Your car is probably going to be the second-most expensive thing you buy, with your home being the obvious winner there. We already paint the walls of our homes to match our personalities, so if you can afford to, why not pay a little bit more or look a little bit harder for a car in a color you like, especially if it’s a special car? That’s the philosophy behind Kaleidoscope, a car show dedicated to the joy of driving the rainbow.
It goes without saying that some manufacturers have broader palettes than others, with Porsche being among the broadest. If you don’t fancy any of the standard colors and are lucky enough to secure a build slot, you can pay extra to unlock a vast extended selection, or pay a lot extra to get a car painted a bespoke color through the Paint to Sample and Paint to Sample Plus programs. Granted, not all colors are locked behind such a high paywall, and that’s why Kaleidoscope exists to celebrate all of them and raise funds for local animal shelters in the process. It’s a show in Southern Ontario that just celebrated its third anniversary, and drivers came from as far and wide as Michigan and Connecticut to celebrate their love for Porsches and color.
As you’ve probably deduced, my little yellow Boxster was accepted into this year’s show, the third edition of Kaleidoscope. After making sure I had my little to-go bag of bug and tar remover and instant detailer, I grabbed an expired roll of Fuji Superia, and headed out to the charmingly industrial backdrop of Hamilton, Ontario’s The Cotton Factory.
Right out of the gate, this Violet Blue Metallic 964 caught my eye for being just about perfect. The extroverted high-metallic hue is so emblematic of a time when Porsche had some serious fun with colors and materials, and the polished Speedline wheels feel so right, giving the whole car an ultra-gloss vibe.
On the subject of purples, this 911 S/T attracted serious attention on the internet a few months ago, not just for being one of the highest-specced examples ever made but also because it’s absolutely bonkers, a festival of Ultraviolet and Ruby Star and yellow interior accents. I adore that someone got an allocation for this limited-run, supercar-expensive 911 and decided to go all-out on making it their own. It feels like resale value was never a thought when Porsche was asked to line the glovebox in Pasha check, and the craziest part is that it all works together in person. Ever listen to “House of Jealous Lovers” by The Rapture where every instrument feels like it’s trying to be a lead and the result is so much larger than life? This is like that.
If purple’s not your thing, which is totally fair because it definitely isn’t everyone’s thing, how about yellow? Signal Yellow is a great pick from Porsche’s past, and it works brilliantly on this 991.2 GT3. It’s more subdued than Racing Yellow or even Speed Yellow, meaning it’s bold without being super aggressive.
Speaking of special options, this GT3 RS made my jaw drop. Set against the dark blue paint (I believe it’s Midnight Blue), the bright wheels, graphics, end plates, lower mirrors, front valence, and matching interior are absolutely wild.
Some of the most stunning cars on display weren’t Paint to Sample cars, but rather, painted in shades chosen from the regular list of options. Speaking of blues, this 987 Boxster S is a great example, because how many cars made in the past 20 years are blue-on-blue-on-blue? This one’s Midnight Blue Metallic with matching lobster claw wheels, a Sea Blue interior, and a Metropol Blue top, and the result is just stunning.
Of course, color doesn’t have to be factory to stand out. This Aerokit-equipped 996 features an absolutely outstanding pastel livery that’s ’90s-adjacent in all the right ways. From the color selection to the swooshes to the use of positive and negative space against neutral silver paint, it’s an awesome display of creativity.
Likewise, this 1978 930 is period correct in all the best ways, with a flachbau kit sourced through Kremer Racing, and the same stripey paint it received in 1979. It’s a total poster car, one of the fastest cars of the ’70s taken to the extreme, and the multi-color look plays a huge role in shaping its visual personality.
However, the most interesting thing about having such variety of colors at Kaleidoscope is that the shades we normally think of as mundane show more personality because they aren’t absolutely everywhere. Next to shades like Acid Green, this Grey Black rest-of-world 997 911 GT3 RS Clubsport looked like a stealth instrument of speed, with the visual contrast putting it under the radar in an enticing way.
