MARKETWATCH

Bidders appeared more circumspect during Scottsdale Auctions Week in Texas in mid January, with few pre-sale estimates being trashed, says David Sutherland. But a clear trend is emerging – the investment payback from the limited edition 911s of the last decade The values of traditional, older Porsche classics have been flattening out over the last year or so. But while it would be overly pessimistic to say they have had their day, they are certainly having some days off. Pity (or don’t) the owner of the 1964 Porsche 904 GTS sports car racer with a competition and celebrity provenance who expected to sell for between $1.4m and $1.7m (£1.09m–£1.32m) at Bonhams’ January auction in Scottsdale in Arizona, but found nobody wanted to pay the reserve. And in the Gooding and Company sale, also during Scottsdale Auctions Week, a 1956 356A Speedster was left unwanted, last seen with a “please buy me for $485,000” sticker.

However, a new breed of “classics” is emerging and making big prices in international auction sales. We use the term advisedly because some of them are barely secondhand, and models that in recent years Porsche has supplied surely in the full knowledge that they will go straight from Porsche Centres to collectors’ vaults.

One of the first of these instant investments (provided you could get on to the delivery list) was the 911 Sport Classic, revealed in Autumn 2009. At the time we said, ‘Porsche is playing shamelessly on its RS heritage and offering a special version of the 911 Carrera S with a “ducktail” rear spoiler aping that of the original 1973 Carrera 2.7 RS’. That view sounds almost prudish now, given all Porsche’s subsequent 911 tributes, but all 250 built, priced at £149,049 which was double that of a regular Carrera S, were snapped up instantly.

And at Scottsdale RM Sotheby’s sold a 150-mile example for $654,000 (about £508,000), which was not only close on three-and-ahalf times its new price, but almost £120,000 clear of its upper pre-sale estimate figure. This example (in the lead photo) was the second of the production batch – we wonder how much more it would have fetched had it been number one. RM said the lot ‘saw two bidders in the room bring the car to a final price of $654,000 – setting a new benchmark for the model as the first example ever offered at auction.’ More on this 911 in our Under the Hammer feature.

Then there was the 911R introduced in spring 2016 as a kind of “back to basics” Porsche, but in reality aimed at the switched on, financed up Porsche collector, a batch of 991 offered. Less than a year after it was released, RM Sotheby’s shifted a sub 400-mile car for the equivalent of £444,200 at its Paris sale; Gooding’s 2400mile car at Scottsdale wasn’t on course to make that much, and sold for below estimate, but its hammer price of $280,000 (£217,700) was still 60 per cent more than the new price.

A year before that Porsche had looked around for something to celebrate and came up with the Rennsport Reunion, an event held at the Raceway Laguna Seca in California. If that alone wasn’t going to whet appetites, then the mere 25 unit supply of the 911 Carrera GTS Rennsport Reunion Edition – essentially a specced up Carrera GTS – certainly did. Its 2015 new price in the US was $148,335, hence the $201,600 (£156,700) that RM achieved for the sub 50-mile example at Scottsdale showed it to be a decent way of avoiding the usual 30 per cent new car depreciation – even if nobody has had any driving enjoyment from this particular car.

Similarly unused was the 2018 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series that RM sold for $445,000 (£345,300). Boasting extra power over the regular Turbo S, 500 were built, and the 51-mile example’s hammer price, just under the upper estimate figure, was almost twice its new price. A 2018 911 GT2 RS offered by RM with the ’Weissach’ package and 55 miles made $461,500 (£358,100), representing a near 60 per cent mark up in value in less than a year.

And another Porsche that had barely turned a wheel was RM’S 2011, 997generation Speedster, the second car built out of the 500 run. The original UK price was £144,100, so its $423,000 (£328,200) hammer price represented appreciation of about 220 per cent over seven years, or over 30 per cent a year. And to think that when it was launched we complained that it was over £60,000 more than the normal 911 Cabriolet.

But sometimes over optimism gets in the way, such as the 2011 997 generation GT2 RS offered by Gooding. The 3800-mile Guards Red car, one of the 142 Gooding said had been delivered in the US, did not make its reserve at Scottsdale and was afterwards offered for $440,000 (£342,000). This was just over twice its new price seven years ago, so even if it doesn’t go for that, its second owner is still likely to be making good money. A 2008 997 GT2 that Gooding offered did find a buyer, who paid £299,250 (£232,200), just under the lower estimate figure.

Were any other Porsche trends evident at Scottsdale? A Porsche tractor now seems to be a mandatory inclusion in a classic auction catalogue, and RM obliged by presenting a 1960 Junior 109, which sold for $29,120 (£22,600), making it the cheapest Porsche in the sale (although the customised 1986 911 Carrera Targa “Outlaw” was only £12,200 more).

But the clear message at Scottsdale came from the moderns and their runaway prices. New is the new old – why wait 30 or 40 years for a Porsche to appreciate when a limited edition will do it almost immediately? PW