What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, as the saying goes. And since I find both these saucy Porkers – Mint Green and Orange – absolutely irresistible, I hope you will too. Certainly, they caught the attention of the locals where we undertook our car-to-car photoshoot, enough to prompt a call to nearby law enforcement agents, more of which I’ll cover later.
What we have here is a 2002 facelift-model 996 Carrera and a rare 987 Cayman S Sport. Both cars have been endowed with improvements, mechanically and externally. They’re also both in the tender care of Charlie Wildridge, proprietor of William Francis Porsche, based at Clopton Green in Suffolk. Here’s the gist.
First up, the Minter. My old friends (better known as ‘the reader’) will understand why I’m drawn to it, having run a Mint Green 964 for more than a decade. Mint was on the Porsche colour chart back in the early 1990s, but the difference here is that the cool coat of colour is, in fact, a wrap – a very good one – applied by B:Spoke, a paint protection film (PPF), signwriting and vinyl wrapping outfit based in Rattlesden, not far from Charlie’s base near Bury St Edmunds. Though very much Mint Green, the colour is actually named Tiffany Blue in the catalogue of vinyl producer, Hexis. Me, I’ll grab Breakfast at Tiffany’s anytime.
Charlie is distinctly upbeat about the finish. “It has transformed the car from its original ‘plain Jane’ silver into something which really pops. It brings the details out everywhere.” Indeed, the genuine Porsche Tequipment rollcage is more prominent in your vision and the ducktail really sets things off. There’s a matching vinyl pinstripe around the achingly gorgeous wheels, too. “The beauty of vinyl is how you can have a bit of fun and try different things. If what you’ve attempted to achieve doesn’t look any good, you simply peel the material off and try something different.”
Through strips on the dashboard and seat tops, the Mint detailing is taken further, but personalisation through vinyl doesn’t end there. “Wrapping the mirrors carbon black evokes an RS theme,” says Charlie. “I didn’t want to build an RS replica, though. My intention was, in fact, to build an aggressive 996 amounting to a half-price GT3.” On
