As a young man, I spent countless hours dreaming of blasting down the Mulsanne in a Rothman’s 962 Group C car chasing Hans Stuck. But I was not alone; the dream of driving the legendary and most successful Group C car was that of many across the world. Some of those who dreamed had the means to make it happen, too – and in one of the strangest prototype twists I think ever, multiple road going versions of the 962 saw the light of day from different tuner companies. There was the DP Motorsports version – effectively, just a race-going 962 with some tread on the tires. There was the “Derek Bell Signature Edition 962, too – which looked the part but built on chassis numbers alone with a GT2 motor. Then there was the ex-Porsche racer Vern Schuppan’s version called the 962CR. The most radical, it looked like a 962 had spent a drunken night with a 959. There was also the very interesting tale of the Dauer 962 – ironically, turned into a road car so that it could exploit a loophole in the rule book to be turned back into a race-winning car at Le Mans. Indeed, for several years during the supercar boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed that a new version of a road going 962 came out every few months. But the first of all of these was from reviled tuner Koenig Specials, who in a departure from their typical formula of “just add Testarossa slats everywhere” introduced a thinny veiled race car for the road:
Tag: Porsche
The really pretty (and very expensive) Venetian Blue Metallic 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe we featured in early November is back up for sale – not surprisingly – and it’s even seen a reduction in its asking price! Ok, at $155,700 relatively speaking the price reduction is completely negligible as this remains a potentially market-setting 3.2 Carrera. That is, if anyone bites on this price. I suspect it won’t go anywhere in the near future, but it does make the other very high priced Carreras in this seller’s stable seem well priced in comparison. Maybe that’s exactly the point.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe on eBay
The below post originally appeared on our site November 9, 2015:
2 CommentsThe 911 GT3 RS. The ultimate expression of a road-going icon. We’ve talked about this model quite a bit in the context of the 997 GT3 RS, which at this point appears will be the last of these models to feature a manual transmission rather than PDK, but we haven’t actually featured one. The GT3 RS itself also happens to be my favorite car so I’ve had my eye out for these for a while now, and I’ve seen quite a few of them coming up for sale. But for some reason this one really stood out (hint: it’s the color) and I finally decided to feature one. First things first: this is almost a ridiculous color, no better evidenced than by its name – ultraviolet. This is PURPLE in it most purple purpleness. But that’s fine and frankly these are the sorts of colors that I like to see on a GT3 RS anyway. That ridiculousness is propelled by a 4.0 liter flat-six throwing 500 hp at the 7-speed PDK transmission, which then delivers it all to the rear wheels as the rpms scream toward 9000. In typical GT3 RS fashion the interior has less frills, features lighter sport seats and it lacks rear seats altogether. That loss of weight along with the revised suspension will help these 911s keep up with the best other car makers can offer. I’m going to withhold my assessment of the styling of these until I see one in the flesh, but there’s a lot going on and I’m not sure I’m totally on board. About their performance there should be no such reservations.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS on eBay
4 CommentsNaturally in my quest for better value among 911 models I began to turn to the 997. Last week that lead me to a ’05 Carrera S Cabriolet that showed plenty of promise. As mentioned in that post, the potential for IMS issues is elevated with that year of the 997 so this week we’ll look at one built just a year later, but which shows equal overall promise. This should also give us a sense of the possible value differences between the two model years, which I suppose we could think of as the price you pay for peace of mind. Here we have a Lapis Blue Metallic 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe, located in North Carolina, with Sand Beige interior and 47,855 miles on it. As I’ve stated previously, the prices for these early 997s kind of snuck up on me. I spend a lot of time wading in the ever deepening waters of the air-cooled 911 market and when I suddenly turned my attention to these modern examples I was blown away at what your money might get. With the 997, later model years still seem to command much higher values – they are after all still pretty new – but for these earlier model years the prices aren’t too bad and you’re getting a lot of car for your money. Their styling is, to my eye, a bit conservative, but their relationship to the 911s of yore is clear and I don’t think anyone will confuse them with some other model.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe on eBay
5 CommentsI’ve been trying to find a greater number of 911s that fall within the reasonable value spectrum – cars that perhaps more of us could aspire to own. This is not one of those cars, but I couldn’t pass it up. Here we have a restored Mint Green 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Coupe located in California. We should not let the ad’s mileage statement fool us: this has not been a garage queen. While it has not traveled much over the past twenty years – only 10K miles since the completion of its restoration – the first two decades of its life were lived quite fully as it traveled nearly 150K miles. Now it has been brought back to its former glory and looks in very good condition with little evidence of all those miles traveled. The Carrera 3.0 is a special model that we don’t see many of. Never available in the US they were an evolution of the Carrera 2.7 MFI, which itself was an evolution of the iconic 1973 911 Carrera RS, and they used a naturally aspirated version of the 3.0 liter flat-six found in the 930. These were a far cry from the 911s we had here in the US during those years, showcasing both more power and less weight. And, of course, their lineage makes them quite desirable.