by John Glynn | Jul 11, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
The flag has just dropped on the 2016 Le Mans Classic. Figures released by the organisers show that the event was the most successful to date, with more than 120,000 attending the weekend to celebrate the history of the legendary endurance race.
My first Classic Le Mans was in 2006, when little brother and I took my old 911 SC Cabriolet down to Le Mans, in convoy with other 911s including a 3.2 Carrera and 964RS. With no more than 60,000 people attending the 2006 event, it was a really terrific weekend, apart from when we were bumped out of our hotel to a less salubrious location to keep the Aston Martin Owners’ Club happy. After that, I decided to rent a house and share it with friends in future. We did that in 2008 and for my most recent Le Mans Classic in 2010, and it proved to be the perfect solution.
2010 was a boiling hot year on track: the soles of my shoes were melting in the paddock. With 96,000 people and their cars attending that weekend, traffic was a nightmare all around the city. My Orange Carrera 3.0 arrived with no fresh air blower, having burned it out in the Alps a few days earlier, and Jamie’s Renault 8 also suffered from fuel boiling all weekend. It was still great to see so many friends, but a far cry from the relaxed atmosphere of 2016.
When the weather is not too hot, the atmosphere throughout a Le Mans Classic weekend is terrific – especially if you go down with a big group of friends – but the racing can be quite hard to follow, as the long lap spreads the field out and gives little impression of the battles taking place on track. The racing is closer at some of Europe’s many other historic festivals, including the Spa 6 Hours and Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix.
All things considered, I can understand why so many people return to the Le Mans Classic every two years. It is a great start to a touring holiday in France, and family men can just about get away with it if they rent a house nearby with a pool for the wife and kids to hang out in.
For me, three years watching the racing satisfied my desire to experience spectating at Le Mans for the racing eras I am most interested in. There are lots of other historic racing weekends across Europe with plenty of Porsche content and equally open access to the paddocks, where traffic jams and overheating engines are not the order of the day, so I have been to quite a few of those in the years since my last Le Mans Classic.
Did you go to Le Mans for LMC 2016? How was the weekend? Email your thoughts to mail@ferdinandmagazine.com.
by John Glynn | Jul 1, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Friend and fellow R Gruppe member, Guenter Kehr, has sent me some pics from the 2016 Bergmeister Tour, just completed by a great group of Porsche friends.
Long-time readers will remember the first Bergmeister Tour in 2010, when we took ten R Gruppe 911s from all over the world across Europe to the Alps, staying in Lake Geneva, Briancon and Monaco, following the old Monte Carlo Rally stages around the principality before coming home via Classic Le Mans.
Painstakingly organised by Leonard Stolk at Twinspark Racing in Amsterdam, every day was a unforgettable experience. Six years later, it is still the best thing I have ever done in my 911, so I was delighted to get Guenter’s pics and a reminder of how special it is to be on tour in a group of air-cooled 911s with like-minded people.
“Bergmeister Tour 2016 is completed,” writes Geunter. “Once again, an epic week of close to 5,000 km of intense driving on some of the most amazing roads across Switzerland, France and Italy. Lots of rain, fog, mud and gravel on the roads made driving even more challenging this year.
“This was certainly an excellent test run for my new Michelin Pilot Exalto 2 NO tyres in sizes 205/55 ZR16 and 225/50 ZR16 mounted on 7 & 8×16 fuchs. The Michelins lived up to expectations: very predictable in the wet and with good braking performance and traction in and out of the uncountable hairpins.
“The tyres and my new brake calipers saved me at least once from being smashed between a white van and a wall going up “La Madelaine”. Climbing up the ultimate Col de L’Iseran to an altitude of 2,770 m we even got freezing rain and snow. No reason to stop but first time ever I had to pull my heater lever on a summer tour. Too bad for the others who had sacrificed their heaters for less weight!”
Congrats Guenter and to his fellow Bergmeister tourers – looks like a blast. Check out the Bergmeister Facebook page for more information and photos.
by John Glynn | Jun 26, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Modified Porsche Hot Rods
Yorkshire’s EB Motorsport has unveiled its latest product: a perfect reproduction of the hard-to-find 5.5 x 15-inch Fuchs alloy wheel, now mandatory on all 2-litre 911s seeking an FIA Historic Technical Passport under Appendix K regulations.
These iPhone photos show the wheels painted to sample for a customer’s 2-litre 1965 911 race car, but they are available from EB Motorsport in a range of finishes. Manufactured to the same high standards as EB’s existing Fuchs reproductions in 9-inch and 11-inch x 15, and the well-known EB Deep 6 and 7R Fuchs rims, the front is CNC machined from billet aluminium, with the barrel laser welded for optimum strength and accuracy.
EB’s Fuchs recreations are never the cheapest but, with SWB Porsche 911 race cars built to FIA Appendix K regulations now changing hands for as much as £200k in some cases, the cost of £900 per wheel for such a high quality product is perhaps not that shocking.
“Our manufacturing process uses the highest quality materials and requires expensive machinery to carry out the machining and laser welding operations,” says EB’s Mark Bates. “The advantage of this investment is a strong wheel that has much a higher reliability than cheap cast wheels, which can fracture and fail. I would much rather have an EB wheel under me when at full throttle down the Kemmel Straight at Spa.”
EB Motorsport 5.5 x 15-inch Fuchs
Unlike the original Fuchs wheels, the EB Motorsport 5.5-inch Fuchs are ready to accept modern tyres and valves, with machined tyre beads and properly machined holes for modern valves. They are also a perfect fit for the collapsible spare tyres on air-cooled Porsche 911s: I have a 5.5 x 15″ Fuchs wheel on the spare tyre for my 1976 Carrera 3.0. and it fits perfectly under the bonnet.
“Before we recreated these rare 5.5 x 15-inch Fuchs wheels, we were running inner tubes on fifty year-old wheels with who-knows-what history,” says Bates. “From a driver’s point of view, the stress factor is much reduced in using these wheels versus the originals.”
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by John Glynn | Jun 26, 2016 | Market & Prices, Classic Porsche Blog
Britain has voted to leave the EU and the pound has taken the first of what is likely to be a series of nosedives, as the implications of the vote and the political fallout play through the stock markets.
Economic uncertainty is now a major talking point and consumer confidence has been hit, with a couple of Porsche dealers I spoke to on Friday reporting cancelled deals in the Brexit vote aftermath. Buying a £70k Porsche for weekends seems superfluous for some given the unknown future that British workers are facing, not to mention the enhanced investment oportunities that became available on the FTSE 100 after the vote, where shares in banks, airlines and UK housebuilders fell by up to 40%.
The strongest enquiries on Friday came from buyers with Euros to spend. Some dealers had stockpiled LHD Porsches ready to list, which may have been a canny play, most effective on rarer Porsche models with a high ticket price: GT3 RS 4.0s, Carrera GTs and the like. But cheaper classic Porsches also look slighty better value, with a £50k Porsche costing $68,520 or €61,919 on June 26 compared to $73,463 or €65,110 on June 22nd, the day before the UK referendum*.
(Update July 1: £50k has now slipped to $67,162/€60,496)
Porsche prices down 7% (for US buyers)
Falls of 7% in the dollar price or 5% in euros over four days may be just the start. At the time of the referendum, many dealers had still not corrected asking prices for softening classic car sentiment seen since the start of 2016, so that has yet to be implemented. Dealers now also face falling domestic demand from uncertain consumers, who will likely avoid big-ticket purchases until they know what the future of UK plc holds for them.
What could happen next? One scenario (and one that played out in the 2008 crash) is that, as the consequences of the referendum vote and EU exit begin to take hold and luxury car sales tail off, there will be casualties. Traders holding stock by means of a bank stocking loan or private investment will come under pressure should they be unable to make their repayment schedules. Repossessed stock would likely end up at auction, selling for knock-down prices, which will further undermine public confidence. This is not going to happen immediately, but the likelihood of recession grows with every day there is instability at the top of UK governance.
Second Referendum
Alternative scenarios currently doing the rounds include the possibility of a second referendum to head off the disintegration of the United Kingdom, as Scotland voted to stay in the EU and the winning margin for Leave was less than 2% on a turnout of less than 75%. A second referendum seems unlikely at the minute, but as the original referendum was not legally binding and an online petition called for a second vote captured 3 million signatures in less than three days, who knows what might happen next.
Another possibility is that it will all be fine, with the UK economy entering a period of prolonged expansion, jobs for all and revitalised public services. However likely one feels this may be, it’s not going to happen next week, so the short term outlook is less positive. Prices will feel some effect.
