Well, you don’t see one of these every day: The very first Porsche 910 ever built—a prototype and hillclimb racer from Stuttgart’s most romantic era—is up for auction. You can check out the bidding here on Bring a Trailer.
Why should you care? Well, maybe you’re one of the many well-heeled billionaire playboys who seem to fill our comment section with expertise these days, in which case, you’ll want to be clued in to Blue Chip investments like this one.
Photo by: Bring a Trailer
Aside from that, the Porsche 910 just plain rocks. This particular car bridged Porsche from a fledgling builder of sports and race cars to a domineering force in both categories. While the 910 evolved from other mid-engine closed-cockpit prototypes like the 904, this car bridged the gap between those mid-Sixties efforts to cars like the 917, which is arguably the most important endurance-racing prototype of all time.
This particular car was the first 910 ever built, as mentioned, emblazoned with the chassis number “910001,” but also comes with considerable palmarès. Those include a class win and fourth overall at the 1000km of Monza in 1968, followed by conversion for street use and a laundry list of race history as the car passed from one privateer to the next.
Indeed, this 910 has lived a fuller life than most.
Photo by: Bring a Trailer
Photo by: Bring a Trailer
Early examples of the 910 were powered by variants of the 2.0-liter flat-six you’d find in competition 911s of the era. While the later 910s eventually moved on to flat-eight powerplants better suited to endurance racing, I can tell you from experience that no Porsche sounds better or revs sweeter than these early 2.0-liter cars with the lightweight magnesium engine case.
Something about that material and displacement specifically—some magic resonance or characteristic frequency—makes this Porsche’s GOAT powertrain from an experiential standpoint, in my opinion.
Photo by: Bring a Trailer
Plus, just look at this thing. Following a restoration specifically aimed at prepping this car for FIA historic racing, you get all the authentic visual touches backed by the confidence to actually go out and use this thing, share its glorious ear-shattering song with other enthusiasts.
At the time of writing, there are three days left on the auction and it’s already passed $1.3 million. I’m not terribly obsessed with auction results; Honestly, speculation has cratered the classic car market for the everyman, but it’s cool to see these gems unearthed from time to time, if only as an opportunity to dig into their histories.
