Texas-based collector Justin Roeser traces Porsche’s elusive Moonstone color across continents—and finds its origin story in Germany.
For most Porsche fans, rare paint codes are just a fun footnote. For Justin Roeser, they’re a life’s calling.
The 45-year-old collector from San Antonio, Texas, has spent years tracking down every known example of Porsche’s rarest factory color: Moonstone, a pale lilac hue that shifts with the light and defies easy definition. Only 223 cars were ever painted in Moonstone between 1979 and 1980, spread across just three models: the 924, 911, and 928. Roeser now owns one of each.
His passion has taken him far beyond the usual hunt for collector cars. In August 2024, Roeser journeyed across Europe to retrieve his third Moonstone Porsche—“Oli,” a 1979 928 named after its former owner. The trip wasn’t just a pickup—it became a pilgrimage, taking him to Porsche’s home in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and eventually face-to-face with the woman behind the color itself.
“There’s just something about it,” Roeser said. “I don’t know if it’s nostalgia, mystery, or just how it catches the light. It’s unlike anything else.”
That woman was Vlasta Hatter, a former designer at Porsche who helped develop the unique lilac tone. In a private meeting at the Porsche Museum, she revealed that the color—known in German as Flieder—was inspired by the blooming lilac plant and created using pigments no longer legal in modern automotive paint. Its English name, Moonstone, was chosen to invoke a more poetic, international image.
Though it failed to sell well when new, Moonstone has taken on legendary status among modern Porsche enthusiasts, helped by Pantone naming a similar hue—“Very Peri”—its 2022 Color of the Year.
Roeser’s journey didn't end at Porsche HQ. He drove 10,000 kilometers across Europe in Oli, meeting fellow Moonstone owners, fixing breakdowns by the sea in Rimini, and even attending a MotoGP race by chance. Each stop brought new connections—not just with people, but with the car itself.
“This color gives me such a good feeling,” Roeser said. “The journey, the people, the stories—they’re part of it now.”
Asked whether his quest is over, Roeser hesitated. “Maybe the searching ends,” he said. “But the connection? That’s forever.”
