A car is not just a way of getting from one place to another; it is an extension of one’s personality. As such, a character as vibrant and revolutionary as Janis Joplin required a pretty special motor to reflect the revolutionary nature of her life and music. Musicians have always had a tendency to drive outlandish and original vehicles, from John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls Royce to Elvis Presley’s baby pink Cadillac, but Joplin’s 1964 Porsche 356 SC was truly a one-of-a-kind car.
Originally, the Big Brother and the Holding Company vocalist purchased the stunning example of German engineering during the mid-1960s for the princely sum of $3,500 (around $30,000 when adjusted for inflation). The natural predecessor to the infamous Porsche 911, Joplin’s 356 SC was equipped with a 1.6 litre, flat-four engine capable of going from 0 to 60mph in only 11 seconds. Despite its performance, there was one problem with the car: it was dull.
When Joplin first bought the car, it was rendered in a dolphin grey colour–an optional extra on that particular model–which could not have been further away from the colourful vibrancy of Joplin herself. Realising this, the vocalist quickly recruited her roadie, Dave Richards, to create a psychedelic mural entitled ‘The History of the Universe’. Awash in countless bright colours and mind-bending details, the paint job managed to reflect the complex and ethereal nature of Joplin herself.
A 1964 Porsche convertible among a sea of big 1960s American muscle cars and gas-guzzlers stands out on its own, but Joplin’s psychedelic Porsche was a true sight to behold on the road. Before too long, fans caught wind of her one-of-a-kind car, leaving notes for the vocalist under the windshield. Aside from that, Joplin could regularly be seen whizzing through the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles on her way from one concert to the next.
Of course, the downside of making your car stand out among all the rest is that it becomes an easy target for thieves and ne’er-do-wells. In 1969, Joplin came face to face with that reality. While performing a show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, the singer’s car was stolen. While stealing such a desirable vehicle probably seemed like a good idea in the beginning, the thief was then forced to reckon with the fact that they had stolen arguably the most recognisable car in all of California.
Quickly realising that they had made a mistake, the thief attempted to hide his crimes by hastily spray-painting over Dave Richards’ beautiful mural with cheap spray paint. If there is anything more noticeable than a Porsche with a psychedelic mural splashed all over it, it is a Porsche with a psychedelic mural peering through thin layers of hastily applied spray paint, so Police quickly recovered the car.
After Joplin was reunited with her wheels, Richards managed to remove the offending spray paint from the car’s clear coat, leaving little damage to the mural underneath. However, that was not the end of the Porsche’s story. After the vocalist tragically passed away in 1970, the car was passed on to her manager, Albert Grossman. By 1975, it had been returned to the Joplin family, with the singer’s brother Michael deciding to completely renovate the vehicle.
Tragically, this meant that Michael also stripped back the car’s iconic paintjob, respraying the vehicle in its original dolphin grey colour. Fear not, though, as the family chose to reinstate the ‘History of the Universe’ paintjob during the 1990s. Since then, the car has been on display at various different museums, and was sold to an anonymous buyer in 2015 for $1.76 million.
