by John Glynn | Apr 3, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Road Trips
April in Europe means it’s time for Techno Classica Essen. I’ve missed the last couple of years for one reason or another but am back at the 2017 show with Jonny Hart from Classic Retrofit. We’re also meeting Mark and James from EB Motorsport, Marcel from Restoration Design and Jonny will also be catching up with his new friend, Alois Ruf! Love it.
Mention Essen to most UK classic car people and they usually respond by saying they’ve been meaning to go there for years. I was the same until actually going and now it hurts me not to attend. So much goes on here that it is difficult to consider oneself well informed about the European market when you skip a year: you have to witness the prices inside the halls and the numbers on cars offered by traders and private sellers in the external exhibition spaces.
An incredible 1,250 exhibitors from 30 countries show their wares at Essen, with many more sharing stands alongside trading partners. The 2016 Techno Classica was attended by 200,000 people. More than 2,700 cars were on display, with an estimated total value of €350 million.
Manufacturers pull out all the stops and bring a wonderful selection of museum pieces to take us back forty years or more. There is so much Porsche stock on most other stands that it likely would not matter if there was no official Porsche presence: it would still be one of the most popular brands at the show and it is the surprise exhibits that create the biggest buzz.
I am looking forward to being back in Germany. Jonny and I are staying in the centre of Dusseldorf, at the same hotel I use every year. Dusseldorf is a nicer city to stay in than Essen and the trains back and forth are easy to use. We’re around from Thursday AM to Saturday lunchtime, so anyone else in the area can drop me an email, social media message or just post a comment.
by John Glynn | Mar 7, 2017 | New Models, Market & Prices
The new Porsche 991 GT3 was launched today at Geneva in a supersized Internet love-in. If you like massive sportscars weighing 1500 kilos then you are probably all over it: I hope you will pardon the rest of us for a certain lack of euphoria. It is nothing personal.
The new GT3 looks almost exactly the same as the old one, with the one big change of manual transmission. It is a small but very satisfying detail. When the 991 GT3 was first launched with PDK only, there was uproar online, but it didn’t hurt the showroom one bit. Despite the early cars catching fire when con rod bolts snapped, causing boiling oil to pour onto hot exhausts and send the cars up in smoke, Porsche sold every single 991 GT3 it could build.
And Stuttgart built lots of them: estimates suggest more than 6k cars, which is far more than any previous 911 GT3. Magazines were rinsed and repeated in PR about how PDK was the gold standard in race cars and how it was faster around the blah blah blah etc, and they all lapped it up. Driving a Gen I Porsche 911 GT3 around a car park was enough to put me off and visiting a PDK repair shop just confirmed the position. Anyone with an ounce of 911 soul might have seen the writing on the wall for the PDK-only plan, as the cars were not that nice to drive ‘normally’.
Despite the PDK-only thing and a non-stop production line, used GT3s soon hit 50% over list. Many 991 GT3ers cashed out, switching back to the Gen II 997 GT3 and RS with manual transmission and sending prices for those cars through the roof. The switch did not escape Stuttgart’s product chiefs, who then announced a limited edition 911R with manual shift, allowing them to test latent demand. When that model was oversubscribed several times over (the eternal new-Porsche battle of drivers vs sellers), it was obvious that 911R development was not money wasted. All the PDK spiel was deleted from memory and the stick shift was on its way back to GT3 land.
Now the Gen II 991 GT3 with manual transmission has been announced and I have already had calls from price-conscious insurance valuation customers, asking what various GT Porsches might be worth in part exchange: a topic for another time. More interesting is what a 911R is now worth.
We have all seen 911Rs listed anything up to £500k. The most recent car sold in public was the Slate Grey McQueen one in Paris, which went for £451,000 ($553,000) including premium. However, if you’ve spent enough money with your local Porsche dealer in the last few months, you can now order a 490bhp/197mph 911 GT3 with manual transmission for prices starting at £112k: essentially what a nice-spec used LHD Gen 1 991 GT3 example costs in the UK .
No doubt 911R is still a major collectable, but the £400k prices may have just left the building. As for 997.2 GT3 RS and 4-litre RS, we will see what happens. Maybe nothing – probably not very much.
by John Glynn | Mar 3, 2017 | Market & Prices, Classic Porsche Blog
The last few months have seen a slowdown in air-cooled Porsche market activity. Long-time owners who have watched their hobby become a speculator playground may have welcomed the lull, but there’s no guarantee of its permanence.
