“My friends all drive Porsches”, sang hippie queen Janis Joplin on the 1970 track ‘Mercedes Benz’, but she could regularly be seen bombing down the highways of the West Coast in a stunning example of German engineering, too. The car manufacturer is famed for making luxurious performance vehicles that are as innovative as they are eye-catching, but Joplin managed to take that eye-catching appeal to entirely new heights, giving her 1964 Porsche 356 a psychedelic makeover befitting of a Roger Dean poster.

Joplin first purchased the vehicle when her group, Big Brother and the Holding Company, started to make it big in terms of commercial success. At the time, the legendary vocalist reportedly paid $3,500 for the vehicle, which equates to around $30,000 today when adjusted for inflation. Initially, the Porsche came in a distinctly dull dolphin grey – which was, at the time, an optional extra that Joplin would have likely paid extra for. If there was one thing that Joplin was not, however, it was dull. Hence, a respray was required.

For many people, their cars are extensions of themselves, which is why customisation and modifications are almost essential for creating a personal attachment to a vehicle. Joplin was, of course, an incredibly complex figure, so capturing her essence using a classic Porsche as a base would be a difficult task. Luckily, the singer’s road manager, Dave Richards, was on hand to give the car a uniquely Joplin paint job, rendering the Porsche in a stunning psychedelic mural entitled ‘History of the Universe’.

Richards was paid $500 dollars for the painting, which was then encased in a clear coat to protect it. From that point on, the car became an extension of Joplin, and fans would regularly cheer as the unique car sped past them in Los Angeles or San Francisco. Psychedelic paint jobs were not a particularly rare thing within the hippie subculture, but usually, they were reserved for cheap and abundant vehicles like the Volkswagen Beetle or a kombi bus. In contrast, Joplin’s Porsche 356 SC has always been an exclusive, desirable car.

The natural precursor to the 911 – which has since become Porsche’s flagship model – the 356 is now a rare and highly sought-after car. Joplin’s cabriolet model was produced in 1964, the final year that the model was produced, and was the SC variant – the top-of-the-range performance model. Boasting a 1600 engine and 0-60mph time of 11 seconds, Joplin’s psychedelic Porsche allowed for quick getaways and stylish transport to and from concerts.

Joplin’s car lived a high-octane life to rival that of its driver. In fact, the car was once stolen from a show at the Winter Ballroom in San Francisco in 1969. The more perceptive of you will probably realise that stealing a car with an incredibly distinctive, unique paint job was not a very smart decision, and the car was soon recovered, although much of its livery had been spray-painted over.

So, what happened to this one-of-a-kind Porsche? After Joplin’s tragic death via a heroin overdose in 1970, the car was removed from the car park of the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood, and the vocalist’s manager, Albert Grossman, took ownership of the vehicle. After falling into disrepair, the 356 was eventually returned to the Joplin family in 1975, when it was taken under the wing of her brother, Michael Joplin.

Michael took on the unenviable task of restoring the car to its former glory, completely rebuilding the 1.6L engine and breathing new life into the tired vehicle. However, by this time, the psychedelic paint job that Joplin’s road manager had created had eroded somewhat. So, her brother decided to restore the car to its original dolphin grey colour scheme. For years, the Porsche remained in this grey state before the Joplin family rightly decided that the psychedelic paint looked much better.

After commissioning artists Jana Mitchell and Amber Owen to recreate the original ‘History of the Universe’ paintwork, the rolling work of art was back to its former glory. After the restoration, the car spent many years on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum before the Joplin family finally decided to part ways with it, offering it up at Sotheby’s Auction in New York back in 2015.

Typically, a decent quality 1964 Porsche 356 SC can fetch between $80,000 and $175,000 – a far cry from the $3,500 Joplin originally paid at a Beverly Hills dealership back in the 1960s. Of course, the notoriety of Joplin’s 356 commanded a higher price, but the auction estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 was blown out of the water by the final sale price of $1.76million, the highest a Porsche 356 SC has ever sold for. In the years since the sale, the car has been on display at various museums and shows, particularly the Gilmore Car Museum in Michigan.

It might not be whizzing around the streets of San Francisco anymore, but Janis Joplin’s stunning psychedelic Porsche remains a faithful reflection of an incredibly important time in musical history. The intricate, far-out artwork, coupled with the innate style and roaring engine of the Porsche, acts as a good summation of Joplin, one of the finest rock vocalists to ever grace the airwaves.