01/26/2020 DPCcars Videos

Jorge Carnicero has revived the memory of his first great Porsche love with help from Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur. When Jorge Carnicero talks about how it all began, how he met his “first great love” back in 1971, a radiant smile spreads across his face. And quickly disappears. “I made the biggest mistake of my life,” he says. After buying that gorgeous silver metallic Porsche 911 S, he heedlessly let it go—an unbelievable folly that haunts him to this day—to buy a different, new 911. “I’ve often thought about tracking down that Porsche,” says Carnicero, a sixty-eight-year-old horse breeder from Lexington, Kentucky. “It’s like the first love of your life, whom you let go. Only later do you realize what a mistake that was.” A sticker on the rear side window exerted what turned out to be an irresistible appeal. It read “Porsche Markenweltmeister 69, 70, 71.” Carnicero didn’t speak German and had no connection with racing at the time, and thus didn’t know that “Markenweltmeister” meant “Manufacturers’ World Champion” in the World Sportscar Championship. So he asked around. The answer opened the door to a world that he has never wanted to leave. “The car’s appearance won my heart. But the story behind it, which started with that sticker, swept me off my feet.” He has tried to recapture that inimitable feeling, that eagerness and excitement, ever since. Although he has owned countless Porsches since 1971 and also had them configured to his specifications by the Exclusive Manufaktur, it’s only now, nearly fifty years later, that he has come close to his ideal conception of a Porsche.