A Porsche 908 Is Coming Up For Sale And The Want Is Overpowering

There’s rare and wonderful, and then there’s truly gob-smackingly, breath-stealingly rare and wonderful. This, good CTzens, is the latter, and it’s coming up for auction in August.

It’s a Porsche 908 Works ‘Short-Tail’ Coupé, one of a very, very small number still in existence. This ultra-special racer, chassis number 908-010, was built alongside its sister car 908-011) for entry into the 1968 Spa 1000km.

It had a 3.0-litre flat-eight with ‘just’ 350bhp, but in the sixties that was all you needed to win races in tandem with a lightweight chassis and proper motorsport engineering.

Wearing number six for the race, it was driven by Vic Elford and Jochen Neerpasch. It was jostling for the lead, holding first place several times, until tricky conditions led to a crash and ultimately the car’s retirement from the race. It never competed again and was sold to a private collector in Switzerland.

It was rediscovered in the late 1990s, according to the auctioneers RM Sotheby’s. Porsche racing car expert Dale Miller found it and arranged for it to be shipped to the United States, where it went to a new owner who paid for a full restoration prior to the 2004 Rennsport Reunion at Daytona.

The car has appeared in a number of retro and revival-type events since then. It even had a place at the North Carolina Museum of Art in the 2013-2014 Porsche by Design exhibition.

Its chassis is original, if repaired, while the factory 908 engine has just been serviced. Of course, it’s in concours condition as well. Brace your wallet: the bidding could get ugly.

Sources: CarScoops, RM Sotheby’s