each Day about 80 of the 6-Cylinder 911 and just 20 of the lop of the line 8-Cylinder 928. The engines for All the cars Are made at the a Offenhausen Plant near Stuttgart As Are the bodies for the 911 and 928. The bodies for the 4-Cylinder models Are made in nearby Necka sulm. If you ordered one of these cars today it would Lake at least three months before you d be behind the wheel. If you had specific requests As numerous porsche buyers do it would take longer. The people at porsche stress that their product appeals to individuals whose individual tastes they accommodate. They offer 70 to 100 different options for each Model meaning that rarely do they build two identical cars in one month. It s very important that the customer gets the feeling that he has an individual car said naga a take upholstery for example. In addition to the Standard variations in the fabric or leather the company offers seamstresses often work with other materials requested by customers. Some customers even Send in their own such As a Hunter who supplied the leather from an Elk he shot. Color is also individual. Like any Auto manufacturer porsche offers a selection of Basic colors. No need to stick to it though if you can afford something exotic and extraordinary. One customer provided a lipstick and requested that the car match the color. Others Send in fabric samples and want a car to match. Porsche has a department for special requests and customizing Richard Heifer in charge of customer service for this department gets phone Calls from All Over the world from those with specific wishes. We can t do Ever thing though. Certain countries have certain  he said. Those who want to or video in their cars have to go elsewhere. We Don t like to do it. It s too  they do things like install a wooden dashboard in a car ordered for saudi Arabia. Or create the popular Flat nose a modification on the 911 Model that costs a Mere 50,000 Marks about $23.500 extra and takes 6 to 8 weeks to build. It s extravagant but nothing to compare with the 959, the deluxe limited production car that was introduced at the Frankfurt Auto fair last year. Only 200 of the $200,000 car which can do 200 Mph Are being produced. In Case you wanted one sorry. They re All taken by whom the Creme de la Creme said company president Peter Schutz. We have no plans to make any More he added. The costs prohibit producing the car in volume. One bearing in a rear Axle costs 1,000 Marks about $470. There Are microprocessors in that car that Cost As much As a vow  while the 959 won t be in the showrooms Schutz says porsche fans can look to the company s race cars for what the future will bring on the Highway. We introduced a 4-wheel-Dnve car that started and finished at be mans. We did t do that to play  the porsche executive says that any new engines the company develops will be designed for unleaded fuel with a catalytic converter. He cites the new 944 Turbo the first car to fully implement this concept As an example. There will no longer be first and second class porsche. The . Models will perform the same As the  . Page 16 the stars and stripes tuesday August 5,1986