I'm Wrong A Lot: Steve McQueen's Porsche Fetches Nearly $2M

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Steve McQueen’s 1976 Porsche 911 Turbo Carrera fetched $1.95 million at auction, according to Hemmings Daily.

The specially ordered, air-cooled turbo Porsche had a few cool factory features including dual mirrors, limited-slip differential, black leather buckets and the original tag with McQueen’s custom-ordered slate gray color still riveted to the door jamb.

Considering a fine 1976 Porsche 930 with 64,000 miles on the clock went for nearly $300,000, I figured the auction for charity of McQueen’s car would fetch around the same.

I’m wrong. I can admit that to you now.

Proceeds from the auction will go to Boys Republic, a school in Chino Hills, California, that helps at-risk youth.

Beyond owning the last car that McQueen reportedly special ordered, the new Porsche 930 owner will get the added benefit of having a kill-switch for the rear lights, in case they’re being followed at night like McQueen.

The car was reportedly “refreshed” in the 1990s, which means that not all the cars that went for mega-money this weekend were unrestored Ferraris.



Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Brock_Landers Brock_Landers on Aug 19, 2015

    Complaining about unfair/uncorrect/overvalued market price is kinda funny. The market is always right - if two individuals agree on a price and the deal is done, then this is the correct value of the item. I think classic car market crashes only after 20 or 30 years when generation x dies. They are the last generation who has experinced the cult of automobile. Millenials (generation wuss) have no interest in cars except the multimedia part. I think in 30-40 years we will see unpacked first generation iphones selling for millions of dollars.

  • Sprocketboy Sprocketboy on Aug 19, 2015

    I think the $2 million reflects a lot of charity-giving rather than the real value of the car. A few months ago I watched an auction of a car restored in Jay Leno's shop (I can't remember--a 50s Buick, maybe?) and it went for a startling amount of money because it was for a charitable cause. The car has since come up at auction and has gone for a normal price you would expect, like $50,000 vs over $200,000. Of course Steve McQueen was notable for motorcycles and some of his have sold for record amounts as well including a great 1915 Cyclone board track bike that went for $775,000 in March. So while there is a celebrity premium there is also one for McQueen-as-motorhead.

  • Varezhka I have still yet to see a Malibu on the road that didn't have a rental sticker. So yeah, GM probably lost money on every one they sold but kept it to boost their CAFE numbers.I'm personally happy that I no longer have to dread being "upgraded" to a Maxima or a Malibu anymore. And thankfully Altima is also on its way out.
  • Tassos Under incompetent, affirmative action hire Mary Barra, GM has been shooting itself in the foot on a daily basis.Whether the Malibu cancellation has been one of these shootings is NOT obvious at all.GM should be run as a PROFITABLE BUSINESS and NOT as an outfit that satisfies everybody and his mother in law's pet preferences.IF the Malibu was UNPROFITABLE, it SHOULD be canceled.More generally, if its SEGMENT is Unprofitable, and HALF the makers cancel their midsize sedans, not only will it lead to the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ones, but the survivors will obviously be more profitable if the LOSERS were kept being produced and the SMALL PIE of midsize sedans would yield slim pickings for every participant.SO NO, I APPROVE of the demise of the unprofitable Malibu, and hope Nissan does the same to the Altima, Hyundai with the SOnata, Mazda with the Mazda 6, and as many others as it takes to make the REMAINING players, like the Excellent, sporty Accord and the Bulletproof Reliable, cheap to maintain CAMRY, more profitable and affordable.
  • GregLocock Car companies can only really sell cars that people who are new car buyers will pay a profitable price for. As it turns out fewer and fewer new car buyers want sedans. Large sedans can be nice to drive, certainly, but the number of new car buyers (the only ones that matter in this discussion) are prepared to sacrifice steering and handling for more obvious things like passenger and cargo space, or even some attempt at off roading. We know US new car buyers don't really care about handling because they fell for FWD in large cars.
  • Slavuta Why is everybody sweating? Like sedans? - go buy one. Better - 2. Let CRV/RAV rust on the dealer lot. I have 3 sedans on the driveway. My neighbor - 2. Neighbors on each of our other side - 8 SUVs.
  • Theflyersfan With sedans, especially, I wonder how many of those sales are to rental fleets. With the exception of the Civic and Accord, there are still rows of sedans mixed in with the RAV4s at every airport rental lot. I doubt the breakdown in sales is publicly published, so who knows... GM isn't out of the sedan business - Cadillac exists and I can't believe I'm typing this but they are actually decent - and I think they are making a huge mistake, especially if there's an extended oil price hike (cough...Iran...cough) and people want smaller and hybrids. But if one is only tied to the quarterly shareholder reports and not trends and the big picture, bad decisions like this get made.
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