*source: fxtop.com
by John Glynn | Jun 20, 2016 | Market & Prices, Porsche News
I had an interesting conversation with a well connected dealer friend a few days ago regarding the UK market for RHD Porsche 991 GT3 RS, which suggested that the days of six-figure markups for the latest 911 RS were over and done.
A nice RS had just arrived in stock and was offered to a number of prospects at well below the average market price. Some of his would-be buyers replied with claims of cars being offered behind closed doors for much less than the price my friend offered. Evidence went backwards and forwards until a much lower price was eventually agreed as the RS seller was keen to move on. The seller still cleared the best part of £45k profit out of the deal after paying the dealer’s fixed-price commission.
Average Market Prices for Porsche 991 GT3 RS
Average selling prices for 991 GT3 RS are not easy to calculate without access to accurate transaction data, but the average asking price is pretty straightforward. The premier classified ads site currently has 22 991 GT3 RS models on offer in the UK with prices from £195,000 to £289,995 (22 is not exactly what one might call rare). Average asking price for these cars is a heady £246,000.
This data does not tell the whole story. Amongst these 22 911s are cars with far more than delivery mileage – over 3,000 miles in some cases – and one zero-mileage LHD example. Stripping these cars out and confining data to just RHD cars with fewer than 400 miles on the clock reduces our sample to just twelve cars. Average asking price for these cars jumps to £252,270.
Cost New versus Average Price for 991 GT3 RS
A brand new Porsche 991 GT3 RS bought with no options will set you back £130,296 cost new from Porsche Cars Great Britain, but no one buys a standard RS. A sensible options package of decent paint (£1800), leather trim to the 918 seats (£2k), LED lights (£2k), Front Axle Lift (£2k), PCCB ceramic brakes (£6k), Sport Chrono (£1k) and PCM with Sound Package Plus and phone prep (approx £3k) adds the best part of £20k, which takes the cost new to £149,755.
This £150k list price is for a brand new car with 10 miles or less on delivery, built to your spec and you are the first owner in the log book. The only snag is you cannot order one new: production has been allocated to an oversubscribed list. However, it does indicate what the manufacturer believes their car should be priced at, given the cost to build and their standard margin.
Taking this £150k list price against today’s average UK asking price of £252,270, we see a premium of more than £100k for a car that’s already had one or more owners and may come with up to 400 miles on the clock. If you think that sounds pretty extreme, there is more than one story of a slot on the 991 GT3 RS waiting list being sold for as much as £200k over list at the height of the fever.
Porsche 991 GT3 RS Price Premiums Shrinking
I’ve not driven a 991 GT3 or an RS – these cars simply do not interest me as a driver – but I have looked at plenty up close. The overall impression is of a car that can get away with a £150k price tag, but not a hundred thousand pounds more than that. Lack of supply when the cars were newly-announced sent prices soaring, but now that the RS is two year-old technology and the demand from collectors has likely been satisfied, the low supply premiums are shrinking.
With prices of £190-195k rumoured for cars sold under the radar, that puts the premium closer to £40k for a delivery mileage, one-owner 991 GT3 RS. No doubt some will insist these prices are not happening, but I do trust my source.
Porsche is not building any more 991 GT3 RSs as far as I know, so the chances of these cars – even 10k-mile examples – selling for less than list price in the near future is unlikely, but exactly where over-list premiums will settle is uncertain for now. Will they drop much below £40k? That is entirely possible: premiums usually keep coming down until there is a sudden injection of demand, or supply shrinks as the market soaks up everything available.
Common drivers behind increased demand is a screamingly low price (exchange rate changes for overseas RHD buyers) or a sudden influx of liquidity to the buyer pool, such as city bonuses, pension payouts, capital gains tax breaks or similar. It’s unlikely that a vote against Brexit in this Thursday’s referendum would cause RS prices circa £260k to suddenly look sensible if people are paying less than £200k elsewhere, but there would likely be a lift in demand for sensibly-priced desirable cars like the 991 GT3 RS if economic uncertainty was eased.
Given this prospect, sensible dealers might be considering a reprice right about now. £200k is still £50k profit on list for a well-specced example. Perhaps sellers are not paying attention to the rest of the market, or banking on a big hit to Sterling exchange rates on Thursday. That’s a pretty big gamble if there are only ten buyers out there and they all do deals tomorrow and Wednesday.