A seasonal slowdown has always been the way of classic Porsche prices. As the cars get put away through September and October, so the market tends to hibernate, with fewer cars available and buyer attentions elsewhere as Thanksgiving, Christmas and myriad other distractions keep people at home through the snowy winter months (northern hemisphere folks).
As the weather improves and the evenings get lighter, the classic car season starts to pick up. By the time we get to Essen TechnoClassica in late March/early April, the market is getting back up to speed and we begin to see where the haves and have-nots might be found, as record prices for particular makes and models are set in a retail rather than auction context, in front of Europe’s largest single audience of devoted classic car fans. Once Essen has happened, we start to see price trends taking shape for the year ahead and that is always an interesting point.
Falling prices for classic Porsche
A number of recent Porsche insurance valuation customers have asked how the fall in Porsche prices is progressing. Looking at current selling price data and the supply levels for RHD impact bumper cars in particular, I see no sign of falling prices for ‘regular’ 911s. 964RS and Carrera RS have come back a bit from their ultimate highs, but that adjustment happened a while ago and has stabilised since. Demand for ordinary 911s has not melted away and with constrained supply, prices are stable for now.
A market slowdown just means fewer buyers are out there, but when the sale is not an urgent one, you just sit it out and wait for buyer numbers to increase. That is what’s happening now. There has been no obvious fall off in prices for SCs, 3.2 Carreras and 964 Coupes since this time last year.
As an impartial market observer rather than a Porsche dealer, I see no obvious signs of a serious downturn for air-cooled Porsche selling prices. The biggest risk to prices would be a sudden spike in owners wishing to cash in their chips, but I don’t get the feeling that this is imminent.
Long-Time Owners mothball their cars
No doubt many owners have stopped using their 911s in recent years. As one Californian owner of a number of hot rods said to me recently: “my local shop is so busy that I can’t even get a quick re-seal done. It’s good that they’re busy, but an indicator that finding a shop that is both good and relevant is tricky at the moment. I also have to say that I am distancing myself from the early Porsche crowd on the basis that it’s no longer the same demographic. There are plenty of old crowd like me, kind of hiding out now: still with the cars but not out there in the public eye so much.”
I know my friend is busy on exciting new work projects and has less time available to socialise, but I hear the same story from lots of people, not just in CA. I’m in the same boat and I don’t really mind not using my 911, as I have lots of other stuff to get done and twelve other cars to busy myself with.
Despite the palpable changes in demographic and available leisure time, there has been no huge flood of much-loved cars to the market. These 911s form part of the owners’ life stories, they embody a lifelong ambition to own a 911 and of course, they are making money parked up. If the market were to collapse, it would utimately cost the owners nothing. Their 911s are bought and paid for, and a fall in prices and change in the crowd might encourage them to start using the cars again. So they are not coming up for sale.
No big influx of cars and no changes to the external factors = no big drop in price.
2017 Price Predictions
The owner/enthusiast in me hopes that average examples through Europe and the USA being advertised for ridiculous prices will all remain unsold through 2017 and encourage overenthusiastic speculators out of the market. You may think this unlikely and I am inclined to agree. My inner price geek expects realistically priced examples with good history in good condition to continue to sell at the current level, if not a tiny bit more as this year gets started.
The advice to anyone considering an air-cooled Porsche purchase of the common-or-garden variety (SC, standard Carrera etc) who might be waiting to see if prices come down remains as it has been for several years: stop waiting. Buy a good solid car with history and start enjoying it ASAP. That advice has not changed in the decades I have been watching this market and it still holds true today.
by John Glynn | Mar 2, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Market & Prices
My most recent used Porsche Market Report signposted rising demand for water-cooled Porsches: witness the 200-kilometre 996 GT3 RS that sold for £343,000 including premium at the recent RM Paris sale.
Good as this news may be for low-mileage GT3 RS owners, this trend is influenced in no small way by the rabid interest in low-volume, air-cooled collectables, as shown by the £1.8 million Porsche 993 GT2 at Sotheby’s in London last year and the £1.1 million Porsche 993 Turbo S Cabriolet at February’s RM Paris sale.
