Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans.
Air-cooled and still cool Porsche 356 - a 54 year old right-hand drive 356B with the larger rear window and twin engine grilles of the 1962 T6 Coupe body and Super 90 engine – was much viewed by PCGB members, marque enthusiasts and traders before costing the next owner £63,000 with premium, mid-estimate money, during a 71% sold £2.55m all-Porsche Silverstone Auctions sale held in ‘The Wing’ above the F1 pits. An earlier 356B, also in rhd but with T5 Coupe body from 1959, was sold for £45,563, the lower estimate with premium.
And while a 2004 Carrera GT Supercar failed to attract a buyer in the room, telephone or from Proxi-bidder computer mice (a larger number than has previously been the case playing at this sale) with the required £440,000 or more, and there was no buyer with £120,000 plus for a similarly lefty 1993 RUF 911 Type 964 Carrera Turbo, most of the other big ticket cars did go home to different motor houses.
A UK-supplied 911 Type 997 GT3 RS Generation II from 2010 topped the Silverstone prices list with a more than forecast £168,750 result. Just over the required money was forthcoming for a first Stuttgart resident 1991 911 964 Carrera RS in minimalist NGT trim (or lack of it) sold for £157,500, and a close to top estimate £151,875 was paid for an always UK rhd 1989 911 Type 930 Turbo with G50 box, original paint and 24,000 mileage. A 911 930 Turbo ‘Flat Nose’, one of 50 UK cars that had (we hope) dodged flashing cameras for 21,000 miles from new in 1986, made £140,625, £20,000 more than predicted.
An only just over-guide £135,000 landed a 2008 and therefore water-cooled UAE supplied 911 997 GT2 with full complement of winglets and 13,800 miles of sandy Porsche Centre service history in Abu Dhabi and Dubai before being only recently rained on in Sutton Coldfield. An only just below estimate £112,500 was accepted for a thoroughly UK exercised 1995 911 993 Turbo with 993 RS short-shift linkage that had been re-painted and treated to a re-trim. A 2008 911 997 GT2 converted to ‘RS-look’ without paying for it cost a new rear-view mirror watcher £106,880, and a 1991 911 964 Turbo in rhd and striking Tahoe Blue £90,000, the mid-estimate figure.
After spending most of its 48 years of registered life pottering about or sleeping in Guernsey, where it was restored, a 1967 911T SWB was unsold under the hammer, but post-sale sold for £84,380. This was virtually the lower estimate figure suggested by Silverstone, although if registered within the official EEC, the amount paid would be subject to additional VAT.
A genuine factory-produced right-hand drive GT3 Clubsport 911 996.1in very bright Red on split-rims with bi-plane rear spoiler that had never been ‘track-driven’ during 32,287 fully documented mileage offered much more performance and wine bar appeal for a premium-inclusive bill of £70,317. Even more memorable for vigilante villagers with notebooks would be a 2003 911 996 GT3 Clubsport in forget-me-not Speed Yellow, the front end stone-chip protected by ‘Armourfend’. Seriously and expensively upgraded by German Manthey, this tempting escapist-mobile offered loads of wild second (or third) motor car for the £63,900 paid.
Much the same money, £63,000 with premium, also bought an originally JCT 600 supplied in 1988 and quite rare in right-hand drive 911 930 Turbo Targa-top that had been converted to a Flatnose in early 1989 using the Porsche factory option kit of Flachbau parts.
And no Porsche sale or Porsche collection would be truly complete without a Porsche Tractor and some head-scratching 911 restoration projects. For a 1959 308 N Super landed for £15,525 was, indeed, in super nick and had clearly been nowhere near the farmyard where I keep my toys. Whilst a non-original 1971 911S 2.2 lefty that had been dry-stored after only 12 years and 70,000k on the road (with tax disc expired ‘31 05 84’ to prove it!) was taken on after the sale for £43,900 and an even more challenging 1973 911E Targa from Florida with 2.4 T motor of the same vintage was even more bravely bought under the Humbert hammer for £6300.
This was Silverstone Auction’s second such annual Porsche sale, which was attended by legendary Porsche factory team drivers Derek Bell MBE, who entertained Porsche owners and prospective owners both in the room and on-line with a talk following the preview on the Friday, and John Fitzpatrick, who signed copies of his newly published book on sale day.
Salegoers were transported back to the car park in a brace of charabancs that were straight out of a Miss Marple episode. Sadly, no 911 for me these days - Porsche works driver Nick Faure sold me my first, a 911S daily driver for early 1970s London, and Francis Tuthill my last, a Waldegard, Blomqvist and Jimmy McRae rallied 1965 911 SWB. Instead, I went home by equally trusty Honda Swindon built CRV with a mere, though twin turbocharged 1.6 diesel to propel me incredibly economically to the next auction, which for bikes followed by cars goes live 10am this Saturday 22 October in the Richard Edmonds tent pitched beside the A420 at Allington, just outside Chippenham.