She might have sung “my friends all drive Porsches” and implied that she hankered after a Mercedes-Benz instead, but Sixties singer Janis Joplin did indeed own a 356 – and it’s recently sold for silly money at auction. We have a closer look at Janis Joplin’s Porsche.
With her frazzled hair, paint stripper voice and an insatiable taste for Southern Comfort, singer Janis Joplin epitomised everything wild, far out and basically just mad about the drug inspired Sixties. And that included her car.
Having splashed out on a white 1965 Porsche 356C Cabriolet for $3500 in 1968, she had road manager Dave Roberts give it a psychedelic makeover. Titling his work ‘The History of the Universe’ the weird and wonderful paint job included all manner of oddities, including pulsating body organs, rainbows and butterflies and took the artist a month to do.
Unsurprisingly, it instantly became one of the most recognisable vehicles in her hometown of San Francisco. She used the car for everything, whether that be a shopping trip or simply taking her dog to the vet. If you saw it parked up, Janis wouldn’t be far away.
Incredibly the classic Porsche was stolen in 1969; obviously the thieves not realising that the car with anyone other than the rock star at the wheel would stick out like a sore thumb. Despite hastily respraying the back grey, they were soon apprehended…
Janis sadly became a member of the exclusive ‘27’ club following her death in 1970 – joining the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Kobain, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse; and her car fell into disrepair. Her family acquired it many years afterwards, restored it and in 1995 put in on loan to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland where it remained until recently when it was put up for auction.
Despite a pre-sale estimate of $400,000, the historic Porsche finally sold at RM Sotheby’s in New York for $1.76 million!
On a slightly more humble note, another celebrity car went under the hammer recently – David Beckham’s Mk3 Golf!
Beckham bought the turquoise GTi in 1994 when he was just 19 – he was playing for Manchester United at the time, and purchased it new from VW main dealer Skelly in Manchester. It was sold as part of a charity auction for £9,000, with proceeds going to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Okay, so it doesn’t have quite the same kudos as Janis’s 356, but it’s still a tiny bit of VW history. If you’re the new owner, we’d love to hear from you!
Ian
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage