Some weeks the three cars line up so neatly you could write the headline before you write the piece. A color story, a Paint to Sample run, a decade. This week refused to cooperate. What came out of the Elferspot listings was a Guards Red air-cooled Turbo, a silver 904 with a competition record most museums would envy, and a black 911 Dakar. On paper, nothing connects them.
Spend a few minutes with each one, and the link shows up anyway. Not one of these cars tells you what it is from twenty feet away. The Turbo reads as a nice red 993 until you get into the option codes. The 904 reads as a 904 until you read the entry lists. The Dakar has quietly declined the livery that sells most of them. All three keep the interesting material below the surface, in the paperwork, the build sheet, or the seats, and that is exactly the kind of car worth slowing down for.
1964 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, Chassis 080
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Chassis 904-080 does not need the usual preamble about why the 904 matters. Gianni Bulgari watched Briggs Cunningham race one at Sebring in early 1964, then bought this car straight from Porsche that spring. Weeks later, he and Maurizio Grana were leading the Targa Florio outright before suspension damage ended the run. Porsche repaired the car at the factory, and in June, Bulgari took it to the old Mugello road circuit and won. There was a win at Vallelunga too, and further podiums, before the car crossed the Atlantic and Sam Posey got hold of it. In February 1966, Posey shared 080 with Jim Haynes and Harry Theodoracopulos for eleventh overall at the Daytona 24 Hours. Racing Sports Cars records period entries at all of it independently, which matters, because history this good is worth checking rather than repeating.
The present-day picture is just as interesting. The car has stayed with its current owner since 1988, was inspected by Porsche specialist Jochen Bader in May of this year, and is now European-tax-paid and road registered. It also comes with two engines. A RUF-rebuilt six-cylinder is fitted for use, while the original-style Typ 587/3 four-cam, rebuilt by Dr. Pohl, comes with the car. Be honest about what that means: the four-cam is central to the whole 904 concept, the bonded fiberglass body over a pressed-steel chassis, Porsche's first production car built that way, and the six in the back is a practicality decision rather than a purist one. Some buyers will want it swapped back on day one. Others will drive it exactly as it sits and be glad of it. Porsche records 106 four-cylinder cars, and this is one of the ones with a story attached, so the argument is really about how you plan to use it, not whether it is worth having.
1995 Porsche 911 Turbo WLS1
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Guards Red on an air-cooled 911 is not news. What sits underneath it here is. This 993 Turbo left the factory in December 1995 with the X50/WLS1 power package, which took the 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six to 430 PS through a six-speed manual and all-wheel drive, and Porsche confirms that increase arrived with the 1996 model year. It was then specified further through Porsche Exclusive: XD7 for the front strut brace, XD9 for body-colored wheel centers, X70 for the stainless steel Exclusive door sills, with codes 09971 and 09981 marking the Exclusive build itself. That is a much more deliberate order than a standard Turbo with a power upgrade bolted to it. The seller states 183 factory X50 cars were built. Worth keeping attributed to them rather than treating as a settled production figure.
The documentation does real work rather than just filling a folder. The car was collected at the factory in Stuttgart on December 4, 1995, saw early service at Sportwagen-Center Schmidt + Koch in Bremen, and picked up an Approved Used warranty from Porsche Zentrum Hamburg in 1999. Porsche specialists handled it after that; the stamped booklet is still with the car, and a pre-sale service this year included new Michelin Pilot Sports. It shows 108,000 kilometers, has matching numbers, is accident-free, was supplied new in German-market C00 specification, and the seller describes the paint as original. That last point is the one that carries the price, and it is also the one to look at closely in person, because original paint at this mileage is a claim worth verifying with your own eyes. If it holds up, the appeal is straightforward. Factory WLS1, Exclusive specification, matching numbers and original finish rarely turn up in the same car.
2023 Porsche 911 Dakar
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Most Dakars introduce themselves from the far end of the parking lot. This one does not. Finished in plain Black L041 with the Rallye Design graphics left off, it puts the whole job on the raised ride height, the all-terrain tires and the bodywork, and it works. The mechanical package is unchanged: 480 PS from the 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six, eight-speed PDK, all-wheel drive, off-road chassis tuning and Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tires, riding 50 millimeters higher than a Carrera on sports suspension, with another 30 available from the lift system. Production stopped at 2,500. Those numbers are useful here mainly because they explain why a black car with no livery still looks nothing like a regular 992.
The restraint stops at the door handle. Inside are carbon full buckets with checked fabric centers, the same material in the door inserts, and sill inscriptions reading "In doubt, never lift" and "Are you sure?". Add the carbon roof, Sport Chrono Plus, PDCC, darkened Matrix LED headlights, heated sports steering wheel, surround-view camera, and roof rack preparation. One owner, German delivery, built in November 2023 as a 2024 model year car, first registered that January, accident-free and matching numbers per the listing, with a fresh service from Porsche Heilbronn in August. The catch, if you want to call it one, is the 11,950 kilometers on the clock, which puts it outside the delivery-mileage bracket collectors tend to chase. I would argue that is the point. This is a Dakar that someone has actually used, kept up to date at Porsche, and specified with a sense of humor rather than a spec sheet aimed at resale.
