One of the hottest trends in cars lately is retro-modding. It can go in either temporal direction: Take a modern car and retrofit the design to make it look like a classic — see the post-2000s Ford Mustang or the new Bronco as examples.
Or, take an older car and modernize it. Perhaps the most outrageous approach to this is done by Singer Design — as an example, see this gorgeous, baby blue 1989 Porsche 964 Carrera 4 Coupe, that bid up to $950k sold for $1,300,000.
It was thought that the late 1970s 911s might be the last of the breed (See this 1978 Car & Driver). The cars could be tricky to drive (especially the turbos). But they were fun, relatively quick, and in the hands of a skillful driver, very rewarding. They also were light and tossable, weighing 2315 lbs. The 172 HP flat-6 mated to a 5-speed manual would scoot the little coupe to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds. The 1978 engines were so robust that 300,000 miles were not an unusual milestone.
The Singers are money-is-no-object bonkers, but a slightly more rational retro-mod can be found in rebuilds like te 1978 Porsche 911SC seen below; it sold for (at least in comparison) a reasonable $166,500.
I mentioned my own Retro-Mod EV project last month; I think I found a donor car with very good paint and a poor interior (I will replace), a G-50 transmission, and a rebuilt, over-bored 3.4 engine (both should bring a few bucks to lower the total costs). All in, it will end up about the same price as a brand-new 911.
I am excited to see how this develops…
Source: Bring A Trailer
