Ulimate Porsche collectors model sells for £15,000

Yet at the Silverstone Auctions Porsche-only sale at the Northants circuit at the weekend the rare Porsche tractor sold for more than some of the firm’s purebred sports cars made, going for £15,530.

Top price during the Saturday (15 October) sale was rather higher though, with honours going to a 1972 911 S 2.4. The yellow coupe fetched £200,250. Forty-five cars – and one tractor – sold on the day, but not the expected star of the show. The 2004 Carrera GT with a guide price of £440-480,000 is still looking for a new home…

It is the first time the 911 has been offered for sale since a nut and bolt restoration from 2005. As well as keeping its original factory seats, door cards, dashboard and steering wheel, the coupe  is in its original light yellow as delivered to its first owner in 1972, one of just 146 right-drive examples sold by Porsche Cars GB in 1972/3. The paperwork with this peach of a 911 shows seven owners and 144,000 miles in 44 years.

Wind forward almost 40 years and another 911 had no trouble finding a new owner: a 2010 997 GT3 RS sold for £168,750 (guide price £135-155,000). A GT2 from 2008 sold for £135,000.

Other cars that took our fancy before the auction on Saturday (15 October)  included a 1968 911 T, which sold for £84,380, and one of just six UK-supplied 911 2.7 MFi Carrera Targas from 1975, which didn’t sell.

Of Porsche transaxle cars, the time-warp 924 with 10,000km on the clock just made its guide, selling for £15,750, while a 1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S show-winner sold for £35,440.

What does it all mean? We asked long-term Porsche watcher and sales broker Phil Raby of Philip Raby Porsche in Southbourne. “At first sight, there were some bargains in the classic sector but, look again, and the cheaper examples weren’t perhaps quite the bargains they seemed,” he told us.

“For instance, a low mileage 2.2 911S for £43,990 sounds a bargain until you realise it needs a full and thorough restoration - which doesn’t come cheap. Basically, Porsches were selling for the sort of prices we’ve come to expect.

“Modern Porsches sold for strong money, including a brace of 996 Turbos for around £45,000 – proof that these are surely becoming modern classics.

“The biggest surprises, though, had to be £35,440 for a 944 Turbo S and £15,750 for a basic but very low mileage 924. The ‘poor man’s’ Porsche has come of age!”

Four Porsches that sold for less than the price of a tractor…

1.1985 928 S, “superb unrestored survivor”. Sold for £9560.

2. 2002 Boxster S with 9000 miles, two owners and 12 Porsche service stamps, sold for £14,060.

3. 1998 996-generation 911 Carrera 2, sold for £14,625.

4. 1973 911 E restoration project, sold for £6300.