Girls and Cars - Photos for Bullwinkle and the rest

Last December, you might remember the stories about Janis Joplin’s Psychedelic Porsche selling at auction. Don’t be surprised if you see it being driven around the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area. Its new owner lives on Gull Lake. Sources say she bought it to give to herself as a 60th birthday present.

The car, a 1964 Porsche 356 that once belonged to the rock singer Janis Joplin sold at auction for a record $1.76 million. The car had been expected to sell for between $400,000 and $600,000.

Since the re-creation of the artwork, the Porsche has been displayed in a number of museums, spending some time in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and also making an appearance at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

The most recent work performed on the car was a mechanical restoration done by RM Auto Restoration which brought the car back to running condition, with RM Sotheby's publishing a $400,000 to $600,000 estimate range for the car. The $1.76 million winning bid was a surprise, even though some were confident that the $600,000 high estimate was conservative. Much hinged on the artwork, since the present coat of paint is arguably a reproduction, with much of the actual history of the car having been forever erased.

This sale represents an interesting case study both in celebrity cars and art cars. We're confident that many readers would agree that had the car maintained its dolphin gray paintwork from the '70s, it would have been viewed differently at auction in the year 2015.