PORSCHE SPORTS CARS SET NEW RECORDS AT AMELIA ISLAND AUCTION

Last month, we brought you news of the superrare Porsches set to go under the hammer at the Gooding & Company Amelia Island Auction. A 1959 718 RSK set pulses racing in advance of the sale, as did a fine selection of other special sports cars from Zuffenhausen, including a 2005 Carrera GT and a 1993 964 Carrera RS 3.8 Clubsport, the latter built at the request of Tobias Hagenmeyer, CEO of transmission giant, Getrag. Presented in black with yellow accents, the air-cooled rarity features seven wholly unique characteristics not found on any other RS 3.8.

A 1998 RUF Turbo R Limited also generated interest in the lead-up to the sale, scheduled a day ahead of the weekend’s Amelia Island Concours d’elegance. Then, just as we went to print, Gooding & Company announced a late entry to proceedings: 904/6 chassis 906-011, a historically significant Porsche race car which made its debut at the Le Mans test weekend in April 1965 and, later that year, was entered in the Mont Ventoux Hillclimb and the Grand Prix of Solitude. After this season, the car was retired from Porsche’s racing department.

All Porsches offered at the Amelia Island auction were sold, the leading example being the 718 RSK, which achieved $2,975,000 after an engaging bidding war. 904/6 chassis 906011, meanwhile, achieved a remarkable figure of $2,205,000. The aforementioned Carrera GT shattered the recently set world record at auction for the model by selling for $2,012,500 (eclipsing the $2,000,000 million achieved earlier this year), while the Hagenmeyer 964 Carrera RS 3.8 Clubsport also set a new model world record, yielding a final sale price of $1,875,000.

Within the same realm, the gorgeous 993based Riviera Blue RUF Turbo R Limited stunned auction attendees by becoming the most valuable RUF ever purchased at public sale, generating an unanticipated winning bid of $2,040,000.

Modern 911s also commanded strong sale prices at the auction, where Porsche was the most represented marque. A 2001 996 GT2, for example, sold for $240,800, while a 2018 991 Gen II GT3 Touring brought in $302,000 after a considerable bidding battle. The event’s most successful lot? A 1937 Talbot-lago T150-C-SS Teardrop Coupe, which fetched $13,425,000.

Of the nineteen auction lots generating more than $1m, eight were Porsches. Late entries included a pair of 1979 935 race cars (sold for a respectable $1,765,000 and $1,462,500) and a 1974 Carrera 3.0 RSR IROC, one of only fifteen 911s specially built for Roger Penske’s legendary race series. RSR chassis 911 460 0085 is one of the few 911s which competed in all four IROC races in 1973/1974. In the first race, Indycar hero, Gordon Johncock piloted the car to a tenth-place finish. For the second event, Mclaren F1 driver, Peter Revson, finished fourth. Johncock found himself back in the red RSR for race three, finishing eleventh after throttle linkage issues.

For the season finale in early 1974, the top six performers went head-to-head at Daytona Speedway. AJ Foyt took the controls of this iconic RSR, but finished in sixth place after engine failure early on. Even so, the car’s special history was enough to attract $1,627,500 at Amelia Island.

ON VALENTINE’S DAY 1974, THE TOP SIX PERFORMERS WERE INVITED TO DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY