By Khris Bharath – September 04, 2026
The World’s Only Porsche 918 Coupé Makes a Rare Appearance at Salon Privé
A Sonderwunsch Porsche 918 rolled onto the lawn at the ongoing 2026 Salon Privé at Blenheim Palace in England, ending more than a decade of obscurity. Ordered new by Ferdinand Piëch, former chairman of the Volkswagen Group and the man responsible for the Bugatti Veyron, the one-off is making an exceptionally rare formal public appearance. Salon Privé describes it as the world’s only 2015 Porsche 918 Coupé and says it is believed to have been seen in public just once before. The stunning example seen here features Paint to Sample Oxford Blue with Arancio orange across the wheels, front intakes, lower body accents, and engine bay, mirroring Piëch’s Veyron Super Sport. Inside, the blue-and-orange theme continues with Tangerine and Imperial Blue leather, while the headrests retain their “918 Spyder” embroidery despite the car’s fixed-roof configuration. The theme appears to have continued within the family collection. Subsequently, a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport associated with the Piëch family was similarly specified in Royal Blue Carbon with Tangerine orange, suggesting the combination became something of a family signature. The roof is where this 918 stops being a normal Spyder (the badge on the back still reads 918 Spyder). Where every other example features two removable carbon-fiber roof panels stored in the front luggage compartment, Piëch’s car replaces them with a single fixed panel. Salon Privé consequently describes it as the world’s only 918 Coupé. Porsche also replaced the Acid Green normally used to highlight the E-Hybrid hardware with orange, while finishing the brake calipers in Oxford Blue instead. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Salon Privé (@salonpriveuk) Such bespoke commissions run through Sonderwunsch, Porsche's special-wishes program, which has since produced everything from reimagined Flachbau bodies to hand-applied Chromaflair paintwork and a growing catalogue of factory one-offs. In 2013, though, asking Porsche to fundamentally alter the roof configuration of its new hybrid hypercar was an extraordinary request from almost anyone. Piëch, of course, was instrumental in shaping the modern performance car landscape. He worked on the 917 program in the 1970s, drove the quattro program at Audi in the '80s, then took control of the Volkswagen Group and brought marques like Bugatti, Bentley and Lamborghini into its portfolio in the '90s. Back in 1997, on a train between Tokyo and Nagoya, Piëch famously sketched an 18-cylinder engine on the back of an envelope. The idea would eventually evolve into the Quad-turbocharged W16 that powered the Veyron, a car engineered to produce 1,000 horsepower and exceed 250 mph. Bugatti built the F.K.P. Hommage in his memory this January. That appetite for engineering excellence helps explain the specification of this 918. Our Market Spotlight on the 918 tracks where conventional examples sit, but Piëch’s car exists beyond those usual comparisons. A 204-mile Weissach example reached $3,465,000 on duPont REGISTRY Live in July, yet there is no direct precedent for a factory fixed-roof car with this provenance. Still retained by the Piëch family, it remains one of the few 918s the market has never had the chance to define. View All Porsche 918s for Sale Images: @salonpriveuk
