Fast reverse to the early nineties – communism is dead, pop is king and a handful of supermodels are on their way to conquer the world. Even in freshly reunified Germany, Cindy, Claudia, Kate and Naomi are smiling down on the fashion victims of Generation X from posters as tall as houses, from the gaudy front covers of Max magazine and in the latest video clips on MTV. Even at Porsche in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, where shirt-sleeved engineers wearing crew cuts once dictated what was fashionable, there’s no way they can resist the temptations of the new pop culture – to market its new 964 generation Porsche 911, it didn’t long for the company to commission Hamburg-based advertising agency Jung von Matt, who came up with their tongue-in-cheek advert: “You can linger longer over breakfast. You’re home earlier for dinner. Is there a better family car?“
And the new eleven soon gets its very own supermodel: the Carrera RS is on display at the Geneva Motor Show in 1991 – a super lightweight sports car that, with back bench seat, electric window winders and air-conditioning removed, appealed almost exclusively to Porsche purists – but still managed to make a powerful fashion statement. Quite possibly because the new Porsche 911 Carrera RS, with its gaudy pink/purple Rubystone Red lipstick paintwork and matching two-tone leather bucket seats, was a born cover star! At Porsche, Rubystone Red was available in Porsche’s colour range from 1990 to 1993 as colour code 82N / LM3B, not only for the 964, but also for the 928, 944 and 968 transaxle models, and was very much the trend – until the mid-nineties, with the founding of Deutsche Telekom, which set about colouring the entire Federal Republic in its glaring Magenta and people inevitably decided they had lost their appetite for violet for the time being.
People these days are no longer shocked by the fashion trends of the nineties. Even among car collectors, the garish colours of the period are currently enjoying a revival. It comes as no surprise, therefore, to hear that the Rubystone Red Porsche 911 Carrera RS is now one of the most coveted sports car classics to come out of Stuttgart. Even so, to hear that buyers of the new and extremely rare Porsche 911R are actually going for this gaudy lipstick look still comes as something of a surprise. Cindy, Claudia, Kate and Naomi would definitely have enjoyed this meeting of the supercar generations.
(c) Text: Jan Baedeker • Photos: Stefan Bogner
