The marketplace
RM Sotheby’s celebrated 70 years of Porsche with a single-marque sale in Atlanta, Georgia, on 27 October. Of the 63 vehicles offered at the $25.8m auction, the highest price went to a sensational Rothmans-liveried 959. One of three works cars built for the 1985 Parisdakar, chassis 010015 might have retired from the gruelling event, but nonetheless inspired sustained bidding, smashing its $3-3.4m estimate to sell for a phenomenal $5,945,000. Alongside the rally car, a 1985 959 prototype – the seventh of 12 constructed – looked almost affordable. Attractively finished in Ruby Red and originally built for hot-weather testing, the 1980s techno-marvel made $1m against a pre-sale guide of $1.3-1.6m.
One of the most anticipated lots of the auction was a brand-new 993 turbo S. Assembled by Porsche Classic 20 years after the end of 993 production using a new-old-stock bodyshell, ‘Project Gold’ sold to a bidder in the room for an astonishing $3,415,000, the proceeds going to the Ferry Porsche Foundation. For fans of oily-rag classics, meanwhile, the undoubted highlight was a 1958 356A 1600 Super Speedster that had been in storage for the past 35 years. Although presented in delightfully shabby condition, the car had been recently recommissioned and soared past its $125-150k estimate to sell for an impressive $307,500. Other 356s included a timewarp 35,000-mile 1956 Super Speedster that had spent half a century in the hands of its most recent owner and which went for $494,500, while there was also a 1956 rolling chassis that had been used in period by renowned New York distributor Hoffman Motors to train its mechanics; it changed hands for $112,000.
Water-cooled models included a superb 11,000-mile 1980 924 that made $53,760, while a 16,000-mile 1994 928 GTS sold for $112k.