Porsche Auctions Cars

Developing a car from scratch starts with some drawing and calculations, then the building of test prototypes, then pre-production cars, and eventually the pilot production vehicles. Most of the time, test prototypes are usually destroyed when their use has been exceeded, yet here we are looking at a test prototype of the Porsche 959 – a car that is believed to be one of the few surviving examples of the F-Series prototypes from 1985. It’s currently listed for sale on Mechatronik for an undisclosed price, but is It truly authentic?

Porsche developed the 918 Spyder as the replacement to the Carrera GT from September 2013 to June 2015. In a different light of the ’Holy Trinity’ bolstered by the mighty McLaren P1 and the gorgeous Ferrari LaFerrari, the Porsche was undoubtedly the most distinctive of the three.

Collecting cars is a relatively new YouTube channel that focuses on quality rather than quantity. When you click on the video and Chris Harris appears in it, you know it’s going to be some epic content. Although the man doesn’t need much introduction, the Leonard Collection definitely does. There’s an obvious focus on significant cars, most of which are different versions and generations of the Porsche 911.

The Porsche 924 was manufactured between 1976 and 1988. Although it was launched as a successor to the 914 and was supposed to sit at the bottom of the company’s model hierarchy, it came with a lot of significant bits and marked a lot of firsts for the company. It was the first street-legal Porsche to feature a front-engine and rear-wheel-drive layout. Not to mention, also the first car from the company to come with an automatic gearbox.

There were many iterations and models of the 924, one of them being Carrera GTS. The automaker built 59 examples of it and 15 of them were the quicker ‘Clubsport’ models. One of these 15 was on Bring-a-Trailer’s auction recently and it was sold for over a quarter-million dollars! That’s way more expensive than any new 911 that you can buy today.

For reasons unknown to us, Jerry Seinfeld is parting ways with one of his cars. That car is a 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS with a window sticker of $449,890, out of which more than $250,000 are optional features.

RUF is one of the select few automotive institutions in the world that can take a Porsche, tear it apart, tweak it, glue it back together, and the result is a better car than the stock vehicle. The Pfaffenhausen-based company’s lineup saw no shortage of extreme builds over time, but few can surpass the RUF BTR.

It might look like the lovechild of a Ferrari Testarossa and a Porsche 911 but the two car manufacturers never worked together on such a project. It also looks like something concocted in an obscure workshop on Thailand, but it’s not that either. Meet the extremely weird Rinspeed R69, a car that used to be a perfectly fine Porsche 911 930 Turbo.

Forget about the fact that the 2019 Porsche 911 Speedster was built on 911 GT3 bones. It’s a car’s design, paint, or sound that first makes the heart skip a beat and seeing this particular Speedster will send you to the cardiologist in no time.

The Porsche 911 Speedster returned for the 2020 model year after a nine-year absence. It’s the final iteration of the previous 991.2-generation 911, it’s incredibly expensive, and limited to 1,948 units. If you missed out on the Speedster when Porsche introduced it in 2019, you can buy the final example at an RM Sotheby’s auction for coronavirus relief.

How often do you see an ex-works Porsche race car hit the auction block? It rarely happens and this is one of the few that were sold publicly in recent history. This is a 1960 Porsche 718 RS 60, member of the 718 RS family of open-top sports cars built and raced by Zuffenhausen for half a decade beginning with the RSK in 1957. The RS 60 appeared at a time when sports car manufacturers started realizing that mounting the engine behind the cockpit might be beneficial to the performance of the car after witnessing Jack Brabham muscling his way to the title in F1 in 1959. Porsche was already doing it and had been doing it for years, beginning with the 550 Spyder, a car infamous for having an important part to play in actor James Dean’s death but one that was, more importantly, a successful car in road racing.

