Porsche provides color charts for their classic models on their website. While most of the documents provide the RoW color codes, I find them very useful for determining original color combinations. It’s helpful to know that Aubergine wasn’t available in ’75, or that 936-Silbermet took a break in the early 1980s. Of course, it’s impossible to keep all this straight without help. For the G-series 911s alone the color chart is five pages long. Add in the incredible variety of hues available for the 356 (which often changed year to year), the 914 and all the other 911 generations and the color palette becomes immense. Guards Red and India Red were popular for decades, but Porsche isn’t like their often monocrhomatic Italian competitors. North of the Alps is a land of noise and prismatic color.
While I wasn’t at Luft, FLATSIXES.com was. You can enjoy our coverage of the event here. I, a lifelong East Coast person, have to admire this spectacle of Porschedom from afar. Even outside of famous racing cars I’ve known my whole life, coverage of this event has reminded me of numerous cars I’m familiar with. Bring a Trailer’s Conda Green 912E and Emory Outlaw 356 Speedster were in attendance, Brad’s Project MelloYello 912E cropped up on Instagram, and Derek Whitacre’s turbocharged SC appeared in the video above. Numerous familiar Safari 911s, Mark Pribanic’s 356 and many other favorites were in attendance.
Viewing the footage of the event though, I was truly struck by how colorful a Porsche event of this scale is. Racing car liveries are often ostentatious by design, but Porsche’s road cars came in some pretty brave colors. Set against the monochromatic lumber yard, this was even more stark. Vivid yellows, purples and blues by the dozen gleamed in the California sun, unless of course they were faded and lovably caked in dirt.
We all love seeing our favorite historic Porsches. For those of us not lucky enough to attend, seeing them on video feels little different to all the images and videos we’ve pored over for decades. What these videos do is show the vividness and joy of this hobby when Porsche-people come together.
If the 16-minute video above is too long, a more bite-sized take on the event is below. Enjoy, and make an event like this happen on the East Coast.