Porsche is bringing back its most famous fabrics for your next restoration

Porsche is finally fed up of the fake retro fabrics flooding the market, so it’s reissuing Pasha, Pepita and a number of tartan designs from its back catalogue. Seriously, what took it so long?

“By reissuing these fabrics we are closing a gap, because most customers want to restore their historic or more recent classic cars to their original condition as closely as possible," said director of Classic, Ulrike Lutz.

“It was particularly important to us in this project that we maintain our quality promise with the fabrics. Unfortunately, there are many imitations on the market that are either not at all suitable as seat fabric or lose their appearance after a short time. That's why we want to offer our customers a tested original alternative again.”

No doubt you’ll recognise most of the remakes. Pasha was inspired by a waving chequered flag and first appeared on a 928 back in 1977. And yes, this reissue has got us checking used 928 prices. We’ll take ours with brown exterior paint and a refreshed Pasha interior, please. The wavy design was also offered in the 911, 924 and 944 until the middle of the 1980s.

Pepita is a houndstooth pattern that took its name from ‘Pepita de Oliva’ – the stage name of 19th Century Spanish dancer Josefa Durán y Ortega. However, the checked fabric was truly made famous by Christian Dior in the late 1940s, and Porsche offered it as an option for the seats of the 356 and the original 911 in the 1960s. It has now been reissued in classic black and white, and in a red, black and white combo.

Tartan fabric was first offered by Porsche in three forms for the original 911 Turbo in 1974, although a couple of years later it would become available on the standard 911 too. The ‘McLaughlan’ red and blue is a particular favourite of ours.

All of these new/old fabrics are available in 1.5m x 2m rolls, with each costing £290 a pop. Oh, and further retro colours and designs are on the way. Which is your favourite?