Martini Turbos And Dakar Specials: New Porsche Artwork In The Petrolicious Shop
View the 953 and more from INK here, and the Martini Turbo and more from Car Bone here
In the land of Porsche 911s the dividing line between OEM-only purists and those who chose to modify them instead is populated evenly on either side, but it’s also a very blurry and a very wide line; more like a DMZ, where a Frankenstein’s monster mash of garage-laid fiberglass and preserved 901 complete with chrome hubcaps and skinny tires can show up at the same traffic light without an exchange of scoffs or smugness from the people inside. This is partly and maybe mostly because of the size of the car’s following, but I think the factory’s own scope has a lot to do with it as well; the fact that they’ve sold narrow-body cars with double-digit horsepower ratings as well as flared Turbos with multi-colored stripes running across them summarizes the variety of the factory options alone.
We’ve added two new prints to the Shop that represent the wilder end of the the OEM efforts: the statement-making street car that is the “Martini Turbo,” as well as the 911-based 953 rally car presented in a body-in-white look rather than its typical Rothmans livery.
Porsche 911 Rally (953)
Safari-style 911s based on factory cars like the SC/RS have been hugely popular in the last few years for good reason, but once I started seeing 996-based “interpretations” I thought the trend was getting ready to jump the shark, if it hadn’t already. Be that as it may, it would take something far worse than an egg-yoke 911 with a lift kit to ruin the good stuff that inspired it. Case in point being the factory’s entry into—and later winner of—the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally: the 953. Before the all-wheel drive 959 could be fully developed to cope with the rigors of off-road endurance racing while keeping its high-tech bits in check, Porsche decided to make a 4×4 911 with manually-controlled differentials to test it for future application in the 959 set to follow it. Of the three cars entered, René Metge and co-driver Dominique Lemoyne brought theirs to the finish before anybody else not on a motorcycle, winning the class for cars outright.
INK’s latest piece of Porsche artwork features this car, but rather than covered in dirt and pitted with rock chips, they’ve chosen to make their CG rendering a perfectly pure body-in-white car, something you might have seen in the workshops in the early ’80s had you worked in a Porsche motorsport department. Not many had that chance of course, but you can hang one on your wall and pretend all you like now. Offered in three pieces that work as a group or on their own, the minimalist palette and composition are a noticeable contrast to the car’s purpose of hauling its engine-heavy ass through mud and sand.
Size: 16.5 x 22.25in
Paper: high-quality paper stock
Please note: ships end of August
Martini Turbo (Option M42)
The 930 has filled a few roles in its day. In the ’70s it was the ultimate turbocharged sports car, quickly gaining an infamous but alluring reputation that needs no rehashing here. Starting from this base form that was already quite standout in the appearance and performance categories, both the factory and the individual took it upon themselves to go even further. Porsche took road car shells, lopped off their fenders for wider ones, put motors good for a few hundred extra horsepower in the back, and turned the 934 and 935 into champions of their day and legends for all time. Enthusiasts on the street also upped the outputs, but the car’s pop culture status in the ’80s was mainly the result of radical body modifications like Testarossa strake or aftermarket slant-nose replica kits. But since the stock look was already pretty out there shape-wise, the aggressively optioned cars that left the factory with candy metallics and white leather were also part of this trend.
While the period-perfect “Turbo” graphics are arguably more desirable, a white 930 with option M42 is the best representation of its late-’70s’ aesthetic extremes before the ’80s turned everything a bit gaudier. M42 was an option from the factory to give white or black 930s and 911SCs a set of Martini stripes, and if you really wanted to go all in on that look, you could also have your orthopedic seats done up with white leather and blue and red accents to match. Since they were never official limited edition cars, just an option one could tick should he or she fancied cars like Moby Dick, there’s no consensus on how many were done up like this in the period, but most would agree authentic ones are among the rarest 930s out there.
Car Bone’s tribute to option M42 appropriately chooses the white base, but the background of the abstracted stripes over black is a nice hint at the other, much rarer, combination. The design still prominently features the bright Martini scheme, but it manages to keep the whole thing tame enough to hang somewhere outside of the garage.
Size: 68×98cm
Paper: high-quality gloss, 140g
View the 953 and more from INK here, and the Martini Turbo and more from Car Bone here