The RS 60 Spyder raced everywhere around the world, following the trek of the World Endurance Championship and, along the way, ticking starts at Le Mans, the Nurburgring, and Targa Florio. Only 18 were built in period and the factory kept for its own use a mere four examples and this, according to RM Sotheby’s, was "the only to likely become available". Powered by a four-cam engine - first a 1.6-liter mill and, in 1961, a 2.0-liter one - the car you see in the pictures, chassis #044, doesn’t boast with the most enviable of racing records having retired out of both the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans race and all of the three major races it contested in 1961: the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 1,000-kilometer race at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife and the Targa Florio in Sicily. Having said that, it must be said that the car was fast, taking pole position outright in the Italian road race before being raced extensively by Bob Holbert, father of Porsche legend Al Holbert, an amazing driver in his own right - both behind the wheel of Porsches and, later, Cobras. It is, then, no wonder that chassis #044 sold for over $5.0 million back in mid-August during the Monterey sale. That’s one expensive aluminum Spyder!

RM Sotheby’s is in a world of trouble after its auction of a 1939 Porsche Type 64 went off the rails. Confusion and embarrassment reigned as the auction turned into a farce over as an upset crowd booed the attempted sale of the high-value model. In the end, the Type 64, otherwise known as Ferdinand Porsche’s “Nazi car’ failed to meets its reservation price. It is currently marked as “still for sale” on RM Sotheby’s online auction catalog, though given everything that transpired during the actual auction, it’s unlikely that anyone’s going to touch the Porsche Type 64 anytime soon. As for RM Sotheby’s reputation, well, that’s up in the air, too.

Remember the days of the compact but practical delivery wagons based on your average car? Stuff like the Pontiac Pathfinder or Ford Courier in wagon form with no rear windows and truck-like doors in the back for easy access to the cargo area. Known as sedan delivery vehicles, they stopped being popular over half a century ago but, even in their heyday, no small business owner dreamt of owning something like this. But Jon Dixon did and this is the fruit of that dream, the Porsche 356 A Sedan Delivery ’Kreuzer’, a car to annoy the purists and bring a smile to the faces of those that like to see tasteful and unconventional builds strive to exist in a world of uniform tastes.

The Porsche 356 was the first car built by the factory after the war, first at Gmund, in Austria, then at Porsche’s original home in Zuffenhausen, near Stuttgart, from 1950 onwards. The 356 A arrived in late 1955 as a 1956 year model and replaced what’s now known as the 356 Pre-A, or the first 356s to be built in Germany with steel bodies (because Reutter Karosserie that handled body construction didn’t have the know-how to weld light-alloy body parts like those of the 356/2 examples made in Gmund). The ’Kreuzer’ is, at heart, a 1958 Porsche 356A Speedster so you can imagine how much work went into getting it to look as it does today.

When you think of the first Porsche, you probably have in mind the 1948 Porsche 356/1 also known as the "Porsche No. 1". Indeed, that was the first car to wear the Porsche badge, but you’d have to go back almost a decade to find the first Porsche-named car, and that is the streamlined vehicle that stands before your eyes now. It’s called the Type 64, and three were built precisely 80 years ago of which two survive now, and only this one has the original sheet metal on it. Mechanically, it is a strengthened and tuned Beetle but, as far as looks are concerned, it has the 356’s DNA written all over it. Now, it’s up for auction, and if somebody other than the Porsche Museum buys it, I’ll be shocked.

Porsche’s crazy about its history. The German company has built its reputation via winning races - much like Ferrari has - and it can’t stop reminding everyone about its landmark moments. There are multiple events dedicated to the history of Ferdinand Porsche’s company, such us Luftghekult or the Rennsport Reunion. If you arrive in Stuttgart, the first thing you stumble across is the Porsche Platz, and there, on one side of the roundabout at the entrance of the city, there’s a futuristic-looking building. That’s Porsche’s own museum that’s filled to the brim with everything Porsche both new and old. But Porsche doesn’t currently own this car, the Type 64 chassis #38/41. It was designed by Ferdinand Porsche as a marketing ploy to showcase that you can extract genuine performance from the unassuming platform of the Beetle. If Porsche wants it back, it’ll have to join the crowd at the RM/Sotheby’s auction in Monterey, California, that’s scheduled for August 15th through to the 17th.

You may remember that back in early 2016 we covered Jerry Seinfeld’s announced auction of several of his classic Porsche models - all of which eventually sold for some $22-million in total. One of the cars he sold then has been proven to not be authentic and he’s now being sued for $1.5-million.

