When Lamborghini puts the “Performante” badge on a vehicle, you can be sure it’s the hottest version and ready for some track thrills. The Urus Performante lives up to that badge’s promise, but at a cost in both extra dollars and reduced comfort. This carbon-fiber-festooned hooligan is meant for pavement only. For Lamborghini purists, having an exotic SUV with plenty of room that also thrills in track driving might be worth the sacrifices the vehicle demands.
If you’re keeping up with the Porsche 911 family, there are currently 28 different versions showing in the Porsche U.S.A. website configurator. (Yes, 28!) Not a single 911 could ever be considered middle-of-the-road, but sitting around the middle of the lineup you’ll find five versions of the 911 Carrera GTS. Hotter than the Carrera S but not as extreme as the GT3 track machine, the GTS delivers a wallop of supercar performance while remaining street-friendly for everyday driving if you please. The intense fun starts at around $152,000.
The letters on your modern car’s trunk lid might have no real meaning, but the “S” on the back of a classic Porsche 911 signified a major performance upgrade over the standard car. Porsche’s marketing for the original 911S cautioned, “This is no car for a novice.” The 911S rewarded skilled drivers while being known to put a scare into those unfamiliar with its handling traits. RM Sotheby’s is offering a rare concours-restored 1968 911S at no reserve at its Amelia Island auction in March. Expect hot bidding.
Major auto auctions held in conjunction with the world-renowned Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance in Florida offer some of the world’s most desirable collector cars, and Premier’s regional sales managers will be there for the action and to meet customers. In the meantime, they have posted their own “Cars to Watch” as picks for cars most likely to sell well. Except for one American supercar making the list, it’s a German and Italian feast.
The 2023 collector car auction season got off to a roaring start in January. The Bonhams Scottsdale auction reached $30M in sales, and RM Sotheby’s reported $44M. The big surprise came from Bonhams, where a 1912 Simplex brought $4.8M, a record for a pre-WWI car. Supercars were still supreme, though, with a Ferrari LaFerrari getting $4.075M at RM Sotheby’s and, earlier in the month, a Ferrari F40 topping the Mecum sale in Kissimmee, Florida at $3.135M.
To close out its 964-series 911 Turbo, Porsche built the last 93 as “S” models, and 39 of those were made as the X85 Flachbau (“Flat-nose”) for the U.S. market. The Turbo S X85’s 380-horsepower 3.6-liter engine was basically the one used in the IMSA Bridgestone North American Supercar race series. The only X85 that came painted in Speed Yellow is on offer at RM Sotheby’s Scottsdale auction with a pre-sale estimate of $800K-$1M.
The F512 M is considered the Testarossa at its pinnacle, the last of Ferrari’s analog flat-12 supercars. After three decades, the car can still snap necks even while standing still. The F512 M continued the Testarossa / 512TR evolution, and Ferrari would make just 501 of this final version before sunsetting its flat-12 supercar series. Demand was high for the 75 cars sent to the U.S., and RM Sotheby’s Miami auction in December is offering #52, a two-owner model from the Youngtimer Collection with 10,200 miles. The pre-sale estimate is $400,000-$450,000.
Capitalizing on the 911’s rich rally-winning history, Porsche introduced its 2023 911 Dakar at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Porsche’s new overland 911 version – reflecting road testing of Dakar prototypes over 300,000 miles, including 6,000 off-road miles – is based on the Carrera 4 GTS, and equipped with a 473-hp twin-turbo flat-six, eight-speed PDK automatic transmission and all-wheel drive, capable of 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. Porsche plans to build only 2,500 911 Dakars, with a starting price of $220,000 in the U.S. and plenty of options to take that higher.
In Premier’s 4th year as a corporate sponsor of The Colorado Grand, our VP of Sales, Doug Ewing, partnered with Steve Serio of The Bond Group as co-drivers of a 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster. Our insider report chronicles their exploits, involving loose front end castle nuts, a near miss of spooked cows, and practical jokes played out over the course of their 5 day, 1,000 mile adventure at what’s considered the nation’s most prestigious and respected charitable tour events. Read all the details here.
