Since 2019 Lake Como has hosted the ‘FuoriConcorso’ – an exclusive lifestyle experience format celebrating automotive lifestyle culture. This year’s edition at the stately park between Villa del Grumello and Villa Sucota was dedicated to bespoke Porsches, tailored to the exacting specifications of the German brand’s most exclusive clients.
FuoriConcorso Sonderwunsch (meaning “special wish’) brought 30 creations from Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur studio to the heart of Como. The brand has been catering to ‘special requests’ since the first Porsche cars were built in 1948. (It’s recorded that a Porsche 356 was even covered with fake fur in the ’50s for one client.)
In the 1960s, its affluent clients began adding stylistic demands. Lifestyle accessories, such as special leather interiors and ski racks, became as requested as engineering and performance tweaks and upgrades. To meet the interest, Porsche created its ‘Sonderwunschprogramm’, offering customisation of their new sports cars. These ranged from a tiger print interiors on a 914/6 to a groovy Paisley print on a rare Carrera RS 2.7.
Porsche established Porsche Exclusive, aka The Dream Factory, in 1986 to fulfil even more extravagant and wild requests and its cars are now considered the Holy Grail among Porsche aficionados.
At the launch of the Porsche 959, a Qatari Sheikh bought seven of the supercars. He commissioned custom interiors emblazoned with his coat of arms and very individual colour schemes, including 24-carat gold-plated tailpipes and his family crest in place of the Porsche badge. Two of the rare cars – one in burgundy and the other bright orange – were on show at the Lake Como event.
‘I adored the seven Porsche 959s commissioned by Sheikh Al Thani as a teenager in the 1990s, and Porsche’s special creations have kept exciting me ever since,’ said Guglielmo Miani, founder of FuoriConcorso and president of Milanese luxury brand Larusmiani. (See his recent FuoriConcorso Quattro project celebrating Audi’s Quattro technology in Milan).
The gardens of Villa del Grumello – one of the most glamorous estates around Lake Como – were a beautiful backdrop for the bespoke cars. Meanwhile, at Villa Sucota, rarely seen concept cars and prototypes from the Porsche Museum were assembled.
FuoriConcorso also debuted its Open Museum for the 2022 edition, extending the show to the lakeside estate of Villa Olmo and the Museo Nazionale dell’ Automobile from Turin, where 25 to 30 of the most iconic Italian cars, such as the Ferrari 500 F2, were on show.
See more of Andrea Klainguti’s photographs from FuoriConcorso 2022 at Classic Driver.
