Current value? My 1987 911 turbo (930)

[PcarPhil]

Hello everyone,

I'm hesitantly typing this post to inquire about a current value of my modified 1987 930 turbo. My family is thinking about making some significant life changes and in order to do so I'll need to free up a good bit of cash. So... I'm thinking about selling my '87 930. Here are the car details:

1987 911 turbo (930) with ~55k miles, clean carfax, 4th owner. I purchased this car in 2013 from a neighbor who inherited it from her uncle who had passed away. It had been sitting in her garage for a few years, rarely being driven. I felt bad for the car and knew I should give it a new lease on life.

Soon after purchasing the car I removed the engine and transmission to give everything a round of TLC and to sort the car to my liking. At the time the car was mostly stock other than a larger intercooler/turbo/exhaust. I've been hot rodding 911's for ~15 years and this car would be no different. I purchased a '87 930 transmission from CMS and had then install short gears (moving stock 3rd to the 4th position and running new 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears). I also removed a few hundred pounds of weight (AC delete, rear sound deadening, rear seat backs, fiberglass bumpers, manual seats, etc). Between the lightened weight, short gears, additional power, and wider tires this car is an absolute blast to drive on US roads - especially twisty country/hillside roads.

Complete list of aftermarket equipment:

- Garretson half bay intercooler
- K27/K29 hybrid turbo
- RarlyL8 headers w/ heat and single center out street muffler
- Wastegate dump pipe
- DP Motorsports SC/RS front bumper, TRE rear bumper
- 964 turbo Leichtbau and SC/RS inspired rear wing
- Fikse 18" wheels with Michelin 245/285 tires
- Short geared 930 transmission w/ LSD
- Recaro manual front seats
- Tarrets adjustable F/R anti sway bars
- Larger torsion bars
- Polybronze rear bushings
- Wevo/Rebel engine and trans bushings
- Bronze shift linkage bushings
- 964 3 point rear seat belts
- Spare 2 outlet muffler w/ valance
- H4 headlights
- Rubber RS front floor mats
- Clear lexan H4 removable stone guards

Maintenance highlights:

- I did an extensive tune up and engine reseal when I purchased the car. There are no oil leaks that hit the floor although some weepage is present. Leakdown results were low and consistent across all the cylinders.
- The CIS system has been simplified and is well tuned for the intercooler/headers/turbo. A wideband O2 display is mounted in the clock location. Safe AFRs through the whole power band.
- Lots of maintenance receipts from over the years including work done at big name shops like TRE and Powerhaus.
- The car continues to run stock 0.8 bar of boost for safety.

Stock equipment that has been removed but is included with the sale:

- Numbers matching 930 trans w/ LSD. This trans is in very good condition with no issues when removed
- Black leather power front seats with matching rear seat backs
- Rear 2 point seat belts
- Complete AC system
- Rear sound deadening panel
- All smog equipment minus cat
- Fog lights
- H5 headlights
- F/R bumpers and rear wing
- Spare OE front windshield w/ new trim and gasket
- Floor mats
- Air intake
- Space saver spare tire, jack, spare tire compressor, maintenance manuals, warranty book, owner’s manual

Stock equipment that I don't have:

- 7 & 9 x 16 Fuchs wheels
- Stock steering wheel
- Heat exchangers/cat/muffler
- Radio

General notes:

- I'll mention again this car is an absolute BLAST to drive! It is currently well tuned and likes to be driven.
- The sunroof needs one of the plastic guides replaced. I have the part I just haven't had the desire to mess with it. The other side had already been replaced.
- I'm 6'4" and don't fit in a sunroof coupe with stock seats. The Recaro Speed S seats sit a bit lower than stock for more headroom. In addition the drivers seat is mounted directly to the chassis seat rails with no slider (again more headroom). If this setup is not for you I can reinstall the stock seats (that include stock sliders) and keep the Recaro Speed S seats.
- The car sound levels are best described as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. At idle and cruise the car has a nice subtle tuned sound (partly due to the equal length headers) however when the wastegate opens under full boost the car sounds (and feels) like a jet due to the wastegate dump pipe. The sounds are one of my favorite parts of driving this car!
- It's possible to put this car back to stock. Between the stock parts that are included and the aftermarket parts that could be sold I suspect returning it to stock would end up not costing a significant amount of money, if any.
- The car has paint work however I don't see signs of accident damage. The black paint is deep and glossy and receives MANY compliments. However it's not perfect and has noticeable flaws here and there. I consider the car a 10 footer although many people love the paint and would call it a 2-3 footer.
- I don't do much highway driving. With the short gears this car feels very similar to early 911's on the highway. At 75 MPH the engine is running around 3500 RPM. It's perfectly happy at those speeds (and significantly higher) however for extended highway driving or high speed track use you may want to run the stock geared transmission instead. The car is currently setup perfectly for country/mountain road driving and general cruising around town.

My $0.02 on current value:

I've been trying to keep up with 930 values since I purchased the car. Of course the prices are all over the place - especially for modified cars. I'm thinking $75k with the stock parts I have included. What are your thoughts?

Here are a few current pics:











One last pic of what it looked like when I purchased it:

[specialtyoneinc]

Sweet ride. Luv the RC/SC whale tail. I think you are on the money with $75k valuation. GLWS.

[Skwerl]

At any rate, I wouldn't expect it to get more than $75k. Try posting it on some free sites like Pelican, Rennlist, etc. at that and see what bites you get, and don't be too proud to nudge it down if it doesn't move.

Definitely a nice looking ride, even if it's not a collector's dream.

[bpu699]

Curious on further input from others...

My car is almost a copy of yours, same year, similar mods/bumpers/etc...

Honestly, I think the bumpers look better than stock. The car looks "newer."

I don't plan to sell my car, but if needed, stock bumpers etc are pretty cheap. $1000 ought to do it, so it "looks" stock...

Hard to say what its worth, as values have been trending down...

Good luck!

Bo

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Have always loved how your car looks - black being my favorite color for a Turbo, and your car seems great in general, except for the transmission - 3rd gear as 4th would be absolutely unbearable to me, and probably anyone who would want to actually use the car for anything other than short, around the town trips, or for fooling around (or slow racetracks). Honestly, that would be a big roadblock for me if I were purchasing the car - even with a non-altered gearbox as part of the sale, it would suck royally to buy a Turbo and have to deal with that right away. I would think that the current gearbox will greatly limit "who" will be interested in buying your car, and also hurt the sale price significantly.

Interesting