The Long Wait

The Long Wait Before The First Drive

Ordering a Porsche 911 is supposed to be exciting. And it is. But it is also, quite frankly, torture.

When I placed the order for my Porsche 911 (992.1), I knew I wasn’t buying something off the shelf. I knew there would be a wait. What I didn’t fully appreciate was just how long a year (after Covid and during semi-conductor crisis) can feel when you already know exactly which car is being built for you somewhere in Stuttgart.

Every few weeks I replay the configuration in my head. Did I choose the right colour? Should I have changed that option? I read reviews, watch videos, listen to engine sounds you already know by heart. The excitement grows, but so does the impatience.

Making the Wait Bearable

Fortunately, Porsche UK offers a very clever antidote to the agony of waiting: the Porsche Experience Centre.

During that long year, I had the chance to visit the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone. It turned out to be far more than just a driving day – it was an education.

With an experienced Porsche driving instructor by my side, I began to understand what the 911 is really capable of. Not in theory, not in marketing language, but properly – through the steering wheel and the seat.

We explored high‑speed cornering, learning how much grip the car has when you trust it and commit. We worked on heavy braking, feeling how stable and composed the car remains even when you ask a lot from it. Launch control was, unsurprisingly, childish fun. And the skid plate was perhaps the most enlightening of all – a safe environment to understand balance, oversteer, and how the car communicates just before it reaches its limits.

It gave me confidence, but more importantly, it gave me respect for the car. I realised that a 911 isn’t just fast; it’s incredibly honest. It tells you what it’s doing, as long as you’re willing to listen.

The First Glimpse of My Car

Then came the moment when the wait shifted from painful to almost unbearable – the car entered production.

One day, an email arrived with factory photographs. There it was, my car, freshly painted. Seeing it in that state was surreal. No registration, no protective film, no delivery mileage – just pure metal, colour and intent.

More photos followed as the car moved along the assembly line. Interior taking shape. Details coming together. Each image made it more real, and somehow harder to wait. This wasn’t a Porsche 911 anymore. It was my Porsche 911.

Knowing that people were hand‑assembling the car, fitting the parts I had chosen months earlier, created a strange connection. Long before I turned the key, the relationship had already begun.

Almost There

By the time delivery day approached, the frustration of waiting had transformed into something else entirely. Anticipation mixed with gratitude. The Silverstone experience had prepared me. The factory photos had teased me. And the long delay, as difficult as it was, had made the final moment feel earned.

Looking back, the year‑long wait wasn’t just dead time. It was part of the journey. A journey that started with a configuration screen, passed through a racetrack at Silverstone, and wound its way through a factory in Germany – long before the first proper road trip even began.

And that, perhaps, is exactly what owning a 911 should feel like.