Macho Boxster
From The Telegraph in the UK
Marketing executive Clare Salmon loved her shoes so much she had her new car painted to match, as Simon Holden reports
Clare Salmon's favourite colour is pink. So when she decided to replace her bright yellow Porsche Boxster with a brand new one, she was dismayed to hear some bad news: the colour she wanted wasn't on the chart.
She has coped before; her first Boxster was a "boring blue". And before that she had a pale-blue BMW Z3. "It was nice of its type," she says, "but the new ones are horrible with those really sharp edges. They don't have that elegance. I like curvy cars, such as Aston Martins. They're understated."
Undeterred by the absence of pink on the Porsche options list, she decided to celebrate her "third 39th" birthday in style.
"I have a mouth-wateringly beautiful pair of shocking-pink Gina slingbacks with three-inch heels," she says. "They are absolutely succulent and I wanted a car to match. So when I went into the Porsche garage on Park Lane, I took the shoes and put them on the counter.
"First of all, the man looked over my head at my other half and said, 'Has she heard of depreciation?' John, my partner, said, 'Look, really, it's her money. You'd better talk to the customer.' So they wheeled out the only female salesperson they had and she couldn't do enough for me."
One of her beloved slingbacks was duly sent to Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart and an exact paint match was found. The company is perfectly willing to deliver cars in special colours, although the process adds several months to the delivery time and more than Pounds2,000 to the bill. The 161mph, 3.2-litre Boxster S retails at Pounds38,720, but Clare, who is marketing director of ITV Broadcasting, wasn't too concerned about the price; as with her shoes, which cost more than Pounds350, colour was all that mattered.
"To be perfectly honest, I can't remember how much the car was because I bought it out of my bonus, in cash," she says. "I was celebrating the bonus as well as my birthday, and I'd started looking for the perfect colour in March.
"When I finally went to collect the car from Park Lane, I put on my pink shoes, pink cardigan, pink handbag, pink everything. They brought it around for me and within five minutes there was a crowd of Japanese tourists taking pictures of it with their mobile phones.
"That still happens because I park it outdoors and people often stop to take photographs. When I first got the car, I blossomed forth to work with the pink shoes, pink handbag and a pink suit from Ronit Zilka. I've even had a proposal of marriage: someone saw me driving down the King's Road and shouted out, 'Marry me!' I think it was the car he was really interested in.
"But my daughter Jessica wasn't too sure about me getting another Porsche. On the day I picked it up, I decided to go and collect her from the birthday party she was attending. When her friends saw it, they swarmed out of the house saying, 'Oh, it's the Barbie car!' Jessica was really quiet for about 10 minutes and then she said, 'Mummy, do you think I could have it when you are dead?' I told her she would have to wait until she had her driving licence."
A spokeswoman for the Porsche Centre Park Lane confirmed that Clare's car was unusual in more ways than one, because the time and cost implications mean that one-off colours are rarely requested. "We've never had an order for a pink Porsche before," she said. "We've done one other special car this year, but that was blue."
Marketing executive Clare Salmon loved her shoes so much she had her new car painted to match, as Simon Holden reports
Clare Salmon's favourite colour is pink. So when she decided to replace her bright yellow Porsche Boxster with a brand new one, she was dismayed to hear some bad news: the colour she wanted wasn't on the chart.
She has coped before; her first Boxster was a "boring blue". And before that she had a pale-blue BMW Z3. "It was nice of its type," she says, "but the new ones are horrible with those really sharp edges. They don't have that elegance. I like curvy cars, such as Aston Martins. They're understated."
Undeterred by the absence of pink on the Porsche options list, she decided to celebrate her "third 39th" birthday in style.
"I have a mouth-wateringly beautiful pair of shocking-pink Gina slingbacks with three-inch heels," she says. "They are absolutely succulent and I wanted a car to match. So when I went into the Porsche garage on Park Lane, I took the shoes and put them on the counter.
"First of all, the man looked over my head at my other half and said, 'Has she heard of depreciation?' John, my partner, said, 'Look, really, it's her money. You'd better talk to the customer.' So they wheeled out the only female salesperson they had and she couldn't do enough for me."
One of her beloved slingbacks was duly sent to Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart and an exact paint match was found. The company is perfectly willing to deliver cars in special colours, although the process adds several months to the delivery time and more than Pounds2,000 to the bill. The 161mph, 3.2-litre Boxster S retails at Pounds38,720, but Clare, who is marketing director of ITV Broadcasting, wasn't too concerned about the price; as with her shoes, which cost more than Pounds350, colour was all that mattered.
"To be perfectly honest, I can't remember how much the car was because I bought it out of my bonus, in cash," she says. "I was celebrating the bonus as well as my birthday, and I'd started looking for the perfect colour in March.
"When I finally went to collect the car from Park Lane, I put on my pink shoes, pink cardigan, pink handbag, pink everything. They brought it around for me and within five minutes there was a crowd of Japanese tourists taking pictures of it with their mobile phones.
"That still happens because I park it outdoors and people often stop to take photographs. When I first got the car, I blossomed forth to work with the pink shoes, pink handbag and a pink suit from Ronit Zilka. I've even had a proposal of marriage: someone saw me driving down the King's Road and shouted out, 'Marry me!' I think it was the car he was really interested in.
"But my daughter Jessica wasn't too sure about me getting another Porsche. On the day I picked it up, I decided to go and collect her from the birthday party she was attending. When her friends saw it, they swarmed out of the house saying, 'Oh, it's the Barbie car!' Jessica was really quiet for about 10 minutes and then she said, 'Mummy, do you think I could have it when you are dead?' I told her she would have to wait until she had her driving licence."
A spokeswoman for the Porsche Centre Park Lane confirmed that Clare's car was unusual in more ways than one, because the time and cost implications mean that one-off colours are rarely requested. "We've never had an order for a pink Porsche before," she said. "We've done one other special car this year, but that was blue."
she's at least got a matching pink hard top for the boxter 
