The range on Elferspot is exceptionally broad this week. At the accessible end, there’s a Boxster 25 Years with a manual gearbox and just 6,699 miles. At the other sits a 1959 356 A Carrera GT, a road-registerable competition car from the years when Porsche was still working out what a GT car should be. In between is a Glacier White 993 Turbo carrying the factory upgrade to 430 PS.
As usual, we’ve kept the history to what explains each car. The interesting part is the specification of the individual example, and all three have one worth talking about.
2021 Porsche 718 Boxster 25 Years With a Six-Speed Manual
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If you remember how Porsche presented the Boxster 25 Years at launch, this one will look familiar. It wears the anniversary model’s signature combination of GT Silver Metallic paint, Bordeaux Red leather, a matching red fabric roof and Neodyme-colored exterior details. Those colors deliberately reference the 1993 Boxster concept, so the car reads as a 25 Years from across a parking lot without needing an unusual Paint to Sample choice.
The part enthusiasts will care about most is the gearbox. This example has the six-speed manual rather than PDK. Because the 25 Years was based on the 718 Boxster GTS 4.0, the manual is paired with the naturally aspirated 4.0-liter flat-six, rated at 394 hp in US specification and driving the rear wheels. PASM Sport suspension and Porsche Torque Vectoring with a mechanical limited-slip differential were standard. Porsche built 1,250 of these worldwide, and a manual car is the version I’d want.
The options lean toward grand touring. The Premium Package brings ventilated seats, BOSE Surround Sound, Porsche Entry & Drive, Lane Change Assist and the Light Design Package, and the car also has power-folding mirrors, Power Steering Plus and body-colored supplemental safety bars. Front paint-protection film is already on. As for the odometer, 6,699 miles is low enough to matter to a collector but not so low that you’d feel guilty adding a few more. West Coast Exotic Cars in Murrieta, California, is asking USD 124,990.
1997 Porsche 911 Turbo WLS1 in Glacier White
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Glacier White over black leather is about as understated as a 993 Turbo gets, and at 14,732 miles, this one is unusually clean before you even reach the important line on the spec sheet. That line reads 430 PS. It’s Porsche’s factory WLS1 power upgrade, and it’s what separates this car from an already special group.
The 993 Turbo brought two major changes to the Turbo line at once: twin turbochargers and permanent all-wheel drive. Porsche initially rated the 3.6-liter flat-six at 408 PS, then began offering a factory performance upgrade to 430 PS from the 1996 model year. Those extra 22 PS mattered at the top end. In period, the WLS Turbo was even faster flat out than the contemporary 430-PS GT2, with Porsche quoting 297 km/h, or about 185 mph.
Everything else is classic 993 Turbo, including the six-speed manual and all-wheel drive. A standard car is already one of the defining Porsches of the final air-cooled generation. The factory upgrade narrows the field considerably, and the color and mileage make this a car for the collector who prefers quiet. Ryan Friedman Motor Cars in Glen Cove, New York, has it listed with price on application, so you’ll need to make a call.
1959 Porsche 356 A Carrera GT in Ruby Red
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Ruby Red over black sounds almost conventional for a 356. Then you get to the aluminum panels and the four-cam engine. This 1959 356 A Carrera GT was delivered new in Europe and is presented in its original Ruby Red 5702/Reutter 702 color configuration, and its Kardex file comes with the car.
Lightness was the whole idea. Porsche used aluminum for the doors, front hood and engine lid, fitted lightweight alloy wheels and Perspex windows, and swapped the usual window mechanisms for simple leather straps. Bucket seats and thin felt carpeting followed the same thinking, and the dealer states that the Carrera GT was roughly 200 pounds lighter than the GS. For 1959, it also received an enlarged version of Ernst Fuhrmann’s four-cam flat-four, now 1,587 cc and good for roughly 115 to 120 hp depending on which period figure you go by. The model kept its Carrera GS lineage in the name even after the engine grew past the original 1.5 liters.
What strikes me is how familiar the formula feels. Porsche sold the Carrera GT as a road-registerable competition car alongside the more comfortable Carrera de Luxe, and anyone who has followed the GT3 and GT3 RS will recognize the thinking. Porsche was working it out decades before either existed. The seller says just 31 Carrera GTs were produced. We’ll leave that figure with them, but this car’s rarity hardly needs help. Animoya Garage in Pontiac, Michigan, is asking USD 750,000.
