Porsche Is Selling Vinyl Car Wraps, Bro!
Like the sketchy garage near your old apartment, Porsche is now selling vinyl car wraps. Considering full-body aftermarket wraps have become increasingly popular in recent years, the German brand is seeing dollar signs and wants to take a stab at a pseudo factory version of the trend.
On Wednesday, Porsche announced a new online platform for vehicle livery design it calls “Second Skin.” While the name sounds like something associated with contraception, it’s actually an extension of Porsche’s car configurator. However, it doesn’t appear to apply to vehicles hot off the assembly line or exist as a direct extension of the standard ordering process. According to the website, which had to be translated from German, customer vehicles will be picked up from homs or driven by the owner to a “certified expert” before being returned.
It also doesn’t apply exclusively to Porsches. Second Skin says it can wrap any Porsche and will begin accepting pre-registrations for vehicles from other manufactures immediately.
Currently, design choices are limited to a handful of templates for the Porsche 911 (991.2 and 992) and 718 Boxster/Cayman (982). However, the company said the website won’t launch in earnest until July. We imagine Porsche will continue adding options over time, ensuring there’s always something to come back for. Porsche also gussied up the 24 Hours of Le Mans 911 RSR (below) with help from Second Skin to showcase what could theoretically be done with the platform.
“We wanted to use the project in Le Mans to demonstrate what we can do in terms of automotive design and that there are no limits to the imagination with ‘Second Skin.’ The greatest challenge was to apply a three-part image on a vehicle. We are also very happy with the result because the effect of the colours is unique,” Porsche’s director of digital business, Florian Rothfuss, said in a statement.
There will also be famous racing liveries on offer. The site already incorporates the Martini Racing livery for €5,500. That’s roughly how much the rest of the wraps cost, give or take a few hundred euros. Eventually, the company plans to offer protective wraps in addition to those concerned exclusively with style.
At present, Porsche has not said whether or not this will be an entirely Euro-centric endeavor. We’re inclined to think that will be the case for a while, but it doesn’t sound as though it would be terribly difficult for the firm to branch the program out to other markets.
[Images: Porsche]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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The key is how long the wrap will last. The vinyl manufacturer (3M) lists 3 a year warranty for vertical surfaces, and 35% of that for horizontal surfaces like the roof, hood, and trunk lid, or just one year. There's an exclusion for extreme conditions like deserts with sun and heat. That's 0% of the 3 year warranty- no warranty at all! The extreme areas include deserts in the southwest like Arizona, New Mexico, southern Nevada, and including Southern California. The exclusion zone extends to Florida for sun and heat. It may seem like a good idea to the Germans, but most of Europe is well north of the US. Move Madrid west on the same latitude and it'll be on Staten Island. Move Rome west and it'll be right on top of Providence RI. The latitude of Paris is the same as Minot North Dakota, and London moved west would be 400 miles north of Montreal. Amsterdam, Berlin, Warsaw, and Vienna would all be in Canada. BMW had lousy air conditioning and ignored American complaints until a group of executives visited a BMW facility in Phoenix in July. Porsche executives need to realize their vinyl wrap option isn't going to sell in the southern half of the US once the first adopters in those areas start complaining - and filing lawsuits.
Killer Cayman wrap: https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/gallery/rusty-polizei-wrap-porsche-cayman-gt4_3.jpg