Sales debate Are consumers still confident in the future value of classics?
We’ve dedicated numerous column inches to the topic of fuelling a traditional combustion-engined sports car in this magazine of late, for a number of reasons: there’s a clear goal at Porsche to significantly push consumers towards
EVS when it comes to purchasing new cars, while also developing synthetic (or efuels) to cater for enthusiasts who wish to enjoy older sports cars.
While the latter is a welcome development, Porsche has stopped short of confirming that air-cooled 911s will not need any modification to run the efuels successfully. Meanwhile, fuels across Europe are featuring more ethanol, which as previously reported, is notoriously bad for fuel systems on classic cars, accelerating rot. So with all this in mind, has enthusiasm among enthusiasts for classic Porsche 911s waned?
Not so, according to Porsche specialist Paul Stephens: “Modern classics have stolen the limelight from classics a little more in recent months, as people are realising they represent better value for money. That said, good classics are still highly desirable – there’s a general confidence that we’ll be able to still use and enjoy an air-cooled 911 for a long time yet,” he says.
Pleasingly, Jonathan Franklin at Jonathan Franklin Cars, which deals predominantly in the collectible sphere of the market, is broadly in agreement with his industry colleague. “One or two people have asked the question, but it’s not a deal breaker. The general consensus is we’re more likely to adopt a model as seen in Australia, whereby the use of older combustion-engined cars may be limited to a certain number of days per year. In reality such a move would have little effect on enthusiasts’ enjoyment of their classic, as these cars aren’t really used daily anyway.” Franklin goes further: “The news that Porsche is developing synthetic fuels has also been warmly received – Porsche is clearly not going to abandon 60 years of its sports cars at the drop of a hat, so there’s a confidence and even expectance that a solution will be developed and implemented to allow responsible enjoyment of air-cooled 911s.”
So there we have it: both experts are unequivocal in their assessment of market confidence in quality air-cooled Porsches. Let’s hope the consensus remains unchanged for a long while yet.