Where did the idea behind the Synthwave SVX come from? The magenta, pink and purple stripes sweeping across its bodywork make the car difficult to place. Is it a forgotten concept car from the 1990s? A background vehicle from an arcade racing game? Or is it a rip-off?
Last year, I never made it to ImportFest 2025. Life got in the way. But one car from the show refused to leave my social media feed: a turquoise RWB Porsche 911 wearing a modern interpretation of the classic Vaillant racing livery.
That Porsche drew inspiration from the Vaillant-sponsored Kremer racing cars of the late 1970s. Those machines belonged to the wild Group 5 era, when Porsche 935s wore swollen fenders, enormous wings and liveries loud enough to be recognized from the opposite side of a racetrack.
The Vaillant-sponsored 935s were memorable for more than their speed. They had an identity. Their bright colours, curved stripes and exaggerated bodywork transformed them from racing cars into rolling pieces of graphic design.
A cool car is not simply a collection of go-fast parts. The best builds create a visual identity strong enough to be recognized from across a parking lot. The Synthwave SVX took that philosophy and translated it into the following decade.
Instead of borrowing from Group 5 endurance racing, the SVX drew from the imagery of the late 1980s and early 1990s: video games, VHS cassettes, Miami skylines and late-night Japanese city streets. The colours became cooler, the gradients brighter, and the atmosphere shifted from Le Mans sunsets to Tokyo neon.
The goal was never to imitate the Porsche. The RWB machine celebrated the exaggerated machinery of 1970s motorsport. The Subaru embraced the digital optimism of the early 1990s, an era when technology still looked exciting, futuristic and slightly radioactive.
Looking back, I can see the family resemblance. It is not in the bodywork or the badge, but in each car’s commitment to the design language of its era. Both tell a story before their flat-six engines even start. One came roaring out of Group 5. The other appears to have beamed down from Planet Tokyo.
Every build begins somewhere. Mine just happened to begin with an RWB Porsche I never saw in person. Then, one year later, by a strange twist of fate, the Synthwave SVX rolled into the very same hall at ImportFest 2026.