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Porsche’s Sonderwunsch or “Special Wish” team gets to work on some pretty unique projects, from road-legal versions of Le Mans prototypes to hardcore retro models that never were. Its latest creation is actually three vehicles, honoring a relationship that began about 20 years ago, when the folks at Pixar reached out to Porsche to request permission to cast Cars’ Sally Carrera as a 911. Toy Story 5 hits theaters later this month, and so the two parties decided to commemorate the occasion with three new one-offs, each immortalizing the series’ iconic protagonists in the form of a different 911.
These three cars—a 911 Carrera T as Woody, 911 Carrera Targa 4 GTS as Jessie, and 911 GT3 RS as Buzz Lightyear—will be sold as part of a charitable initiative benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross, and Starlight Children’s Foundation. They’re each as bespoke as bespoke gets, from a livery completely painted by hand for Buzz’s GT3, to a special ribbon embroidery on the seats of Jessie’s Targa, to an unprecedented finishing process for the body of Woody’s Carrera T that resembles a pair of well-worn jeans.
There are details to admire all over the vehicles, but the denim blue paint for Woody’s 911 is a standout element. To create the effect, Porsche did something it’s never done before, impressing real denim fabric into the car’s paint to get the texture to transfer authentically. It was an entirely new process, intended to celebrate Woody’s status as an old and beloved toy in the films, but Sonderwunsch’s Project Manager for Inspiration vehicles, Dominic Mayer, said that if clients in the future would like a similar treatment on their commissions, they can now do so, because Porsche’s validated the technique.
Porsche 911 Carrera T inspired by Woody. Porsche
“The fabric and denim look is matching all the industry standards—especially, our own Porsche standards that we have for the fabrics,” Mayer said in a roundtable briefing. “We do abrasive tests, things like that with the material. So, this example of the fabric and denim look is something that we can offer in the future for other customers as well. When we develop [something like] this, we normally don’t do this just for one car because then the costs are so high that no one wants to pay them.”
The same goes for the new wheels that the Sonderwunsch team has contributed to Woody and Jessie’s cars. Both incorporate a Fuchs-style, five-spoke design, but their center caps are stars, referencing the characters’ sheriff status. Porsche had never designed an entirely new wheel for a limited project like this before, but now that it has, it’s open to the request going forward.
“They are really completely a new geometry, a completely new wheel design, and so they were just especially designed and also produced for these two cars,” Mayer said. “We didn’t offer this before—or we don’t offer this yet—if a customer comes to us and asks for a specially designed and manufactured wheel, this is something we will now think about for the future.”
Porsche 911 Carrera Targa 4 inspired by Jessie. Porsche
There’s seemingly a story behind every design decision Porsche and Pixar made on these vehicles. The pearl white paint on Jessie’s Targa, for example, might look fairly standard in pictures, and, naturally, it references the pearl buttons on her shirt. But the color was actually pulled from Porsche’s history and the unlikeliest place—the 1983 Porsche Gruppe B concept that predated the legendary 959. Meanwhile, every single color you see on Buzz’s GT3—all 10 of them—was taken from Porsche’s color library. And that’s not a wrap, as Porsche told us it took more than 350 man hours to paint that car.
As you’d figure, everyone involved ruminated at length about which character to match with which car—except in Buzz’s case, where the choice was obvious.
“There wasn’t a lot of discussion there—it was like, ‘That’s it,’” Bob Pauley, Pixar Production Designer and the original creator of Buzz Lightyear, said during the briefing. “Buzz Lightyear, when he shows up in the scene, he’s a big threat to Woody because he is the coolest toy. And so, we’re doing the car, well—what is the coolest one?”
The entire livery of Buzz’s GT3 RS (or “SR,” for “Space Ranger,” as Pixar has nicknamed it) is remarkably intricate, but the coolest aspect about it is that when viewed from behind, with both doors open, that candy-striping red-and-white wing pattern from his wings carries through to the vehicle. I also have to shout out the little winglets on the hood vents, which are painted asymmetrically, to match the different buttons on his suit.
Porsche 911 GT3 RS inspired by Buzz Lightyear, complete with Lightyear-branded Goodyear tires. Porsche
If you grew up with these films, you’ll find references everywhere in these one-offs. Porsche and Pixar might seem like an unlikely combination outside of the Cars world, but hearing representatives from both sides talk about it, the enthusiasm they share becomes immediately apparent.
“Porsche and Pixar both have this very high level of excellence and very high level of detail, right? We care so much about authenticity and about details in the cars, that there’s never a time when we weren’t on the same page about that,” Jay Ward, Pixar’s Creative Director of Franchise, said. “We always strive for ‘What’s the right thing?’ Not, ‘Oh this is too hard, or ‘This is impossible,’ but, ‘What’s the right thing to tell a story?’”
Porsche and Pixar will announce the terms of the sale and the money raised for charity at a later date. Toy Story 5 hits theaters nationwide on June 19. And, who knows—you might just see this trio wind up as toy cars down the line.
Porsche
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
