Louis Vuitton and Singer Vehicle Design have unveiled a pair of bespoke Porsche 911s that blur the line between automobile and artifact.
Making their debut on Wednesday (August 12) at a private gathering on the fringes of Monterey Car Week in Pebble Beach, California, according to Elite Traveler, the two builds, a Classic coupe and a Classic Turbo Cabriolet, are based on early-1990s Porsche 911 platforms and represent the first time every Louis Vuitton department has fed into a single project.
The coupe arrives in Louis Vuitton’s signature saffron and cobalt blue carbon bodywork, a color scheme carried through to the tires themselves. Inside, natural leather with yellow saddle stitching covers the cabin, seats carry ventilation eyelets and an embossed LV malletage diamond pattern, and all metal switchgear is rhodium-plated.
The dashboard instruments were rebuilt in the visual language of the Tambour watch, cobalt blue faces with bright orange accents, a redesign that alone required a year of development. A geometric L and V motif runs across the engine air intake grille, while fuel and oil caps bear Louis Vuitton watch typography. The car’s power comes from a 4.0-litre air-cooled flat-six producing around 400bhp, paired with a six-speed manual.
The Classic Turbo Cabriolet takes a quieter approach. Its finish, called Calcaire Lutétien, is a limestone white drawn from the Paris stone of Louis Vuitton’s Pont Neuf headquarters. Nautical wood runs through the luggage compartment and front boot, leather fastening straps appear front and rear, and the gearshift leather was shaped to echo the Louis Vuitton Noé bag.
Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director of Women’s Collections, oversaw the car, developing a Heritage necklace that carries the vehicle’s key. Under the rear lid sits a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged engine making roughly 510bhp, also mated to a six-speed manual with selectable drive modes.
“Automotive design is a passion that has always lived within me,” Ghesquière said in a statement (via WWD). “My collaboration with Singer has been a chance to reconnect with this fascinating world, a magnificent opportunity to explore truly exceptional automobiles.”
Each car ships with its own capsule. The coupe comes with 17 pieces, among them a racing jacket cut from the same leather as the car’s upholstery, jeans with a Louis Vuitton x Singer tab, a helmet, driving gloves, shoes, a Keepall, a surfboard, skis, and a pair of front-trunk bags.
The Cabriolet ships with 22 pieces, including a made-to-measure suit in parachute silk, a Tambour Automatic watch, driving gloves, a helmet, sneakers, and a selection of bags spanning an Alma, a Noé, a Cruiser, a Petite Malle, and an Express, plus a three-part luggage set. Custom trunks fitted precisely to both cars are included across both packages.
The collaboration lands ahead of the Louis Vuitton Dolomites Classic Run in September, the house’s first classic car rally in 14 years.
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