This Rare Sport Classic Is Looking Kind Of Soft

February 18, 2023

The last 997 Sport Classic to sell on our shores was just over four years ago at RM Sotheby’s Arizona sale in 2019. Pre-pandemic and pre-run-up in prices by cash-flush buyers looking to park their money into a modern classic. That car, with only 150 miles, sold for $654,000.

Since that car sold only ten others have crossed the block, all overseas as the 997 Sport Classic was not only limited to just 250 units produced but was also limited as a European-only model. Seven out of those ten found new homes, six of them since February of 2021 with an average sales price of $350,000.The lowest mileage of the bunch had 113 miles on the odometer and sold last year for $401,667.

Our Spotlight car, a 2010 911 Sport Classic with 386 miles sold yesterday on PCARMARKET for $611,250. Now before you book a ticket to Europe to buy a Sport Classic with hopes of making a few hundred thousand dollars flipping it back here in the US, let me explain how this car got here because remember, these aren’t 25 years old and eligible for direct import yet.

Thanks to our friends Bill Gates and Bruce Canepa, certain cars that were never sold here are allowed to be imported under a special condition called Show & Display. Now you can’t just bring any old 911 in under Show & Display, it has to be on the “approved” list, and in order to be on that list, a car has to be lobbied and very special. It’s also important to note that a car imported under Show & Display can only be driven 2,500 miles per year… for shows and displays, naturally.

BUT, and this is a big but, just because it is imported under Show & Display doesn’t mean it is legal to drive on our streets. In order to be registered on our roads and driven those 2,500 per year, the car has to also meet EPA regulations and out of the box, the 997 Sport Classic does not. To get a 997 Sport Classic through the EPA, you’re looking at six figures in work by one of only a handful of registered importers, and our Spotlight Sport Classic has had such work done.

So did our seller import this car and make a huge profit if they were in fact the one who brought it into the US in the first place? Probably not. But for me, the real surprise here is that in four years, this uber-rare modern classic hasn’t skyrocketed upward like so many other cars. Instead, it’s stayed flat. But I don’t foresee this being the case forever. Well-bought for a car that will definitely be a future classic.