Stuttgart Market Letter

Written by David K. Whitlock

sold for $188,572.

Early 911s have remained steady as well over the last few months with the top sale this month belonging to a 1967 911S Coupe at $205,000. The Sand Beige example was restored within the last decade and still looked fresh making this one well-bought. The real surprise of the lot was a 1973 2.7 RS Touring sold by RM Sotheby’s for only $524,390. Remember what I said about the European market being softer? Another clear example of deals to be had overseas.

February kicked off the European auction calendar with sales from Bonhams and RM Sotheby’s at Paris’ Retromobile. The multi-day festival of all things classic cars saw a sell-through rate just shy of our overall rate at 70%. Pound for pound, or should I say dollar for dollar, European prices appear to be much softer than here in the US. For example, a 1992 964 Carrera RS N/GT sold at Bonhams for $257,715 whereas a similar example sold on Bring a Trailer a month earlier for $401,000, and a 1996 993 Turbo sold for $138,286, well below the $195,000 moving average we’ve seen as of late.

Paris also had the opportunity to take this month’s top sale honors with a 1964 904 GTS at RM Sotheby’s and a 1993 911 Turbo S “Leichbau” at Bonhams. In that fight, the Turbo S took the top spot at a sales price of $1,131,531 while the 904 failed to reach the reserve. The 904 continued the trend we saw from January with yet another classic Porsche race car failing to sell. The only other car to fetch over $1m last month was a 1990 Reimagined by Singer that hammered down for $1,075,000, a far cry from the $1.25m plus we’ve seen for these resto-mods over the past year.

The 1-2-year-old car market has continued to cool with a sellthrough rate of 54%. It seems that some sellers are still holding on to their lofty reserve prices as the market continues to head below MSRP for standard sports cars and GT cars inch closer and closer to MSRP. Case in point, average bids on GT3s were down about $10k to $250,000 and not a single example managed to sell above $300,000. Not even the 576-mile PTS Superior Red Metallic car that closed on Valentine’s Day for $292,000.

The strength of the 356 markets continued to hold with similar results to last month: only 3 out of the 15 cars on offer failed to sell. At $238,544, a project 1953 356 Pre-A Coupe took top sale honors and was very well-sold considering its abandoned restoration and non-matching number engine. The other notable sale was a 1964 356C Mirror 356 Art Car by Gustav Troger that featured numerous mirrors festooned to the car inside and out https://www.stuttgartmarketletter.com/

‘90s Turbos continue to be the pick in the modern classic market as prices keep heading upward. 964s continued to gain momentum with two sales around the $200k mark for 3.3-liter cars and two 3.6-liter cars hovering around $300k. The big money, however, was reserved for two very special 964s, the first our overall top sale for February, the 1993 911 Turbo S “Leichbau” mentioned above and a rare 1994 911 Turbo S 3.6 X83 Flachbau that sold for $505,000. Not to be outdone, 993 Turbos hovered around the $200k mark with a 24,000-mile 1998 Turbo S hitting $502,858 in Paris. Had this car sold in the US market it certainly had the potential for another $100k.

Other notable modern classic sales (and no sales) from the past month, include a rare 2010 911 Sport Classic which sold for $611,250, a salvage title Carrera GT that failed to sell with a final bid of $600,000, and a 2011 GT3 RS 4.0 that failed to sell at $785,250. The Sport Classic is a rare bird as they were never offered for sale here in the US and any cars that end up here are brought in under Show & Display laws. Being that this car was already imported into the US, had gone through EPA updates, and had only 386 miles, the car was well deserving of its selling price. The Carrera GT failing to sell was not a surprise as a salvage title car is one thing, but a salvage titled carbon-tubbed supercar is probably asking for trouble. The RS 4.0 though was bid to a market correct price for a delivery mileage example. More money is reserved for much rarer Black and PTS cars. This one should have sold.

All in another solid month of results for Porsches, again outperforming the overall market sell-through rate with a strong 73% and a total dollar volume of $33,527,283. Looking ahead to March, it comes in like a lion with the Amelia Island auctions kicking off the first of the month offering lots from four different auction houses for the first time. I’ll be there in all of the action and will report back next month. Until then.