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I couldn't find the previous thread regarding these decals, so I started a new one. I finally had the chance to install them this weekend. I was trying to create a similar look to the Singer 911 below. Let me know what you think. They look almost white in the picture, but it's actually a light grey color.
I was thinking of doing this too so glad someone took the plunge. IMO the grey and the red are too much. I would've done grey w/ black lettering or red lettering w/ black stripes. But to each his own.
Something about them bothers me. It seems off. That was my initial, non-analytical thought. If I had done them and they struck me that way, I'd remove them.
Upon closer inspection, I have several reasons.
1) That combo looks fine on the Singer so I see why you wanted to duplicate. So why does it look off on your car? I think it's a combination of
a) execution of the decal. The Singer has larger, more identifiable lettering. If I arrange your pictures so there's a Singer shot and your car on the screen at the same time, and look at the roof of each car rather than staring at the lettering, the Singer lettering still registers in my mind as lettering, as a word, down at the rocker panel. But yours runs together in my peripheral vision and becomes a strange, partial length bright red graphic within a white stripe. My brain struggles to make sense of it. "Why would there be a red block down there?" it wonders.
b) exacerbating the above, the letters on the Singer are rendered in a more subtle red. It's still more contrast than I would want on my car but it is toned down a few degrees from your red. As such it is easier for my eye to let it blend with the overall theme of subtlety you have going with the Agate or whatever color the Singer is.
c) proportion. Many of the details that work so well on an original 911 just don't work nearly as well when stretched out a few inches to cover the visually much larger proportions of a 991. Did you ever wander through a shoe store and pick up a pair of shoes (always displayed in size 8.5), think "Those look great!", and then try them on your size 12 feet and think, "Crap! They look wrong now."? I certainly have. The proportions that looked so right at 9" long now look exaggerated and elongated at 12". Well, this also works on 991s. Most of the attempts to recreate historic striping and lettering have been fails, IMO. The attempts to render Fuchs wheels in 20" sizes are just that little bit off. Case in point: the Singer's "PORSCHE" fits perfectly within the confines of the door. Your's looks lost inside a much larger door.
The 996/997/991 have evolved their own design language. Details and accessories that worked on the smaller, narrower, more upright long-hoods, G-Series and 964s just don't look right on long, low, sleek, swept-back 991s.
2) A sense of history. Those stripes with P O R S C H E in them were apropos in 1971 because, frankly, most people outside of race fans didn't know what a "Porsh" was. It was a way of driving a billboard around the track to build brand awareness. Today, with 50+ years of 911s rolling around the world's roads and tracks, there's no need for it. Most people today (outside of Porsche cultists) will view that as compensatory. Sort of like you're shouting, "Hey! Guys! Look! I gotta Porsh! How bout that!"
Now mind you, I'm not saying you're actually doing that. I assume you have a well-developed sense of your own worth and no need to display a "Look at me and my cool Porsh" sign on the side of your car. I assume you are paying homage, as does Singer, to some of the great street and track Porsches of decades past. But that message will be totally missed by most people who see your car. Most will have no context for that history, having either missed or forgotten the Porsches from 45 years ago. And so their interpretation will likely be either "Look at that dick and his Porsh" or, if they actually care for you, "Oh man, why'd he feel like he needed to put that sticker on his car? We all know what it is. I'm embarrassed for him."
So me? I'm voting to take it off. Let the iconic shape speak quietly to your refinement and good taste.
I still haven't made up my mind. It looks better in person than in the pictures. The iphone camera makes the proportions look a little funny. They had three color choices for the grey stripe, and I should have chosen the "medium" version. I was worried it would be too dark, but this is the other extreme at too light. I really like the red letters in person. It matches the calipers really well and everyone who has complimented the decals specifically mentions how they like the red lettering.
The decals were pretty cheap ($70) so I'll probably leave them on for the remainder of the year and see how they grow on me.
08-14-2016, 05:36 PM
Agate Grey C4S with new decals
