m4ever:
I heard recently that Porsche is planning to outsource PTS painting , anyone heard the same? (there is a precedent with very few 911 R which were painted outside, one of them was Dr. Piech 911 R).
It was never ever fully in-house.
For some quasi-PTS, like the optional Black/Yellow/Orange on the 911R, those are painted in-house as they are the regular production colours.
But for colours that are truly to sample, they always source it outside, easier for a outside paint shop to paint the body, bumpers and whatever trim needed to be painted the same colour at the same time than trying to match the colour from different suppliers of parts that were painted at different times.
Some out of range old colours are also painted outside for the same reason. Even when there is a strict formula, different pain shop will mix up the paint slightly differently, my Rivera Blue might be slightly off yours. One reason why it's a bitch to colour match colours after a collision and need repaint, the panels never matches completely. Heck, I have seen a Lava Orange GT3RS with the bumper slightly off vs the hood and that car came straight from the factory brand new.
One reason I love black, it will ALWAYS match! Not even white can be matched perfectly.