Driving Janis Joplin’s Psychedelic $500,000 Porsche 356

With Joplin's original, customized radio and epic paint job, you can almost smell the patchouli.

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By Hannah Elliott

December 8, 2015 at 1:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

She may have sung about Mercedes Benz, but Janis Joplin owned a Porsche—a 1964 Porsche 356C Cabriolet, to be exact. RM Sotheby's is selling the vintage vehicle at its "Driven By Disruption" sale on Dec. 10 in New York. Experts say it could fetch at least half a million dollars.

The psychedelic roadster has a (nearly) 100-horsepower engine, progressive disc brakes, authentic non-power steering, a body weight of next to nothing, and if you’re lucky, the four-speed manual transmission will hit 60 miles per hour in 10 seconds. That's all beside the point. Driving it feels as if you’ve stepped back in time to join the glory days of motoring: With its short, little snub nose, low ride, and that four-speed manual transmission, you'll achieve total road contact between human and machine. It’s extremely fun to drive.