On a visit to Autofarm last week, Josh Sadler and I got talking about a Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera Club Sport he had sitting in the corner of a barn. It looked a smart car: totally standard in very good nick.
The Club Sport was owned by Porsche author, Gordon Wingrove, and was famously featured in one of the mags as an accident repair on one side a few years back. With just 27,000 miles on the clock, this is a special Club Sport. The model has its detractors, who love to point out it’s a basic Carrera 3.2 with a lighter interior and a blueprinted engine, but those who have driven one know there’s something else.
Josh has heard all the Club Sport knockers but, as he asks: “What else is there from the 1980s? This is it.” I reminded him of the 5-speed 930, but I agreed on the affordable/available 911 road car side. There’s plenty of front-engined Porsche stuff from that era, but they’re not rare-bird 911s and the SC RS and 959 hardly count.
Coincidentally, two days later I was asked to do an insurance valuation on a different Porsche 911 3.2 Club Sport, one I’ve seen a few times (I value a number of the UK Club Sport cars ). I had talked money with Josh and used that conversation as a reference for the valuation on this other 911 Club Sport.
What’s the forecast for Club Sport values? I think steady, trending slightly upwards to match the base model. There were only 53 RHD ‘Clubbies’ made for the UK and only 29 of those are estimated to survive (possible urban myth). Standard Carreras in the best condition are £30k+ now, but there are many hundreds of those cars. So a factory hot rod in tip top notch has to be worth substantially more than a regular 3.2 Carrera Coupe. Try replacing a Club Sport after total loss: that’s not going to be pleasant.