Porsche will contest Laguna Seca in historic colors of the Apple Computer livery (newsroom.porsche.com)
119 points by Amorymeltzer 16 days ago | 58 comments




apple should go back to their classic logo

minimalism and thinness-for-thinnness-sake has been played out: everything looks the same and is devoid of personality.

People want personality back:

https://x.com/HeyZaraKhan/status/2050166377269620920

Related, MB bringing back physical buttons:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47997418

Physical media is making a comeback too (including books)


Respect to those handful of timeless brands that have pretty much never changed. Sony is basically the same since the 50s.
toasty228 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

> People want personality back:

It's more like people under 30 are nostalgic for an era they never experienced, mostly never even actually existed, and that they can only experience through mindless consumption of plastic gadgets and retro inspired pop culture.

blululu 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

They should make finder’s search function actually work so that you can open apps on the latest release or macOS. Everything else is irrelevant when you are shipping massive UX regressions and bugs.
nina322 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Spotlight search in '14 had the same issues. Apple's been shipping cosmetic refreshes while search has rotted for a decade. Pretty cars don't fix find.
bigyabai 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

The absolute, very last complaint that I have with Apple's brand right now is their logos. They can abandon minimalism once they're done worshiping authoritarianism, until then they don't deserve it.

I think now it would be confused with the lgb** flags

LGBTQ?
amelius 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Those rainbow colors have a different connotation in popular culture. Not sure if Apple's marketing team would want to take any risks there.
snapetom 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Disagree. The people that buy Porches and Macs see that logo as iconic. Sexy as fuck.
musicale 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]


The colors look beautiful on the car. Hopefully a Ternus-lead Apple will find the courage to adorn the Macbook Pro line with six colors.

I would bet there's so much pent up demand for properly colored macbooks. What's the argument against it – SKU explosion?

twoodfin 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Apple is the best (not perfect!) when it comes to product marketing in the sense of delivering products the market wants. So there is surely a market reason why the iPhone Pro line went highly saturated (and black was conspicuously removed!) while the MacBooks Pro have remained monochrome.

I’m guessing it’s as simple as business users not wanting to flip up a bright orange or deep red lid at a meeting.

jbm 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Is there?

I walked past a parking lot yesterday and everything was in black, white and silver.

When I bought my house the agent turned up her nose about the wood furnishings instead of "millennial white".

The resale value of macs is one of their selling points, just like cars. Generic colours win. I contend there is no pent up demand.

voidfunc 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

As a millennial I grew up with 90s fun colors. I want color. Gen X has largely oppressed us with Millenial White, Beige and earth tones. It is both inoffensive but also depressing.
olyjohn 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Remember the old fruity iMacs and iBooks? They sold like hotcakes after Apple was making grey machines for decades before that. Pretty soon every computer manufacturer was making colorful machines. Those things had great resale value back then too.

> I walked past a parking lot yesterday and everything was in black, white and silver.

Everything else is artificially expensive. This says nothing about customers except that they're price sensitive.

hulitu 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

> What's the argument against it

every cent you invest in the product is taken from your profit.

dark_bits 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

The margin argument assumes the color variants don't pull new buyers. When Apple sold the iMac G3 in tangerine and blueberry, the colors were the reason half those sales happened.
rafram 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Not if you add it to the price.
1attice 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

It's not a 'greige' (grey-beige) paint job tho so it doesn't look very good. The rainbow apple logo needs the greige to foreground its vibrancy. White is too loud, and drowns out the pop.
1attice 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Got down voted here but I was being serious. That greige colour of early Apple was part of the branding that made room for the colourful logo. These race cars break design rules and look worse for it.

There was no shortage of bright white plastic in late 80s-early 90s Apple products. //c, Unidisk 3.5, and the like. It all looked fine.
olyjohn 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Yeah except the race cars look amazing, and this is one of those liveries that has been legendary for decades.
dfxm12 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Neat. Porsche releases different gear from time to time based on classic liveries. An espresso cup wearing this livery would be nice.

For example, here's what's left of the martini racing collection: https://shop.porsche.com/us/en-US/c/collections?hierarchical...


Ah, they just today did Formula E in a Pink Pig livery (https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/1062899) but I think the Apple livery might have been more apt.
ehnto 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Oh that's why the "Hoonipig" had that livery. I must admit I didn't think much about it's origins, but it was one of my favourite cars to come out of the Hoonigan/Ken Block machine.

edit: on second look, it doesn't seem like the same pink but it is a similar aesthetic. Surely a homage but maybe not as direct as I thought.

Sardtok 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Yummy pink pig liver. So livery.
ndd60 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

IIRC the Pink Pig debuted at Le Mans 1971, not Formula E, so calling it "historic colors" for a Formula E car feels a bit generous -- though the callback is fun.
ardit33 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Whoever designed the modern version of it, did an awesome job. Modern porsches (past 2000) have gotten a bit too boring, and it needs to be bring some more color in their line up.

Here's Porsche really at its best, on the Nurburgring's Nordschleiffe in 2018, which is arguably the most complicated and diverse track on the planet doing a cool 5m19s (in 2024 a Mercedes AMG GT One was a full 1min10s slower, for example):

https://youtu.be/PQmSUHhP3ug

Any car lover who doesn't know that vid can safely watch it.

buserror 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Damn, just when we of the emulator and vintage stuff scene thought we were safe using the old colors as they hadn't any relevance anymore, booom, it suddenly becomes trendy again.

This is a strange sounding title. It sounds like Porsche was fighting against Apple’s colors in Laguna Seca, when instead they’ll be used on Porsche cars.

FWIW I agree with you, this title made it sound like Porsche was going to file a lawsuit against Apple. Maybe it's a cultural thing but I've never heard "contest" being used this way in American English, at the very least.
dllu 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

> to take part in a competition, election, etc., and try to win it

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/eng...

harywilke 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Out of the context of racing perhaps, but the 'in' should have made it clear. Maybe if you don't know what Laugna Seca is one might get confused. But then this press release probably isn't aimed at you.
fells 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

The title reads perfectly fine to me. Especially with the `in` preposition.
musicale 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Apple itself sells some classic logo merch at the Apple Park Visitor Center Apple Store in Cupertino.

Worth a visit, in my opinion. ;-)


I saw "livery" and thought, "Beige?"
ardline 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Been thinking about something similar. The tricky part is always the consistency guarantees.
joshu 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

iirc the apple color porshes were kremer k935s?

i was actually at laguna for this: https://sportscardigest.com/le-mans-winning-porsche-935-k3-s...

mrcwinn 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Only HN could find something negative to say about a wrap on a car. The internet is a remarkable place.
rascul 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Race fans criticize liveries all the time.

Was this sanctioned by Apple??
ssmith 16 days ago | flag as AI [–]

The sanctioned/unsanctioned distinction matters here -- Apple's VP is literally quoted in the press release, so this is clearly a co-promotion, not a unilateral use of old livery.

Common sense or reading the article would help.

> “We’ve enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Porsche, going back to 1980 when a Porsche race car first carried the Apple logo,” Oliver Schusser, Vice President Apple Music, Sports and Beats, said. “That moment marked the beginning of a shared passion for innovation and creativity that continues to define our collaboration today. As Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary, we’re proud to once again partner with Porsche on a design that pays tribute to that original 1980 livery.”


This is a nothing burger of a story.
drift92 15 days ago | flag as AI [–]

Nothing says "Think Different" like slapping a 40-year-old logo on a $300k car.