When they say that vehicle history matters when buying a used car, usually that’s just checking to see that it hasn’t been on fire or hit a giraffe or took a dip in the Chesapeake or whatever. However, sometimes when a car is associated with a star, it can command more than you’d expect for an otherwise ordinary example. We’re about to find out if more recent star power affects collector car value, as a Porsche 911 GT3 RS customized under the direction of Dua Lipa is set to go under the gavel.
If you aren’t familiar with Dua Lipa, it’s possible you just don’t listen to top 40 radio. Over the past decade or so, the British-born Kosovo-Albanian pop star has turned out several top-10 hits, including “New Rules” and “Levitating,” and her 2024 album Radical Optimism reached number two on the Billboard 200. In addition to music, fashion, and humanitarian causes, she also seems to be into sports cars, fine-tuning the spec of this 518-horsepower big-winged Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
The immediate impact of this particular GT3 RS is a green and red and orange and gold livery that’s full of whimsy. Is there something old-school about multi-color swooshes? Sure, but retro style over modern trackday-focused machinery is a fun juxtaposition when it isn’t a livery that’s already played out, and this technicolor palette blows the doors off of subdued grey. Bonus points for maintaining the Pyro Red finish of the Weissach pack’s magnesium wheels, since not altering them means not having to deal with magnesium’s fiddliness when powder coating it a different hue.
At the same time, the interior of this particular GT3 RS appears unchanged, meaning black bucket seats with regular option list red stitching, your standard mix of sueded textile, leather, and carbon fibre, factory-order red gauge faces, and that’s about it. I reckon this is a missed opportunity as Porsche’s Sonderwunsch division keeps some vibrant shades of leather on hand, but it’s not surprising the interior’s unaltered, given this is essentially a marketing project.
Ah yes, because this GT3 RS is part of a brand partnership deal, it has actually been driven. Between the Monaco Grand Prix, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and other events and occasions on which it may have been driven, it now rocks 5,264 kilometers on the clock, or about 3,270 miles. It may go up a little bit from the start of the auction to its close, but hopefully it’s been run in properly.
So, where can you bid on this 911 GT3 RS with extra star power? It’s being auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s, with all proceeds going toward Dua Lipa’s own charity, the Sunny Hill Foundation. While it’s easy to look upon that a bit cynically, the foundation funds volunteer-led music and arts programs in Kosovo, an initiative benefiting a part of the world that’s seen substantial hardship in our lifetimes. If you’re interested in bidding, the auction closes on July 31, although given that this appears to be a European-spec car, it’s probably best kept on the continent.
Top graphic image: RM Sotheby’s; WowPowGamer/YouTube
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Duolingo’s marketing department has the opportunity to do THE FUNNIEST THING EVER
“ with all proceeds going toward Dua Lipa’s own charity, the Sunny Hill Foundation”
Ah yes… “going to charity”. But what does this “charity” do? Does it help feed or house the poor? Does it help cure illness by providing medication to those who can’t afford it?
Nah.
It’s for funding Dua’s own personal music festival!
There are charities… and then there are “charities”. This is the latter.
And did Dua actually drive this car herself on a regular basis? Well based on a bit of searching, apparently not. This car is just a glorified marketing exercise and maybe at most, she sat in it a few times.
Sorry… I’m just cynical about celebrities, celebrity culture and the BS consumerism and marketing tied to it.
Yep, she’s not an Amy Macdonald.
Granted, Macdonald initially went overboard. I believe she’s pared most of the collection down, but still throws her Senna around Scotland’s Knockhill.
I remeber when she was just Kayleigh Rose Lipschitz.
I own the 90 Celica GTS that Dwight Yoakam drove in the 1990 Toyota Pro / Celebrity race in Long Beach. I think that may have helped convince me to buy it? I don’t think I am in Porsche tax bracket.
(Now if I could just contact Dwight to autograph the damn thing.)
I’d bid on it.
I would not win the auction.
Did she ever drive it? That would not change my bid, just interested.
Is that a manual? I’ll up my offer by 10%.
All 992 GT3 RS models are PDK
The design of the shift lever seems specifically intended to deceive.
It certainly does.
I’ve (briefly) driven a GT4 RS with the same lever and it’s certainly odd. It takes a weird amount of effort to get it in gear. I’d still take it over the stupid Braun shaver electronic thing in the regular 911 though….
Yeah, it has a real deliberate-ness to it, which feels intentional.
Honestly, for shifting manually, the lever is far more engaging than the paddles. Not even a contest. You just want to really bang it back-and-forward like a racing sequential.
She drove it at Goodwood last weekend; went pretty fast if I remember correctly
The paint scheme on this car and the color choice on the custom gauge cluster make me wonder if we’re living in a ’80s throwback.
As far as pop goes I think her music is pretty fun and completely harmless. She also seems like a pretty decent person and she’s been working with Porsche for a while so she clearly has great taste in cars. She’s good in my book.
Is there any way to freeze that gif?! Dua Lipa looks like she’s going for a world record for invisible hula hooping. I’m tired just watching her.
The funny thing about that gif is that it’s from an early concert of hers where she didn’t dance very well (as evidenced) and she got completely reamed online for it. I think the most popular phrase was something like “yes girl, give us nothing!” But apparently she took the criticism to heart and now has much better choreography for her concerts.
I’ve heard of her, she did a decent collaboration song with Elton John.
The car? I’d be embarrassed to be seen in that, but I’m not rich enough for it to be an issue.
Waiting for her Dual IPA collab with a local brewery
Or a 911 with dual IDA carbs?
Sometimes called “Imperial IPA” but you don’t want to talk about imperialism with Kosovars or Albanians, let alone both at the same time!
that is clever
COTD!
I do appreciate a good Dua-tone Lipery, but I am only tangentially aware of her fame. At least it’s for talent, apparently. That’s commendable these days. Now if it had been owned by John Voight, that’s a different story.
I am Levitating towards that livery.
I think just from being alive you would have been subject to her song ‘Levitating’ in the last few years whether you wanted to or not.
Possibly while walking through Kohl’s or something, but TBH I never heard a single Taylor Swift song until it was in the movie Sing with Nick Kroll and Reese Witherspoon covering it. That was like 5+ years into her superstardom.
It’s funny because if you’re an OG radio/MTV person like me, the idea of discovering new music feels like a lot of doors have been shut. Yes, music is all “democratized” or whatever, but it still feels weird to hear major pop songs for the first time in retail stores.
All of this. Add to this the fact that I almost never go into retail stores, and I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever heard one of her songs.
Let me go check (off to Apple Music to search and sort by top songs)
Nope, played “Levitating” and a few others, I have never heard her music before. I am for sure not her target market, but it seemed fine.
I don’t listen to regular radio, or watch TV. Haven’t in more than a decade. My only knowledge of Ms Lipa is random Facebook suggestions & I keep the volume muted. (There’s a LOT of current stuff I have no clue on.)
I would be curious at least. The only Sabrina Carpenter song I’ve heard was thanks to a previous story about her new video. 🙂
Have a thing for dentists, do ya?
So is it just a wrap for the livery or did Porsche actually repaint it? I wish they would say in the listing.
I have no idea who she is. And I could not be the next owner unless I sold everything I owned.
Unless you Dua lotta Lipa to some wealthy individual, I doubt many could afford this unit.
haha even if I were to sell everything I owned I still think I would be at least 5 figures short, quite likely still 6.