What Kind of Car Does Stefan Salvatore Drive?
The classic 1963 Porsche 356 Karmann Coupe and a T-100 Triumph motorcycle are Stefan Salvatore’s vehicles of choice.
Written by Cameron Thiessen
Reviewed by Jessica Barrett
Stefan Salvatore drives a classic 1963 Porsche 356 Karmann Coupe and a T-100 Triumph motorcycle on The Vampire Diaries.
It’s no secret—even to those who might be unfamiliar with The Vampire Diaries—that Stefan Salvatore is no stranger to a heightened level of style and taste. For this reason, Stefan Salvatore drives two expensive beauties on this mystical show.
Want to learn more about Stefan’s bright red
Porsche
and his modern classic motorcycle? Here are all the juiciest details!
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1963 Porsche 356 Karmann Coupe
Stefan Salvatore’s car is an absolutely gorgeous and intensely classic 60s-era
Porsche
, the 356 Karmann Coupe.Originally designed by Porsche in 1948 as a follow-up to the pre-war Volkswagen Beetle, the 356 was a stylish and lightweight sports car and was the first car to carry the name “Porsche.” A classic from another time, the 356 is a perfect vehicular foil for the 171-year-old vampire.
While the Porsche 356 had much of the same mechanical features as the Beetle, the body was much sleeker and had a sporty design, something the car world hadn’t seen yet. With some serious upgrades to the VW Beetle’s engine that they had designed, they were able to get twice the horsepower out of the 356.
The older vampires of The Vampire Diaries have to come to terms with the fact that they are beings trapped in a time that is no longer their own. In the same way, while the Porsche 356 could perform impressively in the 50s and early 60s, those who seek it out now are likely collectors and car history enthusiasts.
It says something interesting about Stefan that he would continue to hang on to it, and it’s suggested throughout the show that the car has been in the family for quite some time.
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Dead-set on providing Elena with a bit of joy and excitement, Stefan takes her out for a ride on the T100 he’s been working on. While we’re not quite sure how he got it, it is later revealed in Dead Man on Campus that the T100 came from Damon, and that it was likely extremely expensive.
First introduced in 1957 with a rocky first two years of poor performance, the Triumph T100 would soon be a bestselling classic motorcycle of the 60s, the same era in which Steve McQueen made his famous 1962 jump on a T500 Bonneville in The Great Escape. While it’s not clear what year Stefan’s T100 is, if he was as savvy as we know him to be, it’s likely his would have dated around 1967, around the time that the T100 had won the Daytona two years in a row.
The other possibility would be for it to have been from the early 70s, like a TR5T Trophy Trail/Adventurer, which was hailed as one of the best British-produced motorcycles of all time.
Things did eventually come to an end for the Triumph Bonnevilles in 1983, but the Triumph company was rebooted in 2000 and began producing new lineups of Bonnevilles. It wouldn’t really be until 2009 that the new Hinckley Bonnevilles would see success on the track, and the T100 50th Anniversary edition would be the one to do it, an ode to the T100s of the 60s and 70s.
Notice that date? 2009 just so happens to be the year that The Vampire Diaries debuted! Couldn’t it be possible, then, that Stefan’s motorcycle is one of these newer models? It’s likely since it’s much more common for film sets to supply themselves with new vehicles. So if a new model can be built to look like a classic, it works as a fantastic prop!
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