Draft:ROCS Design

• Comment: Please create WP:INLINE citations. GoldRomean (talk) 15:30, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

---

ROCS is the creative design studio of multidisciplinary visual artist, custom Porsche builder, and wristwatch modifier Richard Gonçalves. ROCS is best known for handcrafting uniquely modified air-cooled Porsche 911s, many of which take an “art car” approach with aesthetic and functional modifications that lean into an implied narrative. Gonçalves’ cars often employ backdating techniques, artfully applied patinas, and a conceptual vision that ties together each car. Some of Gonçalves most revered 911 builds include a backdated, air-cooled coupe that references the work of visionary minimalist industrial designer Dieter Rams, and a “safari style” 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet that’s been reimagined as a vehicle within the Star Wars Universe.

Early Life

Based in Northern New Jersey, just outside of New York City, Gonçalves’ art odyssey began as a child in France. While an arts practice was always central to Gonçalves’ identity, his professional entry into the art world was a dream denied for many years due to his dedication to the family business – a garage started by his father that maintained and serviced the upper echelon of European cars before eventually transitioning to focus solely on Porsche.

Gonçalves flirted with dreams of a career in art during high school, but was forced to help in the family garage after high school. There, he learned the intricate craft of maintaining Porsches via hands-on experience under the tutelage of his father while attending Lincoln Technical Institute. Gonçalves’ father spent much of his life campaigning air-cooled Porsche 911s in competition and the style of his father’s old race cars directly informs the aesthetic and performance characteristics of the art-car 911s that have come to define ROCS’ signature style.

Founding ROCS

In 1995, Gonçalves founded his own Porsche service business. However, a visit home to Paris in 2005 reconnected him with the muse and rekindled his dream of a career in the art world. With fresh inspiration to make that dream a reality, Gonçalves began painting again and started to transition the service-focused Porsche shop into the comprehensive creative studio ROCS has become today. By refocusing his efforts on custom air-cooled 911 builds, Gonçalves was able to give his artistic impulses an outlet while also utilizing the lifetime of skills he’d developed as a Porsche technician.

With the venerable German sports car as his primary medium, Gonçalves says he "Sees every build as an opportunity to tell a story, to create something with not just a purpose, but a sense of whimsy and creativity that’s sorely missing from the custom Porsche world." Gonçalves’ artistic abilities come to the fore via his custom design and fabrication work, and the cars ROCS builds feature his unique finishing and distressing techniques and follow a wabi-sabi approach that Gonçalves describes as “perfectly disheveled, yet organized.”

Visual Art

Gonçalves is also heavily involved in creating visual art and paints under the name AKAROCS. He has also spent several years developing and applying signature patination and finishing techniques to a line of custom Seiko watches, available as part of AKAROCS’ offerings. These custom pieces reimagine the robust Japanese watches with the same high concept, storytelling-forward approach that make ROCS’ air-cooled 911s so compelling.