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I am going to continue my current theme of rooting around for driver quality classic 911s so as to establish a firmer grasp on where we can expect these models to sell on the current market. I’ve seen a lot of the earlier examples of the 911SC and where they are being priced and here I want to move to the other end of the spectrum to look at a late 3.2 Carrera. The price is higher, as we’d expect, but remains somewhat reasonable given other facets of this 911. Here we have a Marine Blue Metallic 1998 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, located in California, with Grey interior and 119,250 miles on it.
When I first began writing for GCFSB it was just before the air-cooled 911 market took off. Suddenly nearly every 3.2 Carrera I’d see would set a new benchmark for value. Long-hood models, which already had been expensive, began to reach well into six figures for the 911S and rare variants seemed to leap into the stratosphere. We saw quite a few interesting examples hit the market as sellers tried to capitalize on these gains and almost any time a well-maintained 911 came up for auction with no reserve it would sell well before auction’s end, sometimes in a matter of one or two days. Those times are behind us as the air-cooled market has settled down and while the gains haven’t retreated much for many of these cars the classic 911s of the ’80s have taken some steps back into much more attainable territory. This is especially the case with higher-mileage basic Carreras. And I don’t mean this as a bad thing. These are wonderful cars meant to be enjoyed so ideally the prices will be such that owners don’t feel conflicted about opening the garage just because it’s a little cloudy. I mention these things because I’ve begun to notice a lot more nice looking examples of the 911SC and 3.2 Carrera popping up for much more reasonable prices. These aren’t necessarily the 911s in great color combinations or low mileage, but nice honest looking cars none the less. At times the reserves remain too high, but even that should work itself out with time. The example we have here seems to fit this bill: a Black 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe, located in Memphis, with 111,000 miles on the clock.
Another day, another Targa. And for whatever reason I’m finding myself very much taken in by this one. This 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, located in Maryland, brings us back within the realm of the regular 911, but that doesn’t stop it from looking great. Grey/red is a color combination we see frequently across the whole 911 line and my favorite version of it is Slate Grey over a bright red interior (Can-Can or Lobster would do the trick). The 911 we have here takes a slightly different line making use of a darker hue of each. We aren’t provided with the precise colors, though we could hazard a guess that this is Meteor Grey Metallic for the exterior and the interior obviously is Burgundy. The combination works very well and what it may lack in flash it makes up for with understated refinement.
Let’s get right to it: I want to take a look at a very low mileage Glacier Blue 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe located in New York. Glacier Blue 911s have graced these pages a couple of times in the past and it’s a color that always draws attention. But here we start to see the fullness of its color to much better effect. The negative to a color like Glacier Blue is that in many lighting conditions it looks washed out, basically a dull white, and it is hard to capture the color so that it actually looks blue. They’ve done that here, perhaps through a combination of better photography and some touching up, but they’ve done it none the less. Combined with a navy blue interior we experience the full force of the color’s name: it’s appearance is icy like the waves of a cold sea crashing against a glacier. It’s a strange environment to model upon a car’s appearance, but it does produce a sort of natural look that is quite different from the typical earthy colors we associate with nature. As we’d expect the combination is quite rare – stated to be only 160 in this exterior color; no word on how many in this combination – and with only 19,615 miles on this one we also can expect a high price. But this high?
Many times in our search for interesting and rare cars to feature we pass over the regular cars; cars that are in good shape and would make for great options for many prospective buyers, but that don’t immediately jump off the page. Or, at least, I find myself doing that. The negative side of this, of course, is that these are the cars that typically come with the most reasonable prices, a point that is particularly true with the 911 where any sense of exclusivity quickly raises the bar on value. I think this 911 fits within that ‘regular car’ category and while we can never be totally assured of such the hope is that it will also come at a decent price. Here we have a Guards Red 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe, located in Oregon, with 98,750 miles on it.
