Sales debate: How are Porsche 911 racing car prices calculated?
Every dog has its day, but when it comes to racing cars, technology is always moving forward, rendering equipment uncompetitive after a just a few years. Total 911 spoke to two industry experts to see what the market is currently like.
“If we start with the factory-built cars, things like RSRs are very expensive,” says Mark Sumpter, owner of Paragon. “They’re about €500,000 (£400,000) for a new RSR and they have a shelf life of three to five years. When they’re five years old they’re worth about €200,000 (£160,000) because they’re expensive to run and no longer competitive.
“It gets to the stage where if you’ve got a good car, you’re better just to cover it up and wait for the market to come back.” As an example, Sumpter points to 993 GT2 racers. Cars were exchanging hands for as little as £70,000, while now, “cars are back up to £500,000 within the space of a few years.”
According to Sumpter, depreciation and a championship to race in is less of an issue with ex-Carrera Cup and Supercup cars, “Because they aren’t that hard to run. Someone can turn up with their own trailer, and if they’re good they can run the car.”
This means that many cars filter down through the various national race series, as Paul Robe, head of Parr Motorsport, points out. “Some of our cars have moved down to GT Cup and Britcar. The sideways move is to go into trackdays. If you’ve got a GT3 RS Gen2, the devaluation is quite high, whereas there’s not really a depreciation relative to what you use it for on a Cup car.
“For a good 996 Carrera Cup car, you’re still talking £30,000-35,000, and that’s relative to its purchase price, which was around £70,000-ish,” Robe explains. “It depreciates by about 15 per cent per year, but it will stop somewhere and hang probably for the rest of its days.
“With, say, a 997 2012 or 2013 variant, you’re talking somewhere between £80,000 and £85,000-87,000, for the good cars that still have half the life left in them – 25 hours in the engine and 20 hours in your drivetrain,” he continues.
Factory-built RSRs, therefore, are unlikely to see much track time, but as a long-term prospect could become assets. Conversely, older GT3 Cup machinery has had its time of relatively low depreciation, and offers track enthusiasts an inexpensive way into Porsche 911 racing.
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