If you’ve been on social media over the last few weeks and you’re into cars, you can’t have missed the hype surrounding the most recent highlight from online sales platform Collecting Cars. The Leonard Collection was an extraordinary group of 38 vehicles that included some of the most iconic racing-derived Porsche models of the last 50 years, plus some very interesting oddities, including a couple of motorcycles and even a light tank.
When the last of the collection sold on the evening of 16th May, Hagerty calculated that once buyer’s premiums had been taken, the collection achieved a combined value of £7.69M ($10.84). The top sale was a 2006 Porsche Carrera GT selling at £771,000 ($1.095M) followed by a beautiful 1973 2.7 RS that sold for £430,000 ($606,128). Seven of the lots exceeded the Hagerty Price Guide‘s condition #1 (‘Concours’) value.
A number of lots included duplicates of models, and it was very interesting to compare how the market values different specifications and especially mileage. Three Porsche 964 Carrera RS examples were sold, all left-hand drive. Mileage was the big differentiator: One with just 164 km from new sold for an extraordinary £386,000 ($544,106), some 46 percent over the Hagerty condition #1 value. Another, this time with 40,000 km on the clock sold for £237,500 ($334,780) and one with 110,000 km for £175,000 ($246,680).
It was the same story with two 997 GT3 RS 4.0 models. One, with just 713 miles, sold for an astounding £436,000 ($614,586) and the other, with a still fresh 8898 miles for a relatively conservative £272,500 ($384,116). (The other difference with these cars was that the former was an extremely rare C16 UK-spec model).
Two Ferrari F512M models also achieved very different results. One in right-hand drive with 14,372 miles sold for £274,000 ($387,640), some 12 percent above our top Hagerty Price Guide price. The other, a left-hand drive example with 40,000 KM on the clock that has just emerged from recent storage found just £168,500 ($237,518), a shade above our condition #3 value
All in all, it was another masterful show from Collecting Cars. Some U.S. readers may be unfamiliar with the site, founded in 2019 by longtime dealer Edward Lovett, but it has emerged as a household name among U.K. collectors. From the use of ambassador Chris Harris to create a walk-around video of the collection to flooding social media with tempting details of the lots, Collecting Cars managed to create a real sense of occasion. During the last few hours of the auction, a friend even excitedly texted me to ask if I was watching, something I’ve never experienced with an online sale before.
The collection also hit exactly the right notes in terms of what is hot at the moment: Hagerty’s quotes for 1990s and early 2000s performance cars have never been higher, and the performance Porsche market seems to be booming. Each of the cars—almost without exception—also had something special about it. So, does this affect the market for these cars? Invariably it will, especially those that have outperformed our Guide prices. The benchmark has once again crept just a little bit higher.