Porsche is arguing the electric Taycan 4S can be loud even without a race-tuned exhaust by turning one into an art car. The head-turning, one-of-a-kind sedan is scheduled to cross the auction block in April 2021.
New York City-based artist Richard Phillips has painted on sheet metal before. In early 2019, he collaborated with Jörg Bergmeister, one of Porsche’s factory drivers, to create the Porsche 911 RSR art car that won first in its class during that year’s edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the Taycan, he had a much bigger canvas to fill.
Porsche explained the Taycan’s vibrant livery is inspired by Queen of the Night, a painting done by Phillips in 2010. It literally increases the sedan’s green credentials with flowers, plants, butterflies, and a partly cloudy sky. It’s not an actual painting, though; it’s a vinyl wrap applied to the Taycan with heat guns by Germany-based Signal Design.
The art car was completed in late 2020 and displayed at a restaurant in Zürich named Leuehof until coronavirus-related regulations forced the establishment to close its doors. It hasn’t reopened, and it very likely won’t in the foreseeable future, so Porsche will instead take the colorful Taycan on a tour of some of the centers it operates in Switzerland during the month of March. It will then travel to Zug, a town south of Zürich, to wait for a new home.
Auction house RM Sotheby’s will sell the Taycan online during a seven-day auction scheduled to start on April 6, 2021, and the winning bidder will also receive a tour of the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen plant that builds the sedan. While the words charity and Switzerland are rarely used in the same sentence, the full proceeds from the sale will be donated to a Swiss non-profit named Suisseculture Sociale that supports creative artists. Selling the Taycan will help the organization provide financial help to some of the people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.