Two Air-Cooled Porsches into One Great Air-Cooled Porsche - Part 1

In the quest for a new Air-Cooled Porsche with the loss of my cherished all-original from new 1986 Meteor Grey 911 Carrera 3.2, I realized that I had an opportunity.  I had just sold my 1968 Sports Purpose 911 for a tad under $100,000 and I had an insurance payoff of close to the same amount for the ’86. I now had a budget of $200,000 to acquire whatever I wanted.

Author's 1968 Sports Purpose 911 and 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2

Instead of replacing the collection with two nice air-cooled Porsches, it was decided to pursue one unique, collectible car. The first decision was what model of air-cooled Porsche?  After two wrecks (that were not my fault) in the past year after 54 years of accident-free driving, Linda asked that I look for a car with more safety features than the previous models that I had owned and loved.

This drove me to a choice of a 964 or a 993 since they were the air-cooled Porsches that offer ABS and Air Bags.  I am convinced that with a modern ABS braking system I would have avoided the accident in my ’86 when the Chevrolet turned right in front of me.

I immediately decided on the 964 as I saw the styling more reminiscent of the original air-cooled cars.  I had never driven one so I was hoping the drive was also more reminiscent of the original than a 993’s that I have driven.  The 993 is a great car, but as I have described, it is a “Modern Air-Cooled Porsche” more akin to the new generation of water-cooled Porsches than the early 911’s.

 The goal was set to either acquire a one-of-a-kind color 964 or finally acquire the 1993 911 RS America that I had always desired.  When the 964 was originally launched it was unloved, but now that Singer has started buying them up and converting them to Singers the prices have climbed. 

A unique color 964 is going to cost $125,000 or more while an RS America will cost $150,000 - $200,000.  I have the money, so let’s start the search. 

1993 Cobalt Blue Porsche 964 C4

My initial search was to go to sites that I knew might offer a quality car.  Right away I identified a 1993 Cobalt Blue 964 C4 at Dick Barbour Performance in Atlanta.  Fellow Air Brigade member, Allen Peerson and I arranged for a quick trip to Atlanta to see and drive the car.

The Cobalt Blue is stunning and the car drove extremely well.  The big surprise was the efficiency of the Air Conditioning, a feature that I had not even considered with an Air-Cooled Porsche.  I liked the car, but I didn’t buy for several reasons:

It was the first car I was looking at and half the fun is the search, so how could I buy the first car I saw.

It was a nice car, but for the price ($139,000) it had some issues; nothing major, but I just didn’t think at that price the issues should have been present.

The model was the C4, all-wheel drive that is heavier and not as nimble driving experience as a C2 model (rear-wheel, two-wheel drive).

When shopping, it is always helpful to have a friend/expert to provide the sane rational analysis of the car so the red-mist and emotional joy of buying doesn’t lead you to make a hasty purchase that may not fit your needs in the long-term.  In this case, I had Allen who grounded me with the 11 issues we noted that swayed me away from making a purchase due to the emotional ecstasy of the vibrant, eye-catching Cobalt Blue exterior.

We decided to put this car on hold and continue the search, or actually seriously start the search.

The other alternative that I mentioned was a 1993 RS America. They only made 701 models over the two years of production and my goal was a 1993 model since I favored the rear seat delete with storage shelf offered in the 1993 version. 

1993 Porsche 911 RS America in standard colors of Grand Prix White and Guards Red

The other factor was that I do not want Guards Red or Grand Prix White even though the car looks very nice in these colors but I find Guards Red too common and I just don’t like white cars.  (Sorry to all you white car owners.  I know it is a popular color choice and can look great with the right black accents, but I just don’t want a white car.)

Guards Red and White represent 57% of RS America’s produced so the buying pool has become smaller.  I of course will search all the usual sites and turn to the online auction sites, but I knew, I really needed to tap into the underbelly of the Porsche collectible world to search out what I was looking for.

For this mission, I turned to trusted Porsche expert, Ray Shaffer at Broad Arrow Auctions who had guided me through the successful sale of my 1968 Sports Purpose 911.  If anyone could find me the car, I figured Ray would know where they are, and I wasn’t disappointed.

When Ray heard my goals for the next purchase, he threw me a curve ball that has led to a fantastic search.  He mentioned that Broad Arrow had a 1992 ROW Porsche 911 Carrera RS coming up for auction that I should look at.  This model was not sold in the US originally but was now available to be imported into the US under the 25-year exemption rule.

A RS will normally sell for $300,000 - $400,000 so I had never considered one, but Ray said this one was a salvage title car with a sale estimate of $150,000 - $200,000 so it was in my price range. 

But, a salvage title car for this type of money?  The catch was that Porsche Classic had restored the car so it was like factory new.  Should I consider it?

The car was in Savannah, Georgia, only five hours away so I decided a trip to Savannah was necessary to see this mythical car and drive it. 

The story continues as Allen and I start a quest for an RS…

The 1993 Porsche 911 Carrera RS at Broad Arrow Auctions suggested by Ray Shaffer