Janis Joplin’s Psychedelic Porsche 356 Cabriolet Sells for Big Money

By Adam Pockross - December 11, 2015

Janis Joplin's Porsche 356

Janis Joplin’s old psychedelic Porsche 356 was a certified hit at RM Sotheby’s Driven By Disruption auction in New York City yesterday. The car created a bidding contest among seven interested parties, and ended up selling for a whopping $1,760,000.

“The outstanding sales price represents a new record for any Porsche 356 sold at public auction,” according to the RM Sotheby’s press release.

As we discussed here last month, the pre-estimates for the 1964 Porsche 356 C 1600 SC Cabriolet were much lower, between $400k and $600k. But when it comes to unique Porsches with wild backstories, this one pretty much wins.

Back in 1968, Joplin picked up the car from a used car lot. But it wasn’t quite ready to roll for the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, so she had her friend and roadie Dave Richards paint the “History of the Universe” mural all over the car. After Joplin died, her family eventually took ownership of the car and painted it back to its original Dolphin Gray finish. Fortunately, they had the good sense to have it meticulously re-painted back to its psychedelic form.

It is somewhat interesting that Joplin’s car would fare so well, given that one of the cars Steve McQueen drove in the movie Le Mans — a museum-quality, mostly original 1971 Porsche 911T with only 29,000 miles — was a non-starter at auction last month. And that estimated price was much lower, between $275,375–$385,525.

Perhaps it’s because McQueen didn’t spend all that much time with that ride, and this was Joplin’s daily driver. And McQueen’s Porsche also didn’t spend the last 20 years on display in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.