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I revisited this Guards Red 996TT last week (still available by the way) in part because that color is fairly rare to see on the 996. My interest in this Turbo is somewhat similar, though in this case we have a combination of a more interesting interior and exterior to help stimulate our senses. There are a plethora of silver and black examples to be had such that I almost always feel it’s a missed opportunity to allow to slip by most any other color. The basic facts of these cars are well known: prodigious performance for reasonable cost, but with an appearance that not everyone can love either. Unlike its naturally-aspirated siblings, there are no IMS bearing concerns with the engine. So here we have a Midnight Blue 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo, located in Utah, with Natural Brown interior and 57,078 miles on it.
The Guards Red 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo we featured in early April remains for sale. After a few auctions that failed to meet the reserve the seller has decided to forgo the suspense and list it with his asking price. That price, $60K, is about $10K above where auctions have ended so we’ll have to see whether anyone has enough interest to go that high. We don’t see Guards Red on the 996TT very often and this one has pretty low miles so perhaps it will sell. That price does begin to eat into the great values we typically see with these cars, but even at $60K it’s a heck of a lot of performance for your money.
The below post originally appeared on our site April 5, 2016:
For as frequently as we come across a Guards Red 911 or a 996TT, it is surprising how infrequently we come across the two in one package. Guards Red seems to have fallen out of favor as we moved through the ’90s and into the 2000s. Seeing a new one is almost unheard of. But here we have one of the few: a Guards Red 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo, located in Georgia, with only 12,855 miles on it. Like any 996TT the performance per dollar is going to be mind blowing, but it’ll be interesting to see if the seemingly rare exterior color plus low mileage manages to push this one a bit higher. How much has the market taken notice of these supercar bargains?
Last week we featured a pretty nice Seal Grey 996TT that sold for $44,100. As usual, it was a very nice performance value. As part of that post I spoke of the possibility of these cars attracting the notice of collectors and mentioned that I felt that notice would be – at least for a time – limited to interesting colors and X50-equipped cars. Here we have just such an example with mileage similar to last week’s 996TT and a similar asking price to where the Seal Grey example sold. This Midnight Blue Metallic 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo, located in Texas with 52,694 miles on it, probably has too much mileage to really grab a collector’s attention, but at its current asking price it should fall as another really nice value and all things considered should be a better value than last week’s example.
We’ve had some discussion lately about the possibility of Porsche’s 996TT becoming popular on the collector market, which would then lead to higher prices as larger segments begin to take notice of these unloved, but extremely quick 911s. There is little doubt that the GT2 and GT3 are beginning to garner that appeal, but the Turbo remains less certain. Prices have gone up, but only marginally, and even with higher prices these remain one of the best performance bargains available. I am one that thinks these will become sought after by collectors – not to the same degree as the air-cooled Turbos, or at least not yet, but sought after nonetheless. However, as with many collector vehicles I think for the time being it will only be very low mileage and/or rare color models equipped with the X50 package that we see attract such notice. Examples with a few miles on them, like this Seal Grey 2002 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe located in California, should still come in for reasonable cost. And that’s a very good thing as it means buyers can still get their hands on a fantastic machine that remains in good condition, but without having to mortgage the farm.
