In his 25,000-square-foot dual-purpose warehouse and garage in the Downtown Arts District of Los Angeles, famed Porsche collector and customizer Magnus Walker recently unveiled his latest collaboration. But it was not with the German marque he’s become synonymous with, nor was it with Hot Wheels, or MOMO steering wheels, or any of the other brands the 57-year-old automotive celebrity has worked with previously. It was with Automobili Pininfarina, the supercar-manufacturing offshoot of the 95-year-old Italian design consultancy, revered for penning vehicles for Ferrari, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo.
And, unlike the raucous, rough-hewn, gas-powered “Urban Outlaw” Porsches for which the lanky, dreadlocked, self-described “Beardo Weirdo” is best known, this collab is focused on Pininfarina’s Battista, an all-electric hypercar that costs nearly $3 million and delivers 1,900 hp. “I had to learn to elevate myself up to their level. We’re not going to give this car a $500 rattle-can spray-paint job,” says Walker, referencing a Porsche 914 he hand-customized for Mobil One at the 2019 SEMA custom car show.
Magnus Walker (left) and Davide Amantea, chief design officer for Automobili Pininfarina, discuss the collaborative Battista’s livery.
Automobili Pininfarina
The partnership with Walker occurred “organically,” according to Automobili Pininfarina’s chief design officer Davide Amantea. In August of 2022, Amantea was presenting the Battista to a small audience during the annual Monterey Car Week celebrations on the Northern California peninsula. Walker was in the audience and noticed that Amantea was wearing a pair of the custom red-white-and-light-blue SB Dunk High sneakers he had designed with Nike, and they struck up a conversation. Amantea invited Walker to Italy to test drive the Battista, and “after a lot of wine, beer, and food,” Amantea…