A Package from Porsche Japan

When we got home from a whitewater rafting trip last weekend, a package from the Porsche Customer Care Center was waiting for us. I opened it to find this:

Beneath the words “Welcome to Porsche World” was this letter:

Dear Porsche Owner,
Thank you for choosing a Porsche.
For more than 60 years, Porsche has helped shape the history of the sports car,
captivating people in every era.
Whether you’re enjoying a long drive through beautiful scenery
or taking the wheel in your everyday life, a Porsche makes every journey a special experience.
We hope you’ll savor all that makes a Porsche special every time you get behind the wheel.
Enclosed is The Porsche Principle, a beautifully produced brand book exploring Porsche’s origins,
its philosophy of engineering, and the models that have made their mark on automotive history.
You’ll also find a leaflet introducing activities and services to make your Porsche life even more rewarding.
We hope you enjoy them.
We look forward to being part of your Porsche journey for many years to come.
Sincerely,
Porsche Japan K.K.

—

The Porsche Principle

Come to think of it, we’d received one of these before. I seem to remember my husband saying, “I read The Porsche Principle cover to cover!” So I opened it up and found a Porsche catalog, along with…

…The Porsche Principle.

As I flipped through the pages, I found…

Photos of Ferdinand Porsche and his son Ferry, as well as the third-generation Porsche who helped develop the 911. The book also introduces Porsche models from across the years, with descriptions of each.

That’s amazing. Apparently, 70 percent of all Porsches ever built are still on the road today. Incredible… The book also shares stories of cars that have covered more than 600,000 kilometers and still deliver the Porsche driving experience just as they should.

More than 600,000 kilometers…

The circumference of the Earth is apparently 40,075 kilometers, so that’s almost 15 trips around the planet. Porsche engineering is impressive, of course, but the owners who rack up that kind of mileage deserve credit, too. A round trip from our home to Osaka is about 50 kilometers. Even if we made that trip every single day for a year, we’d cover just 18,250 kilometers. At that rate, reaching 600,000 kilometers would take 32 years.

Th-thirty-two years! ( ﾟ∀ﾟ)･∵. !!

Hats off to them. They must take incredibly good care of their cars. I say I love Porsches (especially the Panamera), but I don’t even drive every day, and I’m still a fairly new driver. Suddenly, writing a blog like this feels a little presumptuous. Wow—there really are some incredible people out there.

I Want to Visit the Porsche Museum in Germany

The book also covers Porsche’s wartime move to Gmünd, the development of the 911, and Mission E, Porsche’s electric car concept.

*Image source: Porsche Japan

One thing in The Porsche Principle really struck me: these words from Ferdinand Porsche.

“I couldn’t find the car I dreamed of anywhere, so I decided to build it myself.”

That’s incredible—and impossibly cool. Anyone can say, “If only…” But having the resolve to build the thing yourself, and then actually creating a truly outstanding sports car, is something else entirely. I asked my husband, “The Porsche 356 is so cool. Did we see one at the Porsche Museum in Germany?”

“Yeah, we did.”

“Why didn’t you tell me at the time? (-_-)/” I said.

“I mean, you weren’t interested at all. You walked right past everything and looked bored the whole time.”

Oh, right… When we visited the Porsche Museum in Germany three years ago, I didn’t know anything about Porsche and wasn’t especially interested in cars. All I could think about was buying chocolate souvenirs.

What was I thinking!

I’d love to go back.