WEBWIRE – Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Way more than a automobile model, Porsche is a way of life with a world group introduced collectively, no matter nationality, by a mutual ardour. Meet the devoted German couple who’re the residing embodiment of this ethos as they rack up 1000’s of kilometres and forge lifelong friendships throughout america.
For a lot of Porsche lovers, a street journey is that rarest of issues a fleeting few days away from the routine of each day life. However for German couple Christian and Ortrun Hartinger, the street journey is the routine. Having pushed extensively round Germany and Europe since they met in 2010, over the previous three years the couple have turned their consideration to the US, driving greater than 160,000 kilometres (100,000 miles) there from behind the wheel of their very own 911 fashions.
The Hartingers got here to the Porsche model in very alternative ways. Christian grew up in Bavaria within the Nineteen Seventies and remembers the acquainted sight of the unique 911 Turbo whereas enjoying High Trumps as a small boy. Within the Eighties he would go to the Frankfurt Motor Present annually, transfixed by the Porsche stand and the ever-evolving define of the 911.
Ortrun, in contrast, was born in East Germany, the place a Porsche was for a lot of a long time as unfamiliar because it was unaffordable. Rising up, we didn’t have vehicles like Porsche, she explains. We solely had Trabants and Wartburgs and that was it. After I was very small, I used to be all the time enjoying on the street on these sandy hills left by the builders developing homes. And sooner or later I discovered a small toy automobile within the sand that had been left there by one other child. And it was a Porsche. It mustve been an F-Mannequin again then. I fell in love with the form and took it house and mentioned to my mom: When Im a grown up I’ll purchase this automobile. She instructed me I might by no means have the ability to as a result of it was a automobile from the West and we weren’t allowed them. However I didnt perceive that and instructed myself that sometime I might have that automobile! And I stored the 911 in my thoughts perpetually.
The street journeys start
When the wall got here down, Ortrun was lastly capable of fulfil her promise. She purchased the primary of many 911 fashions and finally becoming a member of her native Porsche Membership, the place she met Christian for the primary time. And so started the street journeys.
What’s uncommon, however admirable, in regards to the Hartingers adventures is that they all the time take two vehicles. From the very starting, we have now all the time pushed collectively in two vehicles, says Christian. Beginning in Germany after which round Europe. Each of us like to drive, and like to drive Porsche, so we all the time did our excursions with two vehicles. There was by no means the choice to go along with only one.
From the European mainland to america of America
Having explored a lot of the European mainland, assembly fellow lovers wherever they went, the Hartingers have been inspired by a buddy and fellow Porsche proprietor in Germany to attend the Porsche Membership of Americas annual Porsche Parade in Palm Springs. We each wished to be part of it and I assumed we might merely hire a Porsche every there, Christian says. However Ortrun mentioned we both do it with our personal vehicles or in no way!
So started the complicated technique of importing two vehicles for the aim on this occasion two 911 GT3 RS fashions (997) which have been shipped to Florida in November 2020 forward of an journey that will cross your entire of the southern states, taking in such historic and scenic sights as Pikes Peak, Monument Valley and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Regardless of the arrival of the Covid pandemic, which resulted within the vehicles being put into storage for ten months and the Porsche Parade in Palm Springs being postponed, the couple managed to drive some 29,000 kilometres of their GT3 fashions, assembly members of Americas enthusiastic and welcoming Porsche group wherever they went.
A second street journey started in 2023, this time with a newly acquired Jade Inexperienced 911 Speedster (991) taking the place of one of many GT vehicles. The vehicles have been shipped from Hamburg once more, arriving in Florida in mid-June forward of spirited sprint to Palm Springs in California for the eagerly awaited PCA parade. The next few weeks would see the Hartingers return to Pikes Peak in Colorado earlier than attending Monterey Automobile Week and Rennsport Reunion 7 at Laguna Seca in California.
Flying house to Germany at irregular intervals for work Christian is an architect and Ortrun a pharmacist the couple prolonged this journey into 2024, returning to Florida in time for the 24 Hours of Daytona earlier than their vehicles as soon as once more made the lengthy journey again to Europe.
Uncommon 911 Turbo Targa in motion
However there can be a 3rd act for the Hartingers within the US, starting in the direction of the tip of final yr and that includes one more very particular automobile. As a result of some months earlier, the couple had purchased a uncommon 911 Turbo Targa, and determined it ought to go to Porsche Basic for restoration.
It was in 2024 that Porsche unveiled the primary automobile to be customised post-production by way of the Sonderwunsch programme a Carrera GT that was handled to a mixture of manufacturing facility restoration, new car manufacturing and Porsche Unique design. The Hartingers Targa was put by way of the identical programme, with a nut and bolt restoration that blended refurbished originals elements the place doable with remanufactured objects the place crucial. The automobile was repainted in placing Amazon Inexperienced Metallic and upholstered with a novel Lemon Yellow inside.
There have been instances when the folks at Porsche Basic have been saying, Oh, no Mrs Hartinger, give it some thought. Possibly its too vibrant, Christian laughs. However ultimately they mentioned OK, lets do it! And once we picked it up, everybody was saying Wow! Its an important color!
The odometer reset to zero, the Hartingers returned to the US in the summertime of 2024. Becoming a member of the Targa was Ortruns black 911 Turbo (997), providing the couple two very totally different, if equally compelling, vehicles with which to undertake one other unforgettable street journey.
Their newest tour has already taken in Luft 10 at Common Studios in Los Angles, 000 Magazines Turbo 50 occasion on the Summit Skywalker Ranch close to San Francisco, Yosemite Nationwide Park and Loss of life Valley. At each cease they’ve met and been welcomed by the countrys huge group of Porsche lovers.
They’ve been greater than welcoming, Ortrun says. We’ve had invites to stick with folks wed by no means met earlier than. Some even provided to allow us to keep once they werent at house, which was unbelievable. All people is so pleasant and simply pleased to see the vehicles.
The Porsche group in America looks like a household, Christian provides. And that is the rationale we didnt cease after one street journey. Or the second. And now have been on the third
On the time of writing, the Hartingers have racked up round 170,000 trouble-free kilometres on their US street journeys, criss-crossing the continent, shortening the areas between the countrys many and diversified teams of Porsche lovers. When the odometer will cease transferring remains to be anybodys guess.
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