RUF builds some of the fastest modified Porsches in the world, cars altered so much that they are barely Porsches when the process reaches the end and the car is ready for delivery. Such a car is the CTR2, the replacement of the Yellowbird, a 993-based monster that could reach 215 mph in 1995, beating anything but the McLaren F1.

If you’re asked to name a few really fast cars of the ’90s images of the Lamborghini Diablo, the Bugatti EB110, or the Jaguar XJ220 would probably spring in your mind. Well, how many of you would think of a modified Porsche that could beat anything that Zuffenhausen had to offer, even the ludicrous race-bred 911 GT1? Yes, it’s the product of a tuner, but the cars built by Alois Ruf Jr., and his men have always been impeccably well-built. They also have an enviable record of humiliating established supercars over the years. The CTR2 is the bridge between the pure Nurburgring-slashing CTR and the mid-engined CTR3 that takes the ideas of the Carrera GT to another level.

RUF, the mad scientists from Germany who take usual Porsches and make them bonafide supercar-killers, built two special RUF CTR2s to humiliate other mortals at Hillclimb and circuit events. With 702 horsepower on tap, these Sport Prototype examples were probably the fastest road legal Porsches in the world in the late ’90s and, now, one is up for grabs at the upcoming Bonhams Paris sale on February 7th.

As far as supercars go, the RUF CTR2 is an unsung hero. Every car nut has heard of the mad CTR and its 213 mph F40-crushing top speed. Everyone has seen it being thrashed around the Nurburgring-Nordschleife in that period VHS video that might as well be one of the first ’viral’ automotive videos on the world-wide-web. But not too many people know about the CTR’s replacement, the CTR2.

RUF again built very few of these around the chassis of a 993 Turbo, so it’s unlikely you’ll ever see one. However, if you do, allow yourself a few moments to just gaze upon it while trying to breathe normally because this is automotive royalty although the bulbous bodywork could mislead you into thinking this is yet another weird tuning job from the ’90s.

A Porsche Art Car isn’t something unheard of, but this is one of the strangest of them all. Designed by Peter Klasen, a German artist part of the ’La Nouvelle Figuration’ movement, it is an early 911 modified for racing with about 192-horsepower on tap and is named ’Project 007’. And no, there are no links to that secret agent.

Early 911s are revered for their purity in terms of the construction and the classic design of the body. The original 911 (901) is a Butzi Porsche design whose lines are still relevant on modern Porsches that we see and hear today. This particular 911, though, is something that we don’t see every day. Its colorful livery was drawn up by Klasen in 2009, and it’s similar, in terms of the color palette and some of the themes and elements displayed, with previous liveries he’s done.

Maybe Klausen’s most prominent work in the automotive world is a racing livery that adorned a Porsche 962 CK6 entered by German outfit Kremer Racing in the 1990 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The German artist also designed the red-white-and-blue livery of a Porsche 911 (993) GT2 entered by French team Sonauto in the French GT Championship in the late ’90s.

The Porsche 911 Carrera RS is an exercise in reducing a formula to its purest form. It was built as a lighter, faster, and more powerful version of the 964-generation Carrera 2 and it stands as a spiritual successor of the magnificent 911 Carrera 2.7 RS from the early ‘70s.

The Benjamin Dimson-penned Porsche 911 (964) debuted in 1989 and featured a rounder body shape in tune with the times which was a clear, but not profoundly radical, departure from the design of the previous 911 that was still tracing its roots back to the original Ferdinand Alexander Porsche-drawn model launched in 1963.

For 1992, Porsche launched the Carrera RS in Europe which was, in essence, a road-legal version of the Carrera Cup racing cars. This single-make series was on the bill of the Formula 1 World Championship weekends as support races in between F1 sessions.

The 911 Carrera RS never officially made it across the Atlantic and into the U.S. market. With that being said, 45 cars that were meant to be used in a Carrera Cup U.S. series that never materialized did trickle down to dealerships and were quietly sold in 1993 in the shadow of the RS America which deserves its own review as it isn’t identical to the European RS.

