THE ICONIC PORSCHE RENNDIENST VANS RETURN WITH A MODERN ID.BUZZ TWIST IN THE NETHERLANDS
It’s kind of weird how automakers do things on an official level across the globe. While the sort of head office in Germany does a lot that gets filtered through to world markets, the various countries the brand is sold in also have their own smaller headquarters and these often do activations and events that differ from Germany’s plans. It’s not limited to events and gatherings though, some of the markets where the brand has a bigger presence also create their own special edition cars, and that’s exactly what you see here, a really cool collection of eight special edition cars created by Porsche in the Netherlands as part of the company’s 75th anniversary. The thing is, this collection of 8 special edition cars may bear Porsche branding, but they’re not Porsche models, they’re taken from sister company Volkswagen. Porsche Netherlands decided that a modern recreation of the iconic Porsche Renndienst vans of the past would be a great marketing exercise, and we’re totally on board with it. The name "Renndienst" means "Race Service’ and it’s what the fleet of classic Volkswagen T1 and T2 busses used as mobile workshops at various race events around the world was called. Porsche used these Volkswagen vans because the company didn’t make a van of its own but needed to have a way of carrying tools and spares to support Porsche factor racecars in various international race events like the 1954 Mille Miglia and others right through to the 1970s. For this new fleet of Renndienst vans, Porsche went modern to pay homage to a classic and so the eight models use Volkswagen’s all-electric ID.Buzz vans.
These Dutch recreations are based on the all-electric Volkswagen ID. Buzz and they look amazing - the modern incarnations of the Porsche Renndienst vans have been painted in Burgundy Red and they use the same Renndienst white lettering as the original race support vehicles from all those years ago, but visuals are where the commonality ends. These ones are powered by a 201 hp rear-mounted electric motor combined with a 77 kWh battery, the only thing air-cooled in this setup is the passengers using the aircon system. While the original Renndienst vans had an actual duty, that of carrying all necessary spares and tools to keep racecars running at massive events, these new ones are simple people carriers. The old-school versions were fully kitted out at the rear hence using vans for the job, these all-electric versions don’t really need to actually carry any tools around, and so they’re based on the passenger version of the ID.Buzz and will carry out the duty of ferrying important passengers as a sort of shuttle bus at various Porsche-related activation events around the Netherlands. They’re not going to be sold, but we’re pretty sure that if a Volkswagen customer paid a little over the top of the retail price they could also have one of these homage vans delivered to them. While these vans are visual recreations, back in 2018 Porsche actually showcased a Renndienst Concept that didn’t use a Volkswagen as its base - and it’s rather cool! You can also check it out down below.
Take a look at the YouTube video a while back where a classic T1 Volkswagen Porsche Renndienst van was used at a modern event, along with a bit on the history of the vans from the passionate owner, and see how the classic compares to the modern EV version: From Craigslist to classic racing history: the story of the Porsche VW van | Goodwood Road & Racing
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