Porsche has been doing factory deliveries since 1950

A unique opportunity for Porsche buyers is the available option of picking up the new car at the factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany. For an extra price, the buyer gets a VIP lunch, a visit to the Porsche museum, a tour of the manufacturing facility, and most importantly, hand-delivery of a newly purchased Porsche fresh off the line. The tradition of the Porsche factory delivery turns 70 this month, and Porsche unearthed some photos of the first factory deliver, as well as several others from the company’s history.

While the handover today takes place in a factory or in a parking lot, the first one occurred in a field in front of “Plant 1” on May 26, 1950. A specialist of neurology and psychiatry, 43-year-old Ottomar Domnick took delivery of his Fish Silver Porsche 356. Porsche points out his age is a strange coincidence, as it parallels the 2020 handover of a Taycan to customer Florian Böhme on his 43rd birthday. 

Domnick had visited the factory previously, according to Herbert Linge, a mechanic who started training at Porsche KG in 1943 and had taken Domnick for a drive in his car before it was handed over.

“I was 14 years old when I started work at the first Porsche training workshop,” Linge said. “In those days, we were six mechanics and two technical draftsmen. Ferdinand Porsche often walked past our workshop with important guests in tow. He would always stop to say hello while keeping his guests briefly waiting. That’s something I’ll never forget. When Ottomar Domnick collected his Porsche 356, he really celebrated the occasion. But he had been coming to the factory every day anyway to see how far on we were with the work. Even Ferry Porsche briefly dropped in when the doctor was presented with his sports car.”

The last image in the gallery above shows a copy of Domnick’s original order from 1949. It is particularly unique and a notable relic, as it is written on a Volkswagen form. Volkswagen has been crossed off and “Porsche-Sport” was written in its place. Porsche says the order was processed by the Volkswagen Hahn dealership because there was no German sales distribution at that time. “To this day, Ottomar Domnick’s Porsche 356 represents the beginning of Porsche in Germany,” a press release says.

Today, roughly 20 deliveries each day, or about 2,500 per year, take place at Zuffenhausen.

In order, the gallery shows collections of a 356 in 1950, a 356 A 1500 GS Carrera Speedster in 1957, a 356 B Coupe in 1962, a 356 B (T6) in 1962, a 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Coupe in 1973, a 911 Turbo 3.0 Coupe in 1976, a 959 Coupe in 1988, and a 911 Turbo 3.3 Coupe and 928 S Coupe.

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