This Porsche, 904017, was one of 31 examples destined for American shores. Originally finished in silver with a blue velour interior, the 904 was sold to local Porsche dealer and successful racer Don Wester of Monterey, CA. It was fitted with an air deflector and painted with a central stripe in yellow and black, Wester’s racing colors.
After a busy 1964 season, the race-proven 904 was treated to substantial engine and brake upgrades from the factory in preparation for another year of West Coast racing. On August 18, 1965, 904017 achieved what is perhaps its best-remembered win. At the Candlestick Park SCCAA C Production Race, Wester and the Porsche averaged 89.3 mph over the length of the race to beat Phil Hill in a Shelby Cobra, Augie Pabst in a Ferrari GTO and Milt Minter in another 904.
The impressive results of 1965 gave Wester 3rd place overall in the SCCA’s Pacific Coast Division A-Production Class, and the 904 gained some notoriety as well: it was featured prominently in both sports car journals and in Porsche Car Pacific advertising.
When the 904 was replaced by the 906 at the end of the 1965 racing season, it was purchased by Robert W. Hansen of Porsche Car Pacific. After advertising the car in Road & Track, a buyer was found in Walter Bischoff of Stanton, CA, who registered the 904 for road use and kept it until 1969, whereupon it was sold to Bill Randle of Denver, Colorado. Mr. Randle, a Porsche mechanic, drove the 904 on the street and occasionally participated in club racing. After a year, Grady Clay, a customer of his, purchased it for approximately $6,000.
Mr. Clay reports that he finally parted with the Porsche in 1987, selling it to Robert Pass of St. Louis, MO. From there, the 904 was sold through Motor Classic Corporation to Harry Bytzek, a Toronto-based Porsche enthusiast. In the late 1980s, Mr. Bytzek traded the 904 to Dick Barbour, the famed Porsche racer and collector. In December 1989, the current owner purchased the car from Mr. Barbour and the 904 embarked on its second period of active racing.
After participating in the 1991 Monterey Historics, 904017 was sympathetically restored and prepared by Stars & Stripes Motorsports in Carlsbad, California. After being tuned, sorted and prepared by the best four-cam specialists in Southern California, the 904 was ready for an all-out return to racing.
Throughout the 1990s, the 904 became a fixture in the West Coast vintage racing circuit. During its many outings, the Porsche was almost always found at the front of the pack and was kept free from incident. In 2000, the 904 was shipped to Europe, where it successfully participated in the grueling Tour Auto. The Porsche has continued to compete in vintage events at Coronado and Monterey and today, the 904 appears very much the same as when it raced at Laguna Seca in 1964.
Freshened cosmetically and kept in race-ready order, 904017 remains a very correct example that has never suffered from a serious accident, over-restoration, major modification or neglect. Of the 904s with significant racing history, this car is considered to be one of the very best survivors. It is offered with an extensive collection of spare parts that includes everything from minor components to a complete Peter Pohl-built four-cam racing engine. Beyond that, the car is offered with an extraordinary file that includes comprehensive historical documentation divided amongst three separate binders.
SCM Analysis
Detailing
| Vehicle: | 1964 Porsche 904 Carrera |
| Number Produced: | About 110 |
| Original List Price: | $7,500 |
| Chassis Number Location: | Riveted tag on front bulkhead, welded tag on rear cross-member |
| Engine Number Location: | Front of case between distributors |
| Club Info: | Porsche Club of America (PCA) P.O. Box 1347 Springfield, VA 22151-0347 |
| Website: | http://www.pca.org |
| Alternatives: | 1963-64 Alfa Romeo TZ1, 1963-4 Abarth Simca 2000, 1966 Porsche 906 |
This car, Lot 23, sold for $1,045,000, including buyer’s premium, at Gooding’s Scottsdale, Arizona, auction on January 21, 2011.