As someone who’s generally a get-it-in-a-good-color guy, I adore that Kaleidoscope exists as an event, and can’t wait to hopefully make it back next year, this time with more sleep and hopefully less worry about a dead low-speed fan resistor I’ve since fixed. Shoutout to the organizers for putting on such a great show, and raising $5,000 for the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA in the process.
Top graphic images: Thomas Hundal; Fuji Film
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We once convinced my Mom to order a MK3 GTI VR6 manual in Mulberry purple. The dealer offered cash on the hood if we took the red one in stock. She said no and was OK with waiting while they built it and shipped it from Germany. Turns out there were not that many made in that color. It was a great color!
Lovely! The deep, dark metallic purples (and purple-adjacent shades) that I’ve seen on Porsches and BMWs in recent years really help justify the price of these very expensive rides. There are a zillion black/white/grey/silver cars out there in every genre, niche, and price range, and even if the car itself is interesting, the whole monochrome thing that’s taken over just bores me. But colored cars of any type tend to make me smile… even if it’s some car that I’d never be interested in owning or driving, if it’s in an actual color, especially something really nice, unusual, or bright, it’s sort of just automatically appealing. Bonus points for period correct, such as the metallic teal so common in the 90s, and those metallic oranges that were everywhere for a few years in the oughts. 🙂
I really like that Tiffany blue that Nissan’s been showing on the upcoming third-gen Leaf, and that spicy mustard yellow maybe called Kirashi that Toyota’s been painting on some Priuses lately. Sadly, my own cars are all various kinds of monochrome, but they’re all old and were purchased used, where color tends to be the least important criteria when shopping (you try finding a decent Volvo 245 with a manual transmission and AC without spending a fortune… of course I wanted it in that gentle medium blue, but the one I wound up buying was boring faded silver, with most of the clearcoat baked off).
BTW, the strobe seat fabric that debuted in the 928 should be mandatory for every new car
I believe it’s called “Pasha”. The Porsche nerds are all about it.
Give me a special edition harlequin VW any day.
Glorious idea! The word needs more color!
Amen, amen, and amen! Now let us adore the color wheel
A little known fact is that I wake up with a new song in my head every morning- from Mozart to Maiden to Motown and the Beasties to The Beatles. Thanks to your reply, I shall have an old hymn in my head on this fine day. It’s not a bad way to start one’s morning. Thank you(no sarcasm intended)!
I was referring to “come let us adore him”
*world
As a gentleman of a certain age, it warmed my heart to see a roll of Fuji film. Love the colors! I’ve never owned a black car in my life.
Disappointing that it’s only Porsches. They’re great cars and I love what they do, but I’m just burned out on the Porsche wankfest that has been going on for the past 8-10 years.
Well, Ferrari would sue you just for hosting this event.
When fans become fanatics it can get annoying but I’ll give Porsche and it’s fans this:
I’d love to see a color specific car show. I’ve wanted a Porsche for 40 of my 48 years on this marble and turns out I’ll never afford one. Nice thing about car people is that you can always start a group or meetup and grow it into a cool event.
As a global “armchair economist” both professionally and personally, there’s something about this being held in Ontario that makes it harder to stomach. Millions of people struggling to afford housing and….wait a second…just live in your Porsche!
It has much better color options that the white/black/gray palette of most new home construction, anyway!
I have read and heard in podcast that the Toronto-area real estate market has become ridiculously expensive so I’m not surprised to see your comment. It’s sounds dreadful for non-affluent people to attain housing there- based on the figures that were thrown around.
Another Porsche “Superior Machines In Every Way” Club meet.
Did you know that Mercedes-Benz produced the R107 SL in 103 different colors over 18 years of production – none of which were “Never in a brochure – Special Factory Order only for those in the know”?
Or that in 1961 – Lincoln offered the Continental in 20 colors – and in 1981, Lincoln still offered the Continental Mark VI in 20 colors (not including two-tone paint combos thereof)?
