5 Million Porsche Fans Design Facebook Car

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Lisa Lacy for ClickZ 2013-08-15 22:13:32 UTC

With a manufacturer's suggested retail price of nearly $106,000, many Porsche fans may be priced out of owning their own 911 Carrera 4S. But thanks to a Facebook promotion celebrating 5 million likes on the company's page, each and every fan was at least able to contribute to the design of a fan version of the model.

Since the initiative began in February, the German auto manufacturer has built a 911 Carrera 4S according to fan specifications and is running a promotion inviting one fan to actually test drive the vehicle. The celebration began Feb. 4 with Porsche asking "the best expert panel in the world: our fans" to choose an exterior color. The post resulted in nearly 16,000 likes and 1,200 comments, with Aquablue Metallic winning the most fan support.

In subsequent weeks, fans voted on features like the wheel, the exterior package and the interior color. Porsche told its fans on March 11 that it planned to build the car in June with additional enhancements from Porsche Exclusive, the program that allows individual customizations of vehicles from the factory.

Porsche revealed the final product in a Facebook photo gallery on Aug. 2. An exterior white stripe reads, "5M Porsche fans."

This was followed on Aug. 6 by a "making of" gallery with 20 images of the car's production, resulting in nearly 53,000 likes.

According to the 5 million tab on Porsche's Facebook page, the brand is offering one fan and a friend the chance to get behind the wheel of the car at the Porsche Experience Center in Silverstone Circuit in the UK.

In order to participate, fans need to show Porsche how many public Porsche fans they have in their friend lists. The user with the highest number of Porsche Facebook fans will win the trip. The promotion ends Aug. 18.

The Facebook fan car is also available as a model car in Porsche's online store. The 1:43 version has a more accessible price tag at $70. There are 991 available.

Since the big reveal earlier this month, the brand has updated its Facebook cover photo with an image of the car.

Image: Porsche