Porsche 959 Crashes Before Auction

Wrecked just before being sold, how can this hot mess still be worth $467,500?

The Porsche 959 was widely regarded to be the most advanced supercar of its time. When it released in 1986 it was the fastest production street-legal car in the world with a top speed of 198 mph. They’re highly sought after, rare and legendary which would explain why they’re still worth $467,500 even when completely smashed up.

The classic supercar was actually on its way to the auction when it was completely ruined! The seller was expecting to sell their Porsche 959 for around $1.3 million, but fate had another thing planned. The car was basically brand new with only 3,657 miles on the clock and in mint condition. However, as the car was in transit, the trailer broke free from the vehicle, resulting in it hurtling itself off-road and straight into a tree.

The damage was so severe that the end result was a 3 wheeled Porsche with an unrecognisable face. Far from its original beauty, the 959 had 2 trolley wheels attached to where the missing wheel should be, and it was rolled out to the auction. Despite it looking like a total wreck, it still sold for nearly half a million dollars meaning that bidders clearly saw the bright side. After all, the engine was unharmed as it’s in the rear, it drove perfectly (minus the lack of a wheel) and the rear of the car was still in pristine condition.

(Mecum Auctions)

This 1987 Porsche 959 Komfort was one of 294 and back in the days when it was new it would of cost around $230,000. So if the owner was lucky enough to have bought it back then, they would have still made about $237,000 profit by selling it as a wreck 30 years later! The “Komfort” spec includes adjustable suspension and interestingly, this particular car was originally sold in Japan and the gauges were swapped out so that they read in miles rather than kilometers.

If you think $467,000 sounds like a lot, a 1988 959 sold for $1,732,500 in 2015 at a Pebble Beach (California) auction and a 959 Sport from the same year sold for $2,093,280 in 2017 at an auction in Paris. So it’s no surprise that one which has been crashed into a tree still sells for the price of 5 or 6 new Porsche 911s.

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