Signal Red is still the best though!
This is the article for you:
https://www.theslshop.com/journal/2021/02/02/the-r107-sl-where-have-all-the-colours-gone/
I do like those crazy colors, especially on the pillarless coupes of the late 60s & early 70s or on a wagon. Even the signal red had different interiors (palomino vs. crème beige).
I can’t believe I missed it! I was at Kaleidoscope last year and it was awesome, I could swear it’d be later in the season.
It’s a great concept but also disappointed just Porsche. I would love to see a Harlequin Golf or some Challengers in Green Go or Plum Crazy Purple, even a Pink Cadillac.
Neat! But why just Porsche 🙁
I heard they had an Audi-specific event as well and it was really wild – they had cars ranging all the way from light silver to dark silver and everywhere in between.
I have to admit, my interest level dropped when I found out it was about Porsches and not cars with color. I would totally host a “cars of all colors!” show in the Mazda HQ parking lot to show them that beige/grey is NOT interesting. Only cars with real colors invited. A mint green 1960’s Caddy? Sure! A Baltic Blue 1985 CRX? Yes! A frog green Challenger? Of course. A new Miata the color of a prothetic limb…no.
In Mazda’s defense, Soul Red Crystal.
A great color. But one color does not make a palette. We need more!
Give us a strong blue or a green or the hot fuschia I saw wrapped on an RF yesterday. Not beige or gray or sand. They have Winning Blue from 2006, bring that one back. Or Sunburst Yellow.
Every day I look at my safari gold Datsun Z and think I made the right choice to paint it that way
It is strange. Of all the cars out there you would think Miata would scream for crazy color options more than most any other.
Remember when Miatas only came in Red, White and Blue?
Then Yellow came along?
There was a silver and BRG before yellow. And then we got a new color every year for a while there. Actual discernible colors, not just variations on a monochrome.
In their defense, the 30th anniversary Miata is bright orange, with orange interior accents. I wish they gave us a good green as an option though.
And that orange car sold very quickly. Mazda refused to learn from that, as there hasn’t been another real color introduced since.
Exactly that, also going for the 30th AE was that it had all the options of both the Club and Grand Touring trims, which cannot be had in any other combo, with the same Rays wheels used in MX-5 Cup. The thing was loaded up to a higher sticker than any Miata before, painted the brightest orange Mazda could make, and it sold instantly. How did they follow this up for the 35th AE? By putting and existing color (artisan red from the CX-90) onto a Grand Touring. So not exciting or unique color, normal wheels, interior options, no performance goodies, nothing. I love Mazda’s products and the Miata dearly, which is why the lack of fun colors is so upsetting.
The Club suspension goodies got integrated into the Grand Touring trim a couple of years ago, so the 35AE is pretty close in spec to the 30AE other than the Recaro seats, orange bits and the unique wheels. I think the MX-5 Cup wheels are actually a 17×7.5 instead of the 17×7 used on the 30AE, which makes replacing one a very, very expensive proposition.
Interesting I hadn’t realized those changes had all been made, that’s good to know! After researching you’re right, the 30AE are actually narrower than the cup wheels which I had no idea about. I’d really hate to know the cost of a replacement one one, if anything I’d be tempted to run cup wheels on a 30AE to avoid damaging the stock AE wheels. Although the cup wheels are about 550/ea, at least according to the MX-5 cup team I snagged two busted rims off of at Daytona this year haha.
I found an NC Miata color chart and it had a huge selection of colors. There were probably over 30 during the NC production range. I guess they mostly sell the standard colors? I wonder if it’s a dealership ordering thing and they only stock the boring ones to be safe.
That’s fun! I flew 4 states away to get my Series.Yellow BRZ, great car and color, silly special edition name. I prefer the other markets where it was called Inazuma.
“Ask your Doctor if Inazuma is right for you”
Love that blue 987! Very similar to my Lapis Blue 986, with blue top, blue leather and blue seat belts. Original owner ticked a lot of boxes on the build sheet!