It isn’t usually you get two family names in a single headline, however that is what occurred at Mecum’s annual collector vehicle public sale season kickstarter in Florida this week, with a who’s who of motorsport stacking the provenance of the identical automotive.
Mecum’s Kissimmee public sale all the time throws up a serious headline act, and this 12 months it was a double act as two of leisure’s most resonant names are actually related to the identical car … and it was on the market … at an undisclosed reserve worth.
The Porsche in query was the star automotive in Steve McQueen’s famous 1971 movie Le Mans – a film so iconic and compelling that it most certainly has performed a job within the lifetime of anybody who grew up aspiring to take part in motor sport within the final half century.
Jerry Seinfeld is one other deeply cherished entertainer who has collected Porsches and indulged his motorsport passions like few others. Elevated to billionaire standing by Bloomberg in compiling it is 2024 Wealthy Listing, some studies quantity his assortment at 150+ automobiles, and as one of many world’s best-known and highest-earning celebrities, he has been growing one of many world’s finest Porsche Collections for a number of many years.
RM Sotheby’s
Seinfeld is clearly a fan of McQueen’s Le Mans film, as he has owned each of the star automobiles from the film. In 2011 he paid US$1,375,000 for the Porsche 911 pushed by McQueen within the three-minute opening sequence of the movie.
Bidding in Kissimmee for the McQueen Le Mans Porsche 917K started with one of many highest bids ever positioned on a Porsche at public sale – $15 million. That was the place the bidding stopped when the Gulf Oil #22 automotive (chassis 917-031/026) from the film (the automotive that gained the film race) went to auction at RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction in 2021, however that automotive had an official estimate of $16 to $18.5 million and the bidding stopped $1 million in need of the $16 million that we presume would have had it accepted.
The one different time a Porsche has reached such grand bids at public sale was when the original Porsche Type 64, built by Ferdinand Porsche in 1939, opened with a bid of $13 million and progressed in million-dollar increments to $17 million, whereas the public sale show learn “$30 million” … then “$40 million” … then “$50 million” … then “$60 million” … then “$70 million” … then the public sale bought referred to as off, so we’re undecided if these bids actually matter.
Photo voltaic Productions
Bidding for Steve McQueen’s 917K in Kissimmee proceeded in million-dollar increments from $15 million till it reached $25 million, then stopped.
If the $25-million bid had been accepted, the bidder would have paid a ten% purchaser’s payment to make the overall price $27.5 million, and this automotive would have earned a spot within the 10 most expensive cars of all time.
Jerry would have taken residence the $25-million hammer worth minus a vendor’s payment, often in the identical order of magnitude as the customer’s payment, maybe a bit much less in case you’re a valued buyer with one of many world’s most interesting automotive collections. As an instance he is charged 7% of the $25-million hammer worth, that equates to $1,750,000.
Therefore the frictional losses of an elite public sale sale could make a number of distinction – $27.5 million is paid and the vendor will get $23.25 million, plus he is simply spent a king’s ransom getting it restored to precisely because it was when it starred on this planet’s most genuine motorsport movie. In bringing the automotive again to new, an unique Porsche 917 gasoline cell was fabricated, the body was pressure-tested, repaired as mandatory and repainted, and the brakes and suspension had been magnafluxed and refurbished too.
Mecum
Jerry Seinfeld started his romance with this automotive in 2001 when he privately acquired it from one other well-known Porsche collector, Frank Gallogly. Gallogly had bought the automotive for $1,320,000 (inc purchaser’s premium) at RM Sotheby’s Monterey public sale in 2000.
Following the filming of the film, Porsche Chassis #917-022 was bought by Reinhold Joest and raced throughout 1971 by Joest, Jo Siffert and others. Joest’s provenance is nearly as vital as Seinfeld’s within the context of this automotive, as he would go on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans 15 occasions in roles various from driver to proprietor, and have become the ‘go-to man’ for endurance racing excellence in all its guises. He’s one in every of motorsport’s all-time greats, and he offered it to good friend and Porsche manufacturing unit driver Brian Redman who offered it to good friend and Le Mans-winning Porsche 917K driver Richard Attwood in 1977.
Attwood refinished #917-022 within the purple and white 1970 Salzburg 917K paintwork during which he secured Porsche’s first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That is fairly a narrative if you concentrate on it. The guy who really gained Le Mans in 1970 (the place the film was primarily filmed), driving an an identical Porsche 917K, then went out and acquired this automotive, the McQueen automotive that completed second within the race within the film.
Mecum
Attwood repeatedly campaigned 917-022 in his personal colours in European historic racing occasions all through his 23-year possession, however returned the automotive to its Gulf Oil film persona previous to RM Sotheby’s 2000 Monterey public sale the place it fetched $1,320,000 (inc purchaser’s premium).
If the $25-million bid had been accepted in Kissimmee, this Porsche would have turn into the costliest Porsche of all-time. The earlier most costly Porsche was one in every of this automotive’s sister automobiles from the film – 917-024 fetched $14.08 million in 2017, so this automotive would have practically doubled the file worth for a Porsche at public sale.
Gooding & Co
Porsche was constructing beautiful light-weight sports activities automobiles lengthy earlier than the 917K got here alongside, however the incidence of drivers who drove one in interval who then went and acquired one later in life is an fascinating correlation. The automotive that presently holds the Porsche file was commissioned as Jo Siffert’s street automotive for a big interval of its life.
Much more fascinating is that the three of the 4 highest bids ever made on a Porsche at public sale are the three Gulf Oil automobiles from the film – $25 million (917-022 | not accepted), $15 million (917-020 | not accepted) and $14.08 million (917-024 | accepted).
Following its breakthrough win in 1970, Porsche gained the world’s most well-known race once more in 1971, then 1976-1977, 1979 and from 1982 yearly to 1987. The one different Porsche ever to promote for greater than $10 million at public sale got here from this following interval of dominance.
Gooding & Firm
