The Porsche 911 GT3 is one of the very finest sports cars on the market and the German automaker has just released a compelling video that shows how a custom ordered example with a unique color is brought to life. The vehicle in question is owned by racing driver Leh Keen and is painted in a special color dubbed Gold Bronze Metallic ordered through Porsche’s pricey Paint to Sample program.
Each and every 911 GT3 is built at Porsche’s Zuffenhausen plant and this video shows that once the body and the car’s underpinnings are assembled, it is completely degreased before being dipped into a tank filled with electrophoretic dip paint and deionized water. Porsche then applies a primer before the base coat and clear coat are applied with a standard color using about 4 liters of liquid application between the three stages.
Porsche says that the primers are chosen based on final color; light colors require light primers, while dark colors need – you guessed it – dark primer. The base coat is the colored layer which delivers the requested hue and is only up to 30 micrometers thick. To put that into perspective, a standard piece of printer paper is around 100 micrometers. The final coating is the thickest yet and is sprayed between 30 to 50 micrometers before it heads to the oven to be dried at a maximum temperature of 392˚ Fahrenheit (200˚Celcius) for a little over two and a half hours.
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More than 100 extra colors for the Porsche 911 and 718
“The quantity of colors offered is determined by the number of storage tanks and paint supply lines within the paint shops at the production plants,” says Porsche. “For this reason, no more than 17 standard exterior colors can be offered from a purely technical standpoint for the 911.”
However, when it comes to the Paint to Sample program, the automaker offers more than 100 additional pre-approved colors beyond the standard factory paints on a new 911 or 718. The Taycan, Cayenne, Panamera and Macan have more than 50 additional choices available. However, if you have deep enough pockets, then Porsche can consider new hues as well via the Paint to Sample Plus program, which can color match almost any request as long as it passes a “rigid feasibility test”.
While Porsche’s Gold Bronze Metallic is not a one-off that was applied to Keen’s car, it has only been ordered through the carmaker’s Paint to Sample program 24 times and this is the first 992-generation 911 that it adorns.
Speaking about the car, Keen said he “wanted to have this newest, modern 911 but then coated with a very classic old color. I told a few people I was going to go gold. People thought it was risky, and it really reinforced my choice and I wanted to see how it would turn out. I think a lot of people couldn’t quite picture the gold in their head.”
Of course, there is much more that makes the 911 GT3 special other than a special shade of paint. Its 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated flat-six delivers 503 hp and 347 lb-ft (470 Nm) and is no doubt one of the finest combustion engines of any current production car. This engine screams unlike any other and can be coupled to either a six-speed manual transmission or a PDK offering quicker shifts.
