Words: John Mayhead, Hagerty | Photography: Collecting Cars
Last weekend saw an extraordinary single-owner sale take place on online sales platform Collecting Cars. The Leonard Collection was a group of 38 vehicles that included some of the most iconic racing-derived Porsche models of the past 50 years, plus some very interesting additions including a couple of motorcycles and even a light tank.
Closing on May 16, the sale achieved a phenomenal return for the vendor, a total (after commission) in excess of £7.5m. The top sale was a 2006 Porsche Carrera GT selling at £771,000, followed by a beautiful 1973 2.7RS that sold for £430,000.
Although most of the lots fell roughly around Hagerty’s condition no.2 (Excellent) value, it was notable that seven exceeded the condition no.1 (Concours) value. This is unusual, as we set this bar very high; the value is what we’d expect for the very best and most original examples in the country.
A number of lots included duplicates of models, and it was also interesting to compare how the market values different specifications and, especially, mileage. Three Porsche 964 Carrera RS examples were sold, all left-hand drive. Mileage was the big differentiator; one with just 164km from new sold for an extraordinary £386,000, some 46 percent over the Hagerty condition no.1 value of £265,000. Another, this time with 40,000km on the clock, sold for £237,500, and one with 110,000km went for £175,000.
It was the same story with two 997 GT3 RS 4.0 models. One, with a mere 713 miles, sold for an astounding £436,000, and the other, with a still-fresh 8898 miles, went for a relatively conservative £272,500. The other difference with these cars was that the former was an extremely rare C16 UK-spec model.
Two Ferrari F512M models also achieved very different results. One, in right-hand drive with 14,372 miles, sold for £274,000 – some 12 percent above our top Hagerty Price Guide price of £245,000. The other, a left-hand-drive example with 40,000km on the clock, which has just emerged from recent storage, found just £168,500 – a shade above our condition no.3 value of £159,000.
So, how will this affect the market? In general, not a great deal, although it creates a precedent for those models that achieved new record prices. More generally, it reinforces the pattern that we’ve seen emerging over the past 18 months, of high-quality, media-driven online sales featuring a mix of older and newer collectable cars, gaining all the headlines and attracting very active bidders. As the summer approaches and restrictions lift, it will be fascinating to see whether the online market maintains its phenomenal momentum.
This report was provided by Magneto partners Hagerty.
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