The Porsche 911 Turbo is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and so it is the iconic tartan fabric upholstery of the sportscar. Porsche remembers the origins of its tartan interiors with a new lifestyle collection while showing us an original 911 Turbo covered in tartan inside-out. The classic Porsche with the unique livery is a product of computer-generated design rather than an actual build. The company shared the renderings on its Instagram account as a hook for a new line of clothing and accessories.
While tartan is traditionally associated
with Scotland, it ended up being used by the German automaker for interior
upholsteries. According to Porsche, the inspiration came from the tartan
trousers of Anatole Lapine, who was chief designer at the time. Lapine is known
for designing the front-engined 928, 924, and 944 models, but he is also
attributed with the styling of the 911 G-Series. The clothing fabric wasn’t
durable enough for car interiors, but Porsche stylist Dorothea Müller-Goodwyn
found a German supplier with a suitable solution that met all requirements for
“lightfastness and abrasion resistance”.
The first Porsche to feature a
tartan-style pattern inside the cabin was the 911 RSR Turbo concept back in
1973, serving as a preview for the 911 Turbo that followed a year later. The
production model offered three different tartan interiors – Black Watch (blue,
green, and black), McLaughlin (red and blue), and Mackenzie (beige, red, blue,
white, and olive green). In 1974, Porsche gifted the 911 Turbo No.1 to Louise
Piëch for her 70th birthday, combining a silver body with brick-red leather
seats and McLaughlin tartan accents. This particular model inspired the Porsche
Design P’8478 Turbo No.1 limited edition sunglasses, listed for € 530 (US$ 585).
The Porsche 50 Year Turbo Collection also
includes several pieces of clothing and accessories that “reinterpret the
classic tartan for a modern audience”. Among the products listed on the
official website is a Heritage Weekender 992 50Y Turbo weekender for € 490
(US$ 541), the Collector’s Cup No. 8 50Y Turbo for € 32 (US$ 35), and a number of
T-shirts and jackets with matching tartan designs. The most recent application
of tartan upholstery in a Porsche model is the new 911 Turbo 50 Years anniversary
special that debuted last month in Monterey. The model has a limited
availability of 1,974 units, with US pricing starting from US$ 261,100.
