Buy Patrick Long’s Rally-Prepped ’85 Porsche 911
Partly because it’s for charity, mostly because it’s sinfully cool.
Want a vintage Porsche 911? Want one without feeling like a chump because you didn't get into the market a decade ago? Buy this rally-ready 1985 Porsche 911 prepared by an ace team of Porsche diehards and drivers, including Porsche factory driver Patrick Long, Pikes Peak champion Jeff Zwart, and mechanical magicians from Emory Motorsports, Emotion Engineering, Benton Performance and Deus ex Machina. While estimates have the car going for between $100,000 and $150,000—fully inflated by the Porsche bubble—all that cash is going to benefit the Autumn Leaves Project, which supports pancreatic cancer research. Preregister with Sotheby's for a chance to make every Subaru WRX in your town feel helplessly pedestrian.
To start, the team found a 1985 Porsche 911 with just 79,000 miles—a special vehicle in its own right. Then, modifications began, with the intention to combine daily-driver tractability with significant off-road function in the style of California's long history of Baja desert races. That means a custom KW suspension with 9 inches of travel, custom motorsports lights, BRAID Winrace monoblock wheels, and hand-fabricated grills, bumpers and skidplates. Inside, the Porsche sports a roll bar, lightweight Recaro bucket seats, a walnut shift knob and a new handbrake from Emotion Engineering and Emory Motorsport.
This Pikes Peak ready coupe is going up for auction April 10th. We can't think of anything better—should you have the means—for spitting gravel into the eyes of your haters. Plus, that perfect Grand Prix White paint needs decals, and we trust your taste.