Porsche turned 70 this year, and the automaker decided to celebrate it by auctioning off the Porsche 911 Turbo Classic Series - a collection of 51 vehicles - at RM Sotheby’s "The Porsche 70th Anniversary Auction 2018” event. The highlight of the auction was a 993 that was finished in flashy Golden Yellow Metallic paint. After nearly 40 bids, it’s destined to go to a new home with a price tag of €2.7 million or about $3.1 million at current exchange rates.

The original RUF CTR, commonly known as the “Yellowbird”, outran the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959 from 0 to 100 mph and kept going all the way to a top speed of 213 mph. It was the fastest car of the ‘80s and, arguably, the most extreme road-going interpretation of the Porsche 911 Carerra at the time.

As a follow-up to the vicious BTR, the RUF CTR was even more insane. It used parts from the Porsche 962 Group C prototype racer, had lightened body panels, a gearbox built just for it, tires similar to those on the spaceship that was the 959 and a bright yellow paintjob that made it stand out and earned its nickname: Yellowbird.

Before Alois Ruf and the team set about building the CTR, the world’s fastest car was the Lamborghini Countach. Surely, with all the wings it had grown by the time it received four valves per cylinder in 1985, it looked the part. Sadly for the Italians, the more understated Ruf CTR blew by the Countach, and the Testarossa, and the 288 GTO and just about any other supercar you can think of. And Ruf themselves thought that they could’ve eeked more with longer gears.

Keep reading to learn more about the ludicrous Ruf CTR

The Porsche 930 Turbo was a turning point for the German manufacturer as it debuted turbocharging for the public rich enough to afford it. Debuting in the mid-‘70s, it took a turn towards flamboyance in the ‘80s with the Slant Nose version which, in its rarity, is as era-defining as the Ferrari Testarossa or the Lamborghini Countach. Early turbo-lag freights never looked this wacky!

The 930 Turbo, or rather the Turbo Carerra as it was sold in the US, was Porsche’s first stab at turbocharging a car for the public roads. Sure, they weren’t the first of the European manufacturers to do it, with BMW launching the 2002 Turbo three years prior in 1972, but the Turbo from Stuttgart had substantially more grunt which made it a bit of a menace.

From the get-go, a Turbo’ed 911 had over 250 horsepower making it the fastest car Germany could offer. It also had an unmistakable look with the black graphics on the lower sides and the enlarged whaletail wing that aided in both cooling and downforce. The German manufacturer had loads of experience with turbocharging on the racing front, debuting the 917/10-TC in 1972 and sweeping the Can-Am title with it. Then came the 917/30 which was even more dominant, to the point that it killed off the series, and then the 911 Carerra RSR Turbo which was based on a road-going 911 albeit with countless modifications.

That purpose-built prototype that looked like your streetwise 911 is the father of the 1975 930 Turbo which was unveiled at the Paris Auto Show in October 1974. For 1975, Porsche put out just 400 Turbos to meet homologation requirements for their next racecar, the 934. Unlike the previous homologation special, the Carerra RS 2.7, the Turbo really caught on, and by 1976 it became available in the United States.

The one-off, road-going 935 replica ordered by McLaren backer Mansour Ojjeh, then president of TAG, sparked an interest among well-to-do Porsche customers for a 930 with the nose flattened. The German manufacturer duly listened to the wishes of its customers and the Slant Nose – Flachbau in German – was born.

The design proved polarizing, and with an MSRP in the period of $29,000, which increased the cost of a 930 Turbo by almost 60%, less than 1,000 Slant Noses were made beginning in 1981. This special optional extra was also available in the US under the 930 S moniker.

After its production had ended, the 930 Turbo remained a cult classic with the Slant Nose the rarest version of them all. It’s a testament of the times and quite a bit more than that, as the racing-inspired modification actually aided handling and acceleration.

Keep reading to learn the full story of the Porsche 930 Turbo Coupe

The Porsche 550 is a true icon of Porsche history. Known as both a race car and a sports car, the 550 was the kind of machine you could drive to the track, take the win, then drive back home. The famous British-American racing driver Ken Miles called it the “greatest long-distance racer in the world,” and despite its low power figures, this plucky little two-door could take down cars with far more power and straight-line speed. Eventually evolving into the even-quicker 550a, the 550 is now widely recognized as one of the more desirable collectible Porsches in the world.

Continue reading to learn more about the Porsche 550a Spyder.