Where Did All the Porsche Restomods Go?

A major trend at collector car auctions of years past has been the Porsche Restomod, epitomized by the Singer reimagined Porsche that sells for half a million dollars and up. However, this year we are not seeing these cars at the Scottsdale auctions. Is the pipeline filled, or in other words does everyone who wants one have one?

It has been popular among the shops who produce Porsche Restomods to use a Porsche 964 as the donor vehicle. The 964 has been overlooked previously in the market so a shop could purchase one at a reasonable price while acquiring a modern air-cooled Porsche with safety and driving refinements. The big question one has when building a restomod is do you build it to appeal to the mass market or just for yourself/owner. One can easily go overboard.

Air Cooled Classics Porsche 1991 964 C2 Backdated to a 1971 Porsche 911ST

One of the leading shops to be producing a quality Porsche Restomod for the market is Air Cooled Classic Porsches run by Don Ramsey out of Knoxville. Don and his shop Air Cooled Classics are Air Brigade members and he is often featuring his Porsche creations on Air Brigade and the various Facebook air-cooled fan pages. While a Singer reimagined Porsche sells for a half million plus, an air-cooled Classics Restomod Porsche will sell for the mid=$100,000s. This is still a hefty price, but within reach of more Porsche enthusiasts.

Surveying the 70 air-cooled Porsches for sale at this year’s Scottsdale Collector Car auctions there doesn’t seem to be one Restomod on auction which is very different from the past year. Granted there are a few customed Porsches but nothing that would be considered a Restomod.

Porsche 911 Singer | Image RM Sotheby's

One of the few actual Singer reimagined Porsches recently sold at auction at RM Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi November 2019 sales. The Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer sold for a staggering $825,000. Marshall Goldman of Beverly Hills is selling a 1990 Porsche 911 Singer for $899,000. It is funny to see the Goggle search of the vehicle called it a used 1990 Porsche for only $899,000. It is a beautiful Horizon Blue Metallic example that will probably sell for close to the auction price of $825,000 once the negotiations are done.

It appears there is still the demand and interest in the market for a Porsche Restomod, but the buzz and demand may have calmed down some since we are not seeing the auction world clamoring for them as indicated by the Scottsdale 2020 offerings. The focus and the money seems to continue to be on a good, clean original air-cooled Porsche.