2001 Porsche Boxster Art Car

PorscheOn Display

Feb 28

Quick Specs

2.7-liter flat-6
217
155 mph

Iconic Car. Iconic Artwork.

With Porsche sales falling for the first time in decades in the mid-1990s due to a flagging US economy, Porsche executives decided the remedy for the situation was a relatively affordable two-seat roadster. They took inspiration from their own history, looking at the 356 Speedster and the 550 Spyder successor, the RSK. The result was a mid-engined, lightweight sports car that was fun to drive, efficient, and strikingly handsome. The Boxster was a sensation upon release, especially in America. Between its debut in 1996 and 2003, the Boxster was Porsche's best-selling model, which helped pull the company out of its sales doldrums.

Meet Robynn Sanders

Cars are often described as rolling sculptures. For artist Robynn Sanders, they’re a canvas on wheels. Sanders specializes in painting and restoring murals, something she’s been doing since the age of 14.

In 2009 she was recruited by a car collector in her hometown of Houston, Texas, to paint his 1963 Porsche 356 Coupe so he could enter it in that city’s famous art car parade. The kaleidoscopic paint job took 200 hours to create, and the hard work was rewarded. The car, dubbed “Psychedelic Surfer Dude,” took a top prize at the 2009 Houston Art Car Parade, was featured in the New York Times, and appeared as a centerfold in a Porsche owners magazine. It led to a spate of art car commissions for Sanders, who has now painted over 20 vehicles. “Each car has defining characteristics ranging from curvy body lines with perky headlights to boxy bodies that have pointy fins,” she says. “Each paint job is custom-designed and painted to the desires of the client and around the aesthetics of that particular car's body lines.” Her projects have ranged from modern Minis to vintage Cadillacs, but it is the rounded shape of Porsches that she finds most rewarding to work on. When she was asked by Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport to create an installation for one of their terminals using automobile body panels to honor the Art Car Parade, she made sure to include a Porsche 911 because of its distinctly recognizable shape.

Vehicle Courtesy of Nicole Strine

This Vehicle featured in ‘We Are Porsche’ Exhibit