Hard to compute this wasn't long ago

[squirdan]

I know lots will remember the Milou auction

Some newer DDKers probably won't know of it

Astounding to think about the prices.. I mean honestly a slate grey 2.2S ex Jo Siffert, in immaculate condition AND with a spare engine! A grade A unbelievable bargain but that's hindsight

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[woznot]

I seem to remember , but cannot place the year , - do remember thought 2.7 RS LHD going for 28K back in 93

[911MRP]

If we had known we would have bought more cars and snapped other such things up when they cost beans.

The rampant price rises of classic car market is relatively recent. I'm fortunate that I bought my British market first 500 RHD 72 RS in the early nineties, (one of only 51 of that initial 500 homologation series were allocated to UK /RHD that famously had sold out by Paris launch in first week of October 1972)

Regarding my recollection of the market back in early nineties (prompted by prior post): these cars and some other classics had been fetching much higher prices shortly before that time, but things dipped.

Seeing that dip, I figured that RS was attainable again, a fun and historically interesting road-racing model so probably wouldn't depreciate like the 'then moderns, I could have bought with similar money ....maybe even appreciate again, but I obviously didn't foresee the latest hockey-stick price appreciation.

When I bought my car hardly anyone knew or cared what the RS model was and ferreting out the nuances and details of the model and conversion orders among a few cognoscenti and long term owners was all part of the fun. This was before the RS book and internet created much wider awareness. My wife bought the matching to number first series RS book for me as a surprise Christmas present when it came out in 93 IIRC. She rang AFN and asked them for the matching number book in English but was told not possible / too hard by the disinterested member of staff so she in intrepidly tracked down Dr K in Austria (pre widespread use of internet) and arranged matching copy to be shipped. There had been a flier about book in the club magazine and I may have left it lying around;)

i won't be disclosing what I paid for this car...but Nick Faure still winces when I remind him. Certainly not bought for speculative reasons but despite being an enthusiast and enjoying it -- still surprises me that have now owned the car for over half its life. For some of the time used as my everyday car going food shopping at Tesco and taking the kids to school every day, done events including track that sometimes involved some off the old reprobates who frequent here, at other times car just not used ...particularly becase I had other sportscars through my work or was just too busy.

I know some folks on this forum have probaly had similar cars for longer and I've heard the story from a friend who sold one very hard used and abused M471 for four figure sum ...so "fortunate buys" and " should never have sold" tales are all relative.

These days a small pile of a few well chosen "bits and bobs" from the former Milou collection of Automobilia and a few orphan original nos parts for RS would cost more than I paid for the whole original and complete car along with its tools, extensive history file and other literature back then. All a bit mad frankly, but arguably still nothing extreme by notable classic Ferrari market standards.

Throughout I have resisted the temptation to do the default full nut and bolt bare metal restoration -- it makes cars pretty and shiny -- but it can remove original patina, character and authentic features; so my car remains relativly original.

I'm in the process of very thoroughly determining and documenting the genuine surviving parts of the original car by examinining all the part by part evidence to determine provenance -- a process that is triggered by the Simeone Foundation book on "automobile stewardship" that I'm reading. Encouraging to see virtually all of date stamped coded as well as the early RS specific stuff is all still there. Also traced each of the (less than a handful) of prior owners as well as the original selling dealer principal who have kindly provided letters, photos , information and so forth to supplement the file.

Proving to be an interesting and educational exercise even for car I've had for quite a long time and traced back to prior to first registration.


S

[Barry]

Great post .

[sladey]

+1

[Bootsy]

+ 2

[911MRP]

I seem to remember , but cannot place the year , - do remember thought 2.7 RS LHD going for 28K back in 93

You might be right but that figure seems rather high to me IIRC ...

A RHD M471, one of the first handful imported to the UK still with less than 60,000 miles and Irish rallying competition history then rebuilt in mid 70s was available to buy for around £38,000 in the autumn of 1996. M472s, even a first 500 car with its lighter panels etc, were around for lower than that figure -- and by 96 they had already risen again from the 90s lowest point (obviously excluding the really low points back when I was a kid).

In the late 80s classic car market, some examples of RS fetched £100,000 before the price dip in the Beginning of 90s due to the economic slump.

By way of comparison, in 1990, a brand new 944S was around £34,000 before any extras fitted so presumably many of the new 944S left the showroom with typical extras at or above an old 73 RS money. A new 944 probaly (and certainly a 911 new / nearly new buyer) could easily have chosen an old RS. The new 944S used for this comparison would have started its depreciation day one, afaik the RS hasn't depreciated since -- in fact the may not look back -- even if a major correction ever happened again is the model ever going back to those lows?

Things have changed. As stated in a previous post, the 73 RS was a famous past model but rather niche in early nineties, even to many Porsche fans /performance car enthusiasts. There was a significantly smaller following (the owner-expert/model-knowledge network was mainly through personal connections to certain fonts of knowledge at factory and other places and the international RS registry activity plus the RS book cataloguing the examples were all emerging back then).

Certainly not an obscure model, because they had achieved prominence starting in 70s rsulting those high-values in late 80s classic market but it was certainly very different situation in early nineties to today's very widespread general knowledge of the RS model and its details from all the Internet, books, specialist magazines, forum and even the regular press.

Hindsight has shown it was good time to buy an example of what was aproaching a 20 year old 911 classic (vs such similar priced new Porsche alternatives and the then widespread new BMW craze). Majority of my twenty-something year-old friends bought new BMWs and thought I was rather odd running around in a noisy 20 year old car. (Particularly for a short while it was my only road-car).

Looking back it is easy to ask why people didn't snap these cars and other things up for a song. I'd suggest then the RS was a somewhat oddball alternative given the fashion of that era and those economic times. A contrarian choice for those who appreciated the model as a superb driving car in its own right and had a sense of its engineering, it's place in the Porsche marque story and knew of the international racing success followed by club racing it enjoyed against later heavier cars.

Doubt many who bought one of them back then was a financial "Speculator" when they spent on an example (what seem low sums by today's standards) but back then the sort of money that could have bought a nice good quality brand new warrantied "yuppie" car of the type that was quite prevalent and the done thing, even during the 90s slump. Jumping in to such a car off the back of the bursting classic car bubble wasn't an obvious financially motivated move. Buying a car with some unobtainable rare bits that was likley to cost big money to run and a big risk if it's mechanicals went bang or it required tin worm remedy. One that was rather niche and quite unknown beyond the enthusiastic (borderline anorak?) few -- so little widespread kudos was to be had down the pub vs the friends and neighbours shiny new Beemer. Arguably buying a roughly several decades' old 911 especially an RS might've been viewed as a rather odd / mad move by bloody-minded enthusiasts "led by the heart not head" back then.

It probably only looks like a financially shrewd move now if viewed through the rear view mirror given the now widespread appreciation of the what is interesting and special about the model, the market and a good measure of luck.

Haven't posted much here to date. I'm responding following post on RS price in early 90s because it happens to be something I actually did ...but I'm sure folks here have parallel experiences about this and other 911 models?

Just a few of my recollections and my tuppence worth...others probably know more and can recall further back.

Cheers
S