With prices now off the chart for real air-cooled rarities, prices for rarer water-cooled examples are being boosted with an air of expectation (not that a 200-km 996 GT3 RS is bad value at £340k if you have £5 million to spend on old cars). So while there is a growing respect for the rarer water-cooled models, high prices are linked to the staggering heights reached by air-cooled rarities at auction.
Many amongst Ferdinand’s core audience will disregard these one-off auction results as irrelevant to the market for old-school classic Porsche 911s built in greater numbers. However, where the money-no-object crowd places its bets has a direct effect on the mindset of anyone attempting to gauge where the price trends could take us during the next three to five years, assuming the external economic factors and influences remain broadly consistent.
Strong auction results do of course affect retail asking prices for 964RS, 911 Turbo and filter down to sales of the cheaper 911s. This trend then knocks on to other models, including the 944 Turbo and 968. Private sale asking prices are obviously linked quite closely to what dealers seem to be getting away with, so whatever happens in a showroom eventually makes its way to the classifieds.
Porsche Undesirables
Sadly for classic Porsche buyers, no truly undesirable models exist amongst the ranks of Stuttgart’s finest. Only those with a real taste of Volkswagen are anywhere close to the lower ranks of the pecking order – like the standard 924 and 912E (both of which I own/have owned myself, before you moan about elitism) – but everything else is now priced more than twice what it was a few years ago, such is the interest in classic Porsche product.
I still think the 912E is a great buy at the sort of level seen in RM Paris: £29,400 inc premium was a very good price for a collectable example, as many elements of these cars are unique. I wouldn’t want to be paying much more if buying for investment, but a low mileage minter will certainly cost at least that sort of price nowadays. These were very rare cars in their day and are not easy to find in top condition. That said, mine is destined for 911 power and some hot rod tweakery – I am not hunting for originality in my stable.
by John Glynn | Feb 22, 2017 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
One of my favourite Porsche projects of the last few years has been working with my friend Jonny Hart on the brand development of his company, Classic Retrofit. Jonny and I became online friends soon after he joined our 1974-1989 Porsche 911 forum at impactbumpers.com and it has been fun to follow his electronics magic on parts for these classic 911s, including the all new Porsche 911 air con system.
The peak of achievement to date is Jonny’s electric air con kit for classic Porsche 911s. Branded ‘Electrocooler’, the full kit is about to be unleashed on the classic Porsche community in its first public showing at the LA Lit Show on March 4.
I shared some pics on Classic Retrofit’s social media pages last week and they went totally ballistic: a most rewarding return for all of Jonny’s hard work. I have just sent more details out and am sure that many of my Ferdinand friends will also be interested in knowing more, so I share them below.
Email Jonny at info@classicretrofit.com to discuss any of his products.
Classic Porsche 911 Electric Air Con: A/C Technical Layout
The compressor module (front centre in the picture) goes in the smuggler’s box on a LHD 911. On a RHD car, the compressor is mounted adjacent to the battery and fits with no modifications to battery or spare wheel arrangements.
The condenser goes under the front wing/fender, in place of the oversized windscreen washer reservoir on an impact-bumper car. The blower unit (top right) contains a modern fan and evaporator. All original non A/C vents now blow A/C air.
The occupants can also enjoy A/C air out of any vent in the car, including warm A/C air for rapid windscreen defogging. Our blower assembly brings recirculation capability to the 911s ventilation system and assists heated air flow for hot air without the need for footwell blowers.
Maintaining the standards of classic Porsche design, the original cabin slider ventilation controls are retained, for maximum discretion. A single pushbutton with indication is the only visible clue that Electrocooler is fitted.
Electrocooler Weight Savings and Performance Benefits
As shown in our photo, the complete kit weighs a shade over 16 kilograms (35 lbs). Combining the fitment of a smaller washer bottle and accounting for removal of the original fresh air blower, installing Classic Retrofit’s Electrocooler kit to a 911 originally supplied without factory air conditioning adds less than 7 kilograms (15 lbs) to overall weight.
For a car originally equipped with factory air conditioning, converting to the Classic Retrofit Electrocooler system results in an overall weight saving of circa 18 kilograms (40 lbs).
There is the added handling benefit of weight loss at the rear of the car by removing the substantial original air-con compressor from its elevated position in the engine bay, not to mention the increased fuel efficiency and engine power, once the crankshaft load inflicted by the archaic belt-driven compressor is removed.
