A RARE GEM

A Rare Gem

Noted Porsche hunter Justin Roeser talks us through his 6 year undertaking to secure a particularly rare 928.

“There were 9 Moonstone Porsche 928s, eight of them were built in 1979 and one in 1980. Mine is that sole 1980 car.”

To this day, we’ve never met anyone quite as committed to rare Porsche colours as Justin Roeser. Adding to his 911SC and 924, this 928 is his third Moonstone Porsche, a paint shade so rare that even committed Porsche fans have usually never seen it in person. The lilac-white mix was only available for a handful of years and not selected often, or even preserved on all the cars that were delivered with it. Seeking out the remaining Moonstone cars is Justin’s specialty, and there are no limits to how far he’ll go to find them.

“I was originally told about the 928 by the Porsche Archives in 2018, who I’d visited to learn more about certain colours I’m fascinated by. The next day, the head of the archives sent me an ad for this car, but it wasn’t the right time. In the last 2-3 years however, I started working closely with a workshop in Germany, with whom I shared a few old screenshots of that online ad to see if they knew it. About 20 minutes later they sent back photos of the same car and revealed that they’d been servicing it for years. The odds? It was destiny!

They were kind enough to introduce me to the owner Oli, who like me is a lover of unique colours and weird cars overall. He eventually told me I was first in line in case he ever sold it. Finally, after 6 years, 4 of which were spent going back and forth to the factory and spreading the word among various dealers, 2 of which were spent ‘courting’ Oli, the torch was passed to me. I named the car ‘Oli’ in honour of its previous owner.”

Though Justin lives in Texas, he wasn’t in a rush to bring the Moonstone 928 back from Germany. Instead, after he bought the car, Justin embarked on a shakedown run that would end up carrying him through 9 countries and over 8000 miles.

“It was my wife’s idea for me to make it a solo trip. I’d recently lost my mother so the idea was about being alone, taking an adventure and connecting to the loss and grief, but also with myself. Originally during the German, Austrian and Croatian leg I’d booked hotels in advance, but my wife insisted I stop having a plan, so I took a ferry from Dubrovnik to Italy and lived day by day from that point on, talking to locals and searching for things to discover.

The only ‘issue’ I encountered was in Rimini, where the car failed to start. So I extended my stay over the weekend with zero idea that the MotoGP happened to be in town. I noticed everyone at the hotel was in motorcycle attire and I got speaking to them, next I knew I was invited to join in and it was one of the best weekends of the trip. The universe had its plan! Come Monday I called my garage in Germany who suggested this old school trick of slightly pulling a cable out of the distributor, then the car suddenly came to life.”

Seeking out the remaining Moonstone cars is Justin’s specialty, and there are no limits to how far he’ll go to find them.

At the pinnacle of the trip, Justin made it to Stuttgart to meet Vlasta Hatter, the legendary colour & trim designer who worked at Porsche for 32 years. Among her contributions is the iconic Pasha fabric and of course, Moonstone.

“Meeting Vlasta was amazing. I’d spent years trying to find the source of the colour, as long at least as it took me to find this car, all I wanted was to know the story. Moonstone is now having its day, but 40+ years ago it wasn’t. Vlasta was very ahead of her time. When she told me she’d been inspired by an image of a lilac flower, I got so emotional I had to pinch myself to not tear up. Though she was telling me for the first time, it was almost like I knew the story already.”