Tag Archives: 911

Porsche’s £252K GT3 Touring Is a Love Letter to Britain

Seventy-five years after Porsche first planted its flag on British soil, the company is celebrating in a way that feels perfectly on-brand: by building an outrageously expensive, obsessively detailed special-edition 911 that most people will never see in person.

Meet the Porsche 911 GT3 Touring Earls Court 51 Edition—a 51-car tribute to the first Porsche models imported into the UK in 1951 and displayed at London’s famous Earls Court Motor Show. And while commemorative editions often amount to little more than a unique paint color and a plaque, this one doubles as a rolling showcase for Porsche’s increasingly ambitious Sonderwunsch personalization division.

At first glance, the choice of the wingless GT3 Touring as a starting point makes perfect sense. The absence of the GT3’s towering rear wing lends the car a cleaner, more understated profile, one that subtly echoes the elegance of those early 356s that introduced Britain to the Porsche name.

The centerpiece is a bespoke shade called Earls Court Green Metallic, created specifically through Porsche’s Paint to Sample Plus program. It’s paired with silver mirror caps, silver door handles, and a silver bonnet stripe, giving the car a distinctly vintage-inspired appearance without descending into retro caricature. Special Earls Court graphics are scattered throughout the exterior, while the diamond-cut center-lock wheels feature matching green inserts that tie the entire design together.

The cabin is where Sonderwunsch really gets to flex.

The upper dashboard and door panels are wrapped in rich Paldao Green leather, contrasted by Chalk Beige upholstery. The sports seats receive custom corduroy inserts—a material that’s enjoying a surprising resurgence among high-end performance cars—and feature green leather and wood-finished backs. Even the sun visors get special treatment, embossed with Union Jack motifs that serve as a reminder of the occasion being celebrated.

Underneath all that craftsmanship, however, remains one of the greatest driver’s cars currently on sale.

There’s no increase in power, no chassis revision, and no secret performance upgrade lurking beneath the skin. The Earls Court 51 Edition retains the GT3’s glorious 4.0-liter naturally aspirated flat-six, producing 503 horsepower at a spine-tingling 8500 rpm and 332 lb-ft of torque. Buyers can still choose between Porsche’s razor-sharp seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission or the increasingly rare six-speed manual gearbox—the latter arguably being the choice that best suits the car’s nostalgic mission.

The result is a machine that combines old-world craftsmanship with one of the last great naturally aspirated engines available in a modern sports car.

More importantly, the Earls Court 51 Edition highlights just how far Porsche’s Sonderwunsch operation has evolved. Originally established in the 1970s as a special-order department, the division has become a full-scale customization powerhouse since its relaunch in 2021. Today, customers can commission everything from unique color and trim combinations to factory-restored classics and one-off creations built to their exact specifications.

The department’s capabilities have become so extensive that Porsche can even perform complete factory recommissioning projects on older vehicles, stripping them down and rebuilding them to as-new condition.

Of course, exclusivity comes at a price.

The Earls Court 51 Edition starts at £251,951, placing it more than £20,000 above the already eye-wateringly expensive 911 S/T. That figure alone ensures the car’s rarity, even before considering its strict 51-unit production run.

Still, pricing almost feels beside the point. Cars like this aren’t designed to offer value. They’re designed to tell a story.

And in this case, Porsche’s story stretches back to a London motor show in 1951, when a handful of curious British buyers first encountered a little German sports car called the 356. Seventy-five years later, the company is celebrating that moment with a GT3 that’s less about lap times and more about heritage.

Not that anyone will complain about getting 503 horsepower in the process.

Source: Porsche

A Million-Dollar Porsche 911 Speedster That Lost Six Figures Before Its First Oil Change

In the high-stakes world of Porsche restomods, depreciation is supposed to be something that happens to Cayennes, not carbon-fiber 911 Speedsters. But this Gunther Werks build just proved that even the bluest of blue-chip air-cooled exotica isn’t immune to gravity.

This particular Gunther Werks 911 Speedster—one of just 25 ever made—recently sold for $965,000. That sounds outrageous until you realize it had traded hands for $1.15 million only a few months earlier. That’s nearly $200,000 gone in under a fiscal quarter, which is about the same rate of value loss as a Bentley leaving the showroom.

Ouch.

The car left Gunther Werks’ Huntington Beach facility in October 2022, built to the firm’s obsessive standards and finished in a bespoke Gin Tree Green metallic. A year later, it landed at New York–based HK Motorcars, who apparently saw it less as a toy and more as a rolling financial instrument. That gamble didn’t quite pay off.

The dealer tossed it onto Bring a Trailer, where bidding topped out at $905,000—well shy of their reserve. Soon after, a private deal closed at $965,000, locking in a $185,000 loss for the seller. Whether that means the dealer overpaid or the new buyer scored a bargain is something the next resale will reveal. But either way, it’s a reminder that even seven-figure Porsches don’t always go up.

Fortunately, if you’re going to lose six figures on a car, it might as well be one that looks like this.

