RUF world record sale – Gooding & Company – Amelia Island 2023

Auctions are known to be a good guide to pricing. This is true not only for works of art by famous painters, but also for classic sports cars. This year’s Amelia Island auction by our partners at Gooding & Company produced some surprising results. The trends seen here could be an interesting pointer to a heating up in one certain market area.

23 Porsche, four RUFs and a Kremer Porsche were up for auction

A total of 155 vehicles were offered at the 2023 edition of Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island auction. The 23 Porsches, four RUFs and one Kremer 962 generated just under $10 million of the total auction proceeds of almost $72.7 million. That’s an average of nearly $360,000 per Porsche sports car sold at auction.

What sounds like extreme inflation at first glance is put into perspective at second glance. Two 1998 RUF Turbo R cars alone – one Cabriolet and one Coupe – fetched $1,022,500 and $1,550,000, respectively. And that was despite the convertible falling short of expectations. $1.25 million to $1.5 million had been forecast by Gooding.

Gooding & Company Amelia Island 2023 Porsche results

Some air-cooled vehicles remained below the estimated price

These estimates, given as a price corridor at auctions, give bidders and sellers an approximate idea of the expected price. At Gooding & Company’s 2023 Amelia Island auction, one thing was noticeable: some air-cooled Porsche sports cars did not quite reach the estimated prices. This light yellow Porsche 930 Turbo, for example, missed Gooding’s estimate by nearly $43,000.

1976 Porsche 911 Turbo (930) – Sold for $207,200

Porsche 911 Turbo 3.0

1976

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A 1997 RUF BTR2 was even auctioned $170,000 below estimate. But such results do not mean that the market for air-cooled Porsches is cooling down. After all, although the RUF BTR2 was below the estimate, it still achieved a world record sale price! And although the auctioned 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.3 did not reach its set goal of at least $400,000, the $324,000 in proceeds manifests the continued rise in 930 prices. Since 2022, there have thus already been at least four Porsche 930s that have fetched over $300,000 at auction.

1997 RUF BTR2 – Sold for a world record price of $720,000

Porsche RUF BTR2

1997

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The most sensational results on Amelia Island were achieved by a 996 and a 997

Hard to believe, but true: The runaway winners at Gooding & Company’s Amelia Island auction tended to be modern, water-cooled Porsches. A few years ago, no one would probably have put a penny on two Porsche 996s, of all things, going under the hammer at prices well above the estimates called.

A white 2004 Porsche 996 GT3 RS for example reached a $368,000 auction price. Gooding & Company’s prediction was $250,000 to $325,000. A 2005 996 Turbo S Cabrio also reached $173,600, well above the expected top price of $150,000.

The seller of the 2011 997 GT3 RS 3.8 was probably even more satisfied. This Mezger-engined beauty had been estimated by the auction house at between 150,000 and 200,000 US dollars. In the end, the hammer price was a whopping $268,800. This was a whopping 34.4% more than the experts at Gooding had predicted in the best-case scenario.

2004 Porsche 996 GT3 RS – Sold for $368,000

Porsche 996 GT3 RS

2004

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2011 Porsche 997 GT3 RS 3.8 – Sold for $268,800

Porsche 997.2 GT3 RS

2011

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These two outliers were joined by a total of another four Porsches that exceeded the estimated best case price. This contrasts with nine Porsches that did not reach the target price corridor. In our view, however, it was not the vehicles that sold below value. Some of the prices are at extremely high levels. A 1997 Porsche 993 Carrera 4S for $225,000 was unthinkable a few years ago.

We may be experiencing a change in the market right now

The results of Gooding’s Amelia Island auction in 2023 leave plenty of room for speculation. Although prices did not in every case reach the hoped-for heights Gooding had issued, the market structure is still moving upward. But it almost seems as if water-cooled Porsche sports cars are currently increasing in price the fastest.

What should also not be forgotten about the auction prices are the fees. Up to $250,000 in auction price, another twelve percent fee is charged to the buyer. For every dollar above $250,000, there is a ten percent buyer’s premium. So the Porsche 996 GT3 RS from 2004 mentioned above changed hands for effectively $409,800!