by John Glynn | Feb 2, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
Former BFG Porsche 962 motorsport PR chief Michael Hodges has returned to his desk following an inspirational trip to the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, and sends details of a classic 1968 911 coming up for sale at Brooklands Historic Auction next month (March 8th).
“Restored by the current vendor to a very high standard, this fine example should whet the appetite of any serious Porsche collector,” says the auction description. “This is, without doubt, one of the finest 911’s we have seen for some time.”
I note that Silverstone Auctions also has a 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Targa in their Race Retro sale, on 22nd-23rd February. Originally a Silver Sportomatic, it is now McQueen Slate Grey with a manual gearbox.
The early car is estimated 42-48k, but who knows what might happen on the day. The C3 Targa is no reserve, but I wouldn’t expect it to be cheap, as it looks good in grey on 15″ Fuchs. 90k miles too, which is roughly same as my engine with a few snapped head studs.
Targa paint is pretty recent so have a good look at the body. The interior looks original and is super rare. Please don’t change it if you buy the car: that is very cool. Consider going back to Silver and don’t be too worried about the Sporto. Our friends at Racing Restorations are very good with Porsche paint and body restoration.
by John Glynn | Jan 25, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
I’ve owned two Porsche 911 SCs: Coupe and Cabriolet. I’d love to have kept both. In my opinion, the 911 SC is the perfect air-cooled 911. Not starter 911 and not introduction to Porsche: the perfect air-cooled 911 available for sensible money.
It’s simple, reliable, quick enough for most of us and relatively cheap. At least it used to be. Prices have been moving up since I started my Porsche forum at impactbumpers.com in 2006, to gather mid-year, SC, 930 and 911 3.2 Carrera owners and enthusiasts. I’ve been talking up the bumper cars in mag features for years now, and SC prices are finally beginning to get where they belong, relative to everything else.
Contrary to all those magazine buyers’ guides pushing people towards the 3.2 Carrera, the 3-litre SC is no poor relation. The longer stroke 3.2 engine is a bit lazier than the revvy SC, so while the 3.2 makes more power on paper, driving the two cars back-to-back does not confirm the Carrera as an obvious ‘upgrade’. I’ve had more than a few SC versus 3.2 thrashes on open roads and track days, and the SC is the car I would pick for either, every time.
SC prices have always trailed 3.2s and are likely to do so for the foreseeable future, but we’re seeing more sense on prices for the best SCs. My classic Porsche insurance valuations view the price relationship on average SCs and 3.2s as the market views them, but I’ve long valued really great SCs along the same lines as 3.2s, and recommend owners think very carefully on what they agree their SC values at. Really great RHD examples will not be easy to replace for under £20k in the UK.
Take the 911 SC seen here, which just sold today on eBay. The description read well enough: nice solid car, some work to the b-posts and sills, fresh black metallic paint, engine rebuild with Carrera tensioners: all the right bits there, if you believe the buyers’ guides. The pics show some issues for originality freaks: aftermarket steering wheel, 3.2 Carrera sports seats, aero mirrors, 7″ & 9″ Fuchs with wrong polished finish, aftermarket hi-fi, but all of these can be fixed. 154,000 miles cannot.
Still, it seems a solid car, so what price for all this finery? £18,610 in ebay bids: 42 of them, from a £1,000 start to the final bid a few seconds before the finish. The auction pictures weren’t great, but a good car is getting hard to find now. For it to hit this much on eBay with a finish on a weekday afternoon is pretty impressive and shows some real support for the humble SC.
If you’ve got a low number sitting on your Porsche 911 SC agreed insurance valuation, you need to update that opinion. Drop me an email and get it valued properly. Same goes for everything: this number relates to 3.2 Carreras just as it ties into 911 SCs and all of the others.
by John Glynn | Jan 20, 2013 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices, Porsche News
Googing & Company just brought a record price for a Porsche 718 RSK at their sale in Scottsdale, Arizona. Running Friday and Saturday, January 18 & 19, the auction got the year off to a flying start, with some excellent results in the sale hall.
There was plenty of Porsche content scheduled. The most rarified Porsche on the programme was lot 112: a 1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder, chassis number 718-023. Number 023 is one of 35 RSKs built at Stuttgart, and is a matching numbers car with its original body. The history was unbelievable: huge detail available and most recently owned by a prominent New York collector.
Gooding wrote a terrific description and advertised the sale everywhere: likely instrumental in the impressive end result. Estimated at $2.8M to $3.2M, the car was greeted by some excited bidding, quickly shooting up from the early $2m mark to looking like a sale at $2.6M. But no – there was still life left at that stage and it went on to finish at $3.135M: a record price for an RSK at auction.
I love auctions and miss that sale hall buzz when watching Gooding’s excellent Internet stream. Gotta get to a few more sales this this year: I’m guessing Essen will be my first of the season.
Here’s a few more RSK pics:
by John Glynn | Nov 12, 2012 | Market & Prices, Project Cars
One thing I forgot to say about California car auction TV is there are plenty of ad breaks, and most are for Viagra, or something pretending to be that. I’m guessing that not too many kids watch this stuff. Thankfully, I’m not in need just yet.
I also know people will ask me what Jamie’s 912 looks like, so here it is, live from California. I’m watching Overhaulin’ rather than standing outside in the shade, but it doesn’t mean I don’t care!
by John Glynn | Nov 12, 2012 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
Jamie & I are decompressing in San Francisco after five days of flat-out photography on our 2012 California Hot Rod Porsche Tour. He’s outside messing with the beige Porsche 912 he bought from one of our mates at Shark Werks a few days ago, and I’m indoors with a cup of tea and the TV showing non-stop car auctions.
Mecum Auctions is the big name in hammer sales here in the USA. Apparently, they pay this channel to replay coverage of their previous sales, for car guys like me to watch in the mornings. Good job they do, as I’ve been glued on and off since we arrived. Boss man Dana Mecum (below, centre) is kinda hard work, but tracking the prices from sale to sale is interesting.
Another channel hosts Keith Martin’s What’s My Car Worth, where the price expert behind Sports Car Market meets people bringing their car to auction, gets the auctioneers to give a view on value, adds the seller’s expectation and hazards a guess of his own. Once it’s gone through, its surprising how close Keith ends up. As I write, he’s just hit the nail on the head with an RS that was estimated to fly as high as $375k by the auctioneers (Gooding), an owner expectation of $340k, but a Keith-predicted $275k which was the price eventually fetched.
Valuing used cars is a bit of a black art: something I got pretty good at in my ten years as an editor with Glass’s Guide, the English equivalent of America’s Kelley Blue Book. With a twenty-five year history in the motor trade and a solid valuation background, I do a lot of insurance valuations for UK Porsche, and have a small pile to do when I get home later this week, but you can never have too much information on what the market’s doing in other countries.
