Is it too late to buy a Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7?

The Discovery Channel recently singled out the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 as the best car in which to have invested over the past 10 years, with an average price increase of 669%. So is it too late to buy one? We ask the experts…

Despite initially being built to satisfy the Group 4 homologation requirement of 500 units, theCarrera RS 2.7  soon proved popular with enthusiasts – Porsche responded to demand by increasing the price and building a further 1,080 cars. Four decades later and that demand is stronger than ever: one of the 200 ‘Lightweight’ (officially known as Option M471 Sport) variants famously sold for $1.42m at auction earlier this year.

While the result at Gooding’s Amelia Island sale might have made the headlines, the ducktailed Porsche had been enjoying a steady rise in values for the previous 15 years. “The RS has been one of those indicative cars of the market’s boom and downturn period, much like the Dino or theDaytona,” says Tim Schofield, Director of Motor Cars at Bonhams. “I remember in the late 1990s, an RS might fetch the same £30,000 as a Dino, with Daytonas between £60,000 and 90,000. Now, the Porsche commands the same or more than a Daytona.”

Fall in line

“There’s always going to be one car that causes quite a considerable spike in values; the deck of cards gets shuffled and all the others rise in line,” continues Schofield. Classic Driver even heard of one dealer adding £200,000 to the selling price of an RS he had in stock the day after the staggering auction result – and sold it almost immediately.

“The Gooding result certainly affected the values and set the precedent to a degree,” says Dylan Miles of Fiskens, who has handled the sale of five RS 2.7s in the last 12 months. “But values have been steadily rising simply because it’s such a good driver’s car. It’s incredibly tractable and usable – more so than any other car I can think of from that period, in fact.”

The archetypal driver's car

“Obviously, a Lightweight is the Holy Grail,” continues Dylan Miles, “but I think one of the first 500 Touring models is almost as desirable, as they used thinner-gauge steel and were lighter than the later cars.” Regardless of which variant you choose, the buyer’s emphasis should focus on finding a genuine car: the rise in values has led to several non-original RSs being marketed as the genuine article.

Of course, there’s no way of telling where RS 2.7 values are heading in the future – but considering the car’s eminence at the forefront of the collector car market, prices should theoretically hold steady as long as the market remains healthy. Just don’t spend your time watching every auction result – you’re better off revelling in the excellence of one of the best driver’s cars ever built, and you might well enjoy a nice surprise when it’s time to sell.

Photos: Bonhams