This Gulf Blue Porsche 911 GTS Spent 78 Days at Sea Before Its First Drive
A one-off Exclusive Manufaktur 911 GTS rode two ships from Bremerhaven to Tahiti, where the speed limit is 50 mph and the dealer sells 20 to 30 cars a year.
Porsche has put a 911 on the longest sea voyage it says any of its cars has likely ever taken before being driven: a Gulf Blue 911 Carrera GTS that spent 78 days and roughly 14,300 miles (23,000 km) on two ships to reach a customer in Tahiti.
The car is a one-off Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur build ordered by Paul Pouvil, a repeat Porsche customer in French Polynesia, and specced as a tribute to Steve McQueen's 1971 film Le Mans. Underneath, it is the same 992.2 Carrera GTS whose 3.6-liter T-Hybrid flat-six just made the Wards 10 Best Engines list.
Two ships, 1,872 hours
According to Porsche, the coupe left Bremerhaven on February 20, 2026, aboard the Höegh Trove, a vehicle carrier that sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa, rounded Cape Agulhas, crossed the Indian Ocean, and ran along the south coast of Australia before docking in Auckland, New Zealand, on April 28.
For the last 2,500 miles (4,000 km), the 911 was sealed in a container on the Capitaine Kupe, which left Auckland on April 29 and reached Papeete's Motu Uta terminal on May 9. Porsche puts the total at 1,872 hours, or about 12,400 nautical miles.
The destination is a record of its own. Centre Porsche Polynésie Française in Papeete is the brand's most distant dealership from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, about 11,200 miles (18,000 km) away as the crow flies, according to Porsche. Its operator, German Motors, sells 20 to 30 cars a year across a territory of 118 islands with a population of around 280,000.
A Le Mans spec for 50-mph roads
Jérôme Lety, who runs the dealership, designed the car with Exclusive Manufaktur around a Paint to Sample finish in Gulf Blue, the pale shade worn by the Porsche 917 McQueen drove in the film. Leather, silver stitching, color-matched seat belts, a titanium exhaust, and carbon wheel accents round out the theme. Porsche's Paint to Sample program offers more than 160 pre-approved colors, as the company detailed when it expanded the service in 2021. The same personalization arm has turned out far more extreme projects, including a road-legal slantnose 911 built for one customer.
The hardware is stock Carrera GTS: 532 hp (398 kW) and 449 lb-ft from the single-turbo hybrid flat-six, good for 0–60 mph in 2.9 seconds and a 194-mph top track speed, per Porsche Cars North America's launch figures. In the U.S., the coupe started at $164,900 before a $1,995 delivery fee when the hybrid generation arrived for 2025.
None of that is usable where the car now lives. French Polynesia's rural speed limit is 50 mph (80 km/h), rising to 56 mph (90 km/h) on one short stretch, and Tahiti's 71-mile (114-km) coastal loop is known more for traffic than for corners. The owner took his first drive on neighboring Mooréa instead, including the hairpin climb to the Belvédère d'Opunohu lookout, about 790 feet (240 m) up.
Why Porsche is telling this story
The piece first ran in Porsche's own Christophorus magazine, so it is brand storytelling rather than a product announcement. But the timing is not accidental. The 911 is one of the few bright spots in Porsche's 2026 numbers: U.S. 911 sales are up 33% through September while global deliveries fell 16%. Customer-built one-offs with a motorsport backstory are exactly the kind of high-margin business the company wants more of.
The car isn't finished yet, either. Lety and Pouvil are already planning to add the orange accents of Porsche's 1970s race cars. Porsche hasn't said what that will involve or when it will happen.
