Sep 27

Sep 27 How the Swedish magenta press test car ended up in the U.S.

Justin Roeser is in love with colorful Porsches. This is how he tracked down and bought a very special car – at least special for Swedish car magazine readers with good memories.

Words Eric Lund Photography Justin Roeser

Early morning a few years ago. The coffee machine gurgled as it brewed the coffee, the morning newspaper had been fetched from the mailbox, the dog was eating its food. I yawned and scrolled through my Instagram feed. Noticed that Luftgekühlt once again seemed to have attracted exceptionally stunning cars.

Suddenly, a picture flashed by that nearly made me drop the coffee cup. Wasn't that...? It couldn't have been...? I zoomed in on the picture and read the car's license plate: JHY354.

A magenta Porsche 911 is rare in any circumstance, and I recognized this license plate very well. This was the car I had driven and written about a few years earlier, and which many Swedish car magazine readers had become acquainted with back in 1976 when it served as a press test car for the Swedish Porsche importer.

Justin W. Roeser like Porsches. And he like colors.

Now, it was standing at the world's trendiest Porsche gathering, on the other side of the Atlantic, with a Swedish license plate—or at least something meant to resemble one. I rubbed my eyes and took a few deep sips of coffee.

In the summer of 1976, JHY354 was driven by two older colleagues of mine, Dag E Hogsten and Robert Lavér, as they compared a sports car with a BMW motorcycle in Swedish car magazine Teknikens Värld. In 2011, Robert Lavér and I revisited the same article, which you can read by clicking on this link.

But how had JHY354 ended up at Luftgekühlt in the USA? I continued scrolling and saw the car appearing on several Instagram accounts. In the comments section of Lisa Taylor's post, I briefly described the car's history and the article I had written. It didn't take long before I had a very pleasant conversation with a gentleman from the USA. His name was Justin Roeser, and on his Instagram account (@33bosshog), you'll find (almost) nothing but cars in interesting colors.

"I love cars with exciting colors. In the past, I've bought a 924 and a couple of 911s painted in the moonstone color, but I searched for a long time for a magenta-red one," Justin told me.

He had seen JHY354 for sale on a European car website and jumped on the opportunity. JHY354 had been owned for a long time by the Swedish former Porsche dealer Lasse Jönsson in Karlstad, Western Sweden. He bought the pink 911 from the importer, thinking it was a regular red color. It turned out that "carmine red" was exceptionally hard to sell...

After changing hands a few times over the decades, the car ended up back with Lasse Jönsson in the 2000s and became part of his magnificent collection of classic cars. He probably intended to keep JHY354 but sold it in a weak moment.

Rims painted in white gold metallic and stickers from here and there.

It was when the new owner put the car up for sale that Justin Roeser saw his chance to add a magenta 911 to his collection. Since then, he has meticulously restored and improved the car, always guided by its history. For example, Lasse Jönsson's name is taped on the rear side window, as is customary on racing cars (and Lasse has raced a lot over the years, though not with this car).

"I want to know everything about the history of my cars, who owned them and how they were used," Justin said during our recent conversation.

The fact that JHY354 began its career as a press car and then had a renaissance in car and motorcycle magazines in the 2010s is, of course, a noteworthy piece of the puzzle.

The car has been repainted in its original color (magenta 009), rubber seals have been replaced, and the wheels have been updated. The original 6-inch cookie-cutter design rims have been swapped for 7-inch ones that Justin had painted in white gold metallic (from the 997.2 GT3 RS and the magnesium wheels on 991 GT2 RS), and sometimes he switches to Minilites in the same color. Original-style mud flaps have been added (they were mandatory in Sweden for a long time, and they're clearly visible in the 1976 photos).

The interior has been restored with original tweed-covered seats and new speakers for the fantastic, ceiling-mounted Panasonic radio. Mechanically, the clutch and brakes have been overhauled, oil lines have been replaced, and an eleven-blade fan instead of the original five-blade one has been installed. Sway bars have been added—turns out they were entirely missing when Justin bought the car.

As the icing on the cake, Justin has had Swedish-style license plates made (the genuine ones must be returned when the car is exported). Soon, JHY354 will be making an appearance at a prestigious Porsche gathering, and this article is not the final chapter in the story of JHY354 on Eric's Eleven. Stay tuned! | e11 |