Porsche Speedster stars in $5.7m single-collection sale

By Lizzie Pope

| 1 Oct 2019

Classic & Sports Car – Porsche Speedster stars in $5.7m single-collection sale

A 1957 Porsche 356A Carrera GT Speedster by Reutter was the top lot at Saturday’s (28 September) RM Sotheby’s Taj Ma Garaj Collection sale, selling for $1,380,000 (£1,122,285).

The no-reserve auction in Ohio comprised late collector John Dixon’s garage of 32 mainly Porsche and Volkswagen vehicles – including some particularly unusual examples – plus 356 items of memorabilia.

Every single one of the cars sold, and unsurprisingly, the top 12 were all products of Zuffenhausen. And while the 356A fell short of its $1.5-2m guide price, it still ended up being the highest-priced lot by a whopping $968,000.

Clockwise from top: 1957 Porsche 356A Carrera GT Speedster by Reutter; 1997 Porsche 911 turbo Coupé; Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring

Dixon’s partially restored 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring was the second priciest item sold on Saturday, achieving $412,000 (£335,000) – comfortably within its $400-450,000 estimate.

A unique 1997 911 turbo Coupé that was a special order by Dixon and has done a mere 2569 miles was even more successful, sailing past its $225-275,000 guide price and changing hands for $368,000 (£300,000).

Clockwise from top: Porsche 356 Limousine Custom; Mangosta Sport Buggy; Volkswagen “Casa Linda Lace”

And that wasn’t the only special lot. In fact far from it.

For starters, Dixon’s one-off, astonishing-looking Porsche 356 Limousine found a new home for $207,200 (£168,000), well within its $150-250,000 estimate.

The top non-Porsche, meanwhile, was a metallic brown 1971 Mangosta Sport Buggy, which sold for $106,400 (£86,000), in the process smashing its $50-75,000 guide price.

There was success, too, for the intricately styled 1970 Volkswagen “Casa Linda Lace” by Rafael Esparza-Prieto, which reached $78,400 (£63,000) against its $40-60,000 estimate.

(l-r) 1957 Beetle Outlaw; 1958 Porsche 356A van

However, the jaw-dropping ’57 Beetle Outlaw only just crept over its lower – $40,000 – estimate when the hammer came down at $40,320 (£32,000), and the unique 1958 Porsche 356A van fell well short of its $100-150,000 estimate at $86,800 (£70,000).

Check out the full results here.

Images: Darin Schnabel/RM Sotheby’s

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