What pushed you to be a Porsche enthusiast? Did you see a 968 roving the streets of Paris when you were a child and it inspired you to build an automotive-themed streetwear brand and eventually collaborate with Porsche to build the perfect 968 Speedster of your dreams? No? That’s the feeling Porsche and Arthur Kar want to invoke with this special one-off 968 L’ART. It blends nostalgia with the rose-colored glasses of childhood. You know what? Just watch this video below and it’ll make more sense.
OK, got it? Cool, let’s keep going. So Porsche wanted to celebrate 30 years of the 968 by bringing the lovely front-engine-rear-transmission sports car into the twenty-first century. It was a fairly futuristic looking car when it debuted in 1991, but working with Arthur Kar’s streetwear brand L’Art de L’Automobile, they wanted to give it a mixed up look “based on the retro look of the early 1990s with an updated and modern flair.”
Visually, this striking speedster is clearly based on the Transaxle Porsche we all know and love, but it has been smoothed over like silk. The funky/dorky pop-forward headlights have been replaced with sharp bumper-mounted LED lamps. The windshield is replaced by a shorter and sharply raked one, reminiscent of the similar-era 964 Speedster. The Speedster theme continues with a large angular rear hump, turning the four-seater into a rakish duoposto. The mirrors are swapped from iconic teardrops to minuscule sharp armatures. In situ, the car is fitted with color-matched wheel covers to accentuate the future/retro vibes, but on the road it has been given a sharp set of two-piece wheels from the Porsche catalog.
Ultimately, it’s a really good looking machine in my opinion. I really like the 968. It’s maybe not the prettiest of Porsches, but that torquey 3-liter is awesome, and the ergonomics are instantly familiar if you’ve ever driven around in a 924 or 944. Great dynamics, decent power, and a few quirky anachronisms are what makes a Porsche great, right? I think so. That’s why I like the 968 L’ART. It takes an already great car and makes it even quirkier. Quirks make the world go ’round.
This whole experiment comes with a collaboration between the two brands, as what the kids are calling a “capsule” event. Most of the 968 collection have already sold out, but you can see all of what is left right here. OK, this might be too quirky.
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What pushed me to be a Porsche enthusiast? An article in Car and Driver magazine in either late 1967 or early 1968 titled "Love Affair With a Bathtub" I had been fond of Porsches since I rode in one in high school in 1960 but they were prohibitively expensive then. So in 1968 I went one a quest and bought a Speedster. It didn't last long because in 1969 I needed money to buy a wedding ring. She still wears the same ring, two daughters, two Triumphs, three Lotuses, two Mustangs and five Porsches later including 20 years of time trials with PCA.