I overheard people at the sale who were stunned by the price, but they shouldn’t have been surprised. A generation ago, you might have part-exchanged a 904 for its low-slung successor, the 906. Times and fashions change, and today it’s the other way around.
The 904 is a significant car in Porsche history. Designed by Ferdinand Porsche III, Ferry’s eldest son and known in the family as “Butzi,” it was the company’s first bespoke GT racer and was aimed squarely at the 2 Liter class of the FIA’s GT Championship. Porsche had previously won this in 1961 with the Abarth-built Carrera GTL, despite the handicap of a 1.6-liter engine, and again in ’62 with the newly homologated, 2-liter powered 356 Carrera 2. Now, for the ’63 season, Abarth was planning a challenger of its own, the potent Abarth Simca 2000, while Alfa Romeo had homologated the Tubolare Zagato.
Porsche’s racing director, Huschke von Hanstein, was able to persuade his board that the Stuttgart firm, hungry for competition success after a shaky debut in Formula One, could benefit from a successful GT challenger—and recoup development costs by making it available for sale to private customers.
The resulting Porsche 904, or Carrera GTS as it was also known, is a classic. Butzi’s styling for the bodywork combined function and beauty—Porsche needed to sell 100 of them for homologation, after all—from the chisel-shaped nose, through the deeply curved windshield and the flying buttress roofline back to the neatly kicked-up tail. A novelty was the use of fiberglass for the bodies, which were supplied ready-made by aircraft manufacturer Heinkel, who had diversified since their biggest client went out of business in 1945.
A drive-home racer
This shapely confection was powered by Porsche’s fiendishly complicated four-cam motor in its final, most developed incarnation (albeit now with a plain bearing crankshaft), positioned in front of the rear axle—another first for a Porsche GT.
Rated at 180 horsepower (rising to 190 horsepower for the 1966 season), the Type 587/3 motor could be supplied with muffled or open exhausts. Customers were almost evenly split on their choice of exhaust, which reflected the 904’s versatility and appeal. The 904 was the last Porsche racer you could collect at the factory and drive home.
Needless to say, the 904 achieved its aim, winning races well beyond the 2 Liter class of the ‘64 GT Championship. More than one Ferrari 250 GTO driver traded up to a 904, including the debonair Gianni Bulgari of the eponymous jewelry dynasty, who recently told me: “It was much better to drive than my GTO, much more modern. But I had to remove the seat to drive and instead put Dunlop foam rubber on the floor.”
Bulgari even led the Targa Florio before breaking his 904’s chassis after a high-speed landing. The bonded body/chassis assembly, by the way, made it a nightmare to repair; several 904s received new factory chassis, giving historians gray hairs ever since.
Upsides and downsides
Today good 904s are hot properties among car collectors of a certain level. On the downside, they’re not the automotive bearer bonds certain ubiquitous Ferraris have become. Maintenance of their four-cam engines has the reputation of a dark art known to very few; the cockpit is better suited to Latin jockeys than bon vivants, and a relatively raucous driving experience may not suit everybody. The upside, though, is performance which would humble even a younger Carrera RS; rarity (around 110 made); worldwide eligibility and appeal, and that spine-tingling sound—assuming you can still feel your spine after a long drive.
Although this 904 didn’t have its original motor (which has just resurfaced in the U.K.), it was fitted with a correct Type 587/3 unit plus a rebuilt spare, which in itself would cost over $100,000 to replace. The seller—the same gentleman who sold the white D-type Jag at Gooding last year—had clearly enjoyed the 904 but, judging from its presentation and the records which came with it, he’d looked after it properly. He didn’t offer it before, so it was fresh to the market.
Take all those ingredients and you have the recipe for a successful sale. Another 904 with better international racing history was sold for $200k more last year; Gooding’s result, after lots of pre-sale interest and three bidders competing for it, simply confirms the benchmark price for a no-excuses, well-sorted 904 with provenance. Wisely bought and satisfyingly sold.