Gunther Werks doesn’t restore 911s so much as re-engineer them. Each Speedster begins as a donor 993 that’s stripped to its steel skeleton before being reborn with a full carbon-fiber body. Every panel is lighter, stiffer, and shaped with modern aerodynamic intent, even if the silhouette still screams late-’90s Stuttgart.

This one’s custom green paint is offset by matte green stripes and yellow Porsche script, a subtle nod to motorsport heritage wrapped in boutique-level craftsmanship. It’s less “classic 911” and more “what Porsche would build if it ignored accounting.”

Underneath the carbon lies a 4.0-liter air-cooled flat-six that’s about as far from stock as a Mezger can get. With Mahle pistons, forged rods, and a billet crankshaft, it produces 430 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque—numbers that would’ve sounded absurd in a 1990s 911 but now feel perfectly at home in a carbon-skinned Speedster.

Power goes through a six-speed manual, because of course it does, and the chassis is handled by adaptive coilovers with Brembo brakes big enough to stop a small aircraft. Six-piston calipers up front, four in the rear, and more grip than a tax audit.

Inside, the same no-expense-spared philosophy continues. Gunther Werks cabins are more private jet than vintage Porsche, blending bespoke materials with modern hardware while still preserving the basic 911 layout.

So yes, someone lost nearly $200,000 on this Speedster in record time. But the person who bought it for $965,000 may have just landed one of the most exquisite air-cooled Porsches ever built for what passes as a bargain in this rarefied world.

In the restomod market, timing is everything. And sometimes, even a million-dollar Porsche has a bad day on Wall Street.

Source: Bring a Trailer

How a Tiny Mountain State Became Porsche’s Wildest Playground

If you were asked to guess where the Porsche 911 sells better than any other car, you’d probably say Southern California, Monaco, or maybe a leafy corner of Switzerland. You would not say Andorra—a tiny mountain principality wedged between France and Spain with fewer residents than a medium-sized European suburb.

And yet, here we are.

In 2025, Andorra registered 86 new Porsche 911s, making it the best-selling car in the entire country. Not the best-selling sports car. Not the best-selling luxury coupe. The best-selling car, period – beating Toyota, Hyundai and all the other brands that usually dominate European sales charts.

In a market that sells fewer than 2,500 new cars per year, that figure is as surreal as seeing a GT3 parked at a grocery store. But in Andorra, it makes perfect sense.

The Monaco of the Pyrenees

Andorra’s reputation is built on three things: skiing, mountains, and taxes—or more precisely, the lack of them. With one of Europe’s most favorable tax systems, the country attracts wealthy residents, professional athletes, digital nomads, and business owners who like their income lightly taxed and their garages heavily stocked.

The result is a new-car market that behaves like nothing else in Europe.

Where most countries revolve around subcompact hatchbacks and budget crossovers, Andorra’s streets are dominated by performance cars, luxury SUVs, and six-figure toys. The Porsche 911 isn’t a weekend indulgence here—it’s a daily driver.

When you live in a compact, affluent, mountain-road-rich country with minimal traffic and a healthy number of racetrack-quality passes, the idea of commuting in a 911 starts to feel downright logical.

A Sports Car Beats the Sensible Stuff

That the 911 topped the chart at all is astonishing. That it did so again in 2025—growing from 83 to 86 registrations—feels almost absurd.

To put that in context: the Toyota Yaris Cross, a practical, sensible, fuel-efficient compact SUV, finished second with 63 sales. The Seat Arona, Spain’s affordable home-team crossover, came third with 57.

Those are the kinds of cars that lead sales in normal countries.

Andorra, meanwhile, chose a rear-engine German sports car that can cost as much as €340,000.

Last year, Porsche’s dominance was even more extreme, with the Cayenne and Macan also beating mainstream superminis. In 2025, the lead is slimmer—but the symbolism remains staggering: a 911 still outsells everything.

Brand Rankings from an Alternate Reality

Even stranger than the model rankings is the brand leaderboard.

Despite not placing a single car in the top 10, BMW was Andorra’s best-selling brand with 204 registrations, narrowly beating Mercedes (200).

Toyota, Ford, and Hyundai followed, but the real jaw-dropper comes further down the list:

Ferrari sold 56 cars in Andorra in 2025.

That’s more than one Ferrari per 1,500 residents.

For comparison, Spain—a country of 48 million people—registered just 109 new Ferraris in the same year. In other words, Andorra bought more than half as many Ferraris with one-five-hundredth the population.

That’s not a market anomaly. That’s a statistical mic drop.

What Andorra Tells Us About Cars and Money

Andorra is what happens when geography, wealth, and tax policy collide in a small, dense, car-friendly bubble. People who move there don’t need economical transportation—they need something entertaining to drive between ski resorts, cafés, and mountain villas.

And if you’re going to buy one perfect all-around sports car, the Porsche 911 still makes more sense than almost anything else on the road. It’s fast, usable, reliable, comfortable, and endlessly configurable. In Andorra, it isn’t just a status symbol—it’s the default choice.

Everywhere else, the 911 is a dream car.

In Andorra, it’s just what you buy when you need to go shopping.

Source: Porsche