Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
The Aventurine Green Metallic 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S we featured in early January is still looking for a new owner and is back up for auction. Pricing remains more or less the same, though the seller has now provided some leeway by making it a No Reserve Auction with a starting bid of $72,500, while keeping the Buy It Now price at $75,000. I can’t help but think that the lack of quality pictures is holding this car back a bit, but at the moment the ad remains unchanged.
The original Volkswagen Beetle is one of those curious cars that leads two lives. Devised as bare bones transportation and used by some as such, the car has also been the base for some impressive restorations. Some people like to take the route and modify with various Porsche bits while others prefer the dune buggy approach. And some like to go for the Cal look, popular ever since Beetle production was in full swing. This restored 1962 Cabriolet for sale in Pennsylvania in Gulf Blue looks sharp sitting on wider tires with deep dish wheels and is on offer just in time for the warmer weather about to hit on the East Coast.
Jeremy Clarkson was fond of saying that sticking a Turbo badge on a car made it better. Didn’t matter the car, if it said Turbo it was good! In this way, the 911 market agrees completely with Jeremy. An air-cooled 911 Turbo is a highly sought after commodity in any guise, and for good reason. Enhanced performance trumps almost anything but the rarest of the naturally-aspirated models and given that a Turbo had a higher cost of entry to begin with we can understand why the market for them has remained so strong. As the last of the breed the 993 Turbo has held a special place in the heart of most Porschephiles, even if its all-wheel drive system dims the ferocity and purity of its dynamics to some degree. But the fact that it is the most advanced air-cooled model and, arguably, the prettiest of all the 911 Turbos lends it credence any debate and it is sure to maintain a high place within the 911 market for many years to come. The example we see here is a Guards Red 1996 Porsche 911 Turbo, located in Texas, with Tan interior and only 8,646 miles on it.
The 911 S/T is one of those cars you could spend your life trying to find and never come across a real one. Produced in very limited numbers from 1970 to 1971, we might think of the S/T as a track-oriented 911S or as a precursor to the much heralded Carrera RS. Either way these were lightened and more powerful versions of the 911 intended for endurance and rally racing. I’ve come across various figures for total production numbers, but it seems like that number is fewer than 40. How many survive today? I’m not sure. As a track car we can assume it is very, very few. That means they are a popular car to try and recreate and we find them in a wide variety of performance and aesthetic combinations. The one constant: once complete they are fantastic cars to look at and I can only assume even better to drive. The recreation we see here began life as a Sepia Brown 1972 911E and then at some point it was converted into what we see here. The seller makes clear that this is a barn find, so specific details on the build are not available and he has not put a ton of work into getting the car into pristine shape. He tuned it and got it running, but all in all it really doesn’t look in bad shape.
Amid all of the high-dollar collectible Porsches there still exist plenty of options, though they dwindle with each passing year, for those seeking to find a reasonable value. Many of these value machines also benefit from sharing a market with those collectibles and with care they can be resold at a later date for sometimes more than their current purchase price. The key is to find cars that have been well cared for throughout their life. The 911 especially has had a lengthy history of stout engines so a car’s mileage is important, but its care is paramount. The 911SC fits most of these parameters perfectly: the engine has a history of long life and collectors haven’t taken as much notice outside of the best examples on the market. For fans of the Targa, value is even easier to find since the Targa has almost always been the lowest regarded of the models. I am a fan of the Targa so I always enjoy coming across these sorts of examples: here we have a India Red 1982 Porsche 911SC Targa, located in Massachusetts, with a Chocolate Brown interior and 110,772 miles on it.
