The Porsche 918 ‘Harlequin’ Looks Brilliantly Silly Out In The Wild

Volkswagen has a reputation for being rather sensible, but it does show its wild side every now and then, as was the case with the multi-coloured Polo Harlequin. Plenty of people have made homages of the limited-run Polo, called ‘Harlekin’ elsewhere in Europe, but what you see here is the most exotic one, based on a Porsche 918 Spyder of all things.

Unsurprisingly, the treatment is a wrap rather than properly painted panels as per the original Harlequin, but the result is no less striking. The car was first revealed a few months ago by the company responsible for the wrap, Next Level Cars in the Netherlands. 

The wrap looks superb with its red, yellow, green and blue colour scheme, and even includes a replication of the original Harlekin logo. 

The 918 has since been filmed during in the Supercar Owners Circle event in Marbella, rolling around with various other exotics that couldn’t hope to compete with in terms of attention - not even the Bugatti Chiron also taking part. The wrapped Ford GT of YouTuber Shmee150 gave it a run for its money, though. 

The 918 is said to have been de-catted, but it’s driven fairly gently in the video. Hopefully, we’ll see the car again soon giving it the berries. 

The Polo Harlekin/Harlequin came out in 1995. The official names of the colours used, if you’re wondering, were Flash Red, Ginster Yellow, Chagall Blue and Pistachio Green. The interior got some tweaks, too, including special patterned seats and a different design for the gear knob and steering wheel. 

VW eventually built nearly 4,000, much more than originally intended. 500 of these were raffled as part of a competition run in conjunction with McDonald’s in Germany. Despite being sold in reasonably high numbers for what was supposed to be a special edition, few survivors remain, so you aren’t much more likely to spot one than the Harlequin 918.