If you want to do any serious competition, you'll need a 2-liter, 4-cam four, and that's a $100,000 project
Having axed its expensive Formula One program at the end of 1962, Porsche turned once more to sports car racing as a means of improving and marketing its road cars.
The Type 356-based Abarth-Carreras had flown the Porsche flag in international racing during the early 1960s, but an entirely new design was now deemed necessary to meet the strengthening opposition. A minimum of 100 road-usable cars had to be made to meet the FIA's homologation requirements, a stipulation that made a complex spaceframe design like the Type 718 RSK a non-starter, so Porsche's Technical Director, Dr. Hans Tomala, started with a clean sheet. In creating the legendary 904, Tomala opted for a chassis comprising a pair of steel, cross-braced, box sections, to which the fiberglass body shell was bonded.
Designed by Ferry Porsche's eldest son "Butzi," the body was manufactured by the Heinkel aircraft company and is widely recognized as one of Porsche's most elegant, while the Zuffenhausen firm's recent Formula One experience was reflected in the 904's state-of-the-art suspension, which featured double wishbones all around.
Delivered new in February 1964 to Robert Buchet, well-known privateer racer and French Porsche distributor in the 1960s, chassis number 021 participated in period in the 1964 Tour de Corse, 1965 Le Mans, 1965 Reims 12 Hours, 1965 Routes du Nord, and 1965 Coupe des Alpes, where the car was damaged by Buchet. Chassis number 021 was immediately returned to Porsche for repair, where at the same time it was deemed wise to "upgrade" the car to later Series Two 904/6 specification, with central fuel filler, higher door sills, and different engine mountings to the chassis. Subsequently, the 904 GTS Coupe participated in numerous other French rallies with success and in style until it was sold in 1968.
It should be noted that this 904 has continuous history from new and is fitted since the 1970s with a later 6-cylinder, 2.8-liter RSR block with a Kugelfischer injection pump and twin ignition producing an estimated 300 hp. This combination is obviously a guaranteed recipe for exhilarating performance. Bernard Consten has owned the 904 GTS Coupe since 1994. It has completed less than 3,000 km since a completely documented restoration and is today still in concours condition and on the button, ready to participate in the most prestigious track or lawn events.
SCM Analysis
Detailing
| Vehicle: | 1964 Porsche 904 GTS |
| Number Produced: | 120 |
| 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) PO Box 1347 Springfield, VA 22151-0347 |
| Website: | http://www.pca.org |
This 1964 Porsche 904 GTS Coupe sold for $888,465 at the Bonhams Goodwood Revival sale in Sussex, England, on September 19, 2008.
By definition, racing cars lead hard lives. They are conceived and built as weapons for a battle, to be used, abused, worn out, and thrown away when they break or the next, faster version comes along. In the real world, they take a terrible beating-that’s their job. Finding “pristine” race cars is almost a contradiction in terms, like meeting an old boxer without a broken nose and cauliflower ears.
Of course, both noses and cars can be fixed after the fact, and the collector world is filled with old racing cars far more beautiful than they were when they were working for a living. A serious collector often has to face the questions involved in choosing between owning a car with great history but a long list of repairs and replaced bits, or buying one that stayed pure and original by never seeing serious action. A related question, which applies particularly to newer-style cars where body and chassis are inextricably commingled, is “What constitutes a repair?” If you bent the frame and the factory “fixed” it by slipping effectively a new car under the chassis plate, does it remain the original car? These are very interesting questions, and very real ones.
Porsche’s 904 was an innovative and transitional car, the last of the 4-cam, 4-
cylinder racers. It was conceived and built after the company had committed itself to the 6-cylinder 911 series but before that engine was considered competition-ready. The chassis/body was entirely new for Porsche, using a sheetmetal box frame (think of a ladder frame but with very tall, narrow, fabricated sheetmetal side members) bonded permanently to a structural fiberglass body. It was wonderfully light and stiff, but if you bent the frame you were in deep trouble, because there was no reasonable way of repairing it. If you sent a broken car back to Porsche, they would move all the old parts to a new chassis/body assembly and send it back to you. That’s what “repair” meant.
Full rights to both the number and the history of 021
Let’s talk about the subject car, chassis 904/021. It is a 1964 Series One car that was sold to a well-known French privateer named Buchet, who both raced it and rallied it extensively. In the 1965 Coupe des Alpes, he slid it sideways into a post of some sort, impacting in the middle of the driver’s door and seriously bending the frame. It was sent back to Stuttgart, and six weeks later Buchet resumed racing chassis 904/021, now with a 1965-specification body from the doors forward, what appears to be the original rear body work, and a new frame. Buchet ran nine more events before selling the car to a known succession of owners, ending with the auction vendor.
Apparently, at some point the bent chassis that had formerly been 904/021 made its way to Munich, where it was repaired and resold, but not with any factory involvement. I’m told that it continues to exist, though I don’t know if it makes claim to the chassis number. All of this is well known information in Porsche 904 circles, published in the appropriate books, etc., and presumably is fully understood by anyone serious enough to be bidding at the auction. There is broad consensus that the subject car has full rights to both the chassis number and the history of #021, and the existence of something built from the broken chassis does not compromise it. It’s still important to know the full story.
The engine, however…
A more serious issue in terms of valuing a car like this is the fact that it lost its correct engine somewhere along the line and got a wildly incorrect 2.8-liter fuel-injected six. In terms of what you can do with it, this is a very big deal. As it is, it’s a great street ride, but if you want to do any serious competition, it’s going to need a 2-liter, 4-cam four, and even figuring the value of the engine that’s in it, this is a $100k project.
Hypothetically, you could put a carbureted 2-liter six into it (or pretend that’s what it’s got) and meet the letter of the FIA technical requirements, but it is generally very bad form within Porsche circles to have a six in any but the five or six known cars that got them from the factory. The car’s value requires that it end up with a correct engine, and that cost has to be factored in.
With over a hundred 904s built, there is a well-established market for them, and it seems to be stable these days at $850k to $1m for the 4-cylinder cars. This 904 GTS Coupe was by all reports in beautiful condition and had the advantage of having rights to an excellent history, combined with what is effectively a virgin chassis, so there were a number of serious contenders raising paddles. With an incorrect but highly enjoyable street engine, it sold in the bottom part of the range. If you factor in the costs of putting it back into historically correct form, it sold at the top of the range. Either way, I’d say it was rationally and fairly bought.