Yahoo Autos Porsche Owner Creates His Own Harlequin Cayman GT4
No, this isn't the latest paint-to-sample option from Porsche. Instead, it's a completely custom one-off wrap applied to one owner's own Cayman GT4. An obvious homage to the Volkswagen Golf Harlequin, this car means even more to its owner: it represents his childhood, and serves as a nod to the relationship between Porsche and Volkswagen.
The creator is Michael Darling, an accident attorney with the law firm Falcon Law Group of San Antonio, Texas. He picked up his Cayman GT4 back in early 2023 and then spotted a Harlequin Golf at a cars and coffee event in March of the same year. Here's what it looked like originally.
Volkswagen made just 254 Harlequin Golfs for the USA, as sales never took off. That surprised the brand, after a similarly multi-colored Polo was very popular in Europe. Despite that meager success in the States, the design immediately spoke to Darling, he tells Road & Track.
"I was born in 1992 and always enjoyed Legos, Mario Kart, Tonka trucks, MS Paint, N64, and the like," Darling, who chronicles his adventures on Instagram under the handle @HarleCayman, told us. "I was steeped in neon colors and inundated with data at a time when endless hope for the future was the hallmark of our society. Seeing and listening to media harkening back to that time period inspires deep nostalgia and peace in me."
"I wanted to make something fun and unique that sparks the exciting feeling in the stomach of every Eighties and Nineties kid about a carefree time when color was everywhere. At the same time, I wanted to honor the original Harlequin idea and recognize Porsche’s role in its development, given the original Beetle design was crafted to some extent by Porsche execs, and now [the] full circle [is] Porsche [being] owned by VAG."
Darling doesn't take all of the credit for actually putting this wrap on his car. "Really I have my fiancée, Melissa Ku, to thank for the decision. I was initially considering a two-tone sort of deal between Chalk and Miami Blue, a callback to the Jazz solo cups of the Nineties. Then, I told Melissa that I had been in love with the Harlequin scheme and showed her a picture. She encouraged me to go for it."
"I was inspired by a render by Glen Cordle, who works with Singer and other Porsche builders etc. He and I messaged back and forth on Instagram a bit. He had done a similar harlequin render on a 911 GT3 RS," Darling continued. "I used that as inspiration for some of the colors, though I like the way mine turned out a lot for me personally. I used more colors and [put them] in different spots for several of the choices and left the doors Miami Blue."
"In short, this idea has been brewing in my mind for around a year and a half now, with the real trigger pull happening this fall," Darling, who I can’t wait to take it to Circuit of the Americas for the next track day. Save the manuals."
Porsche owners are often stereotyped as overly obsessed with how unique their cars are: what type of stitching they have, how rare their paint color is, and the like. It's great to see someone with a car as capable and desirable as the Cayman GT4 having this kind of playful attitude toward ownership.
And for what it's worth, he's not the only one with the idea of Harlequin-izing a Porsche. At least one Porsche 918 Spyder owner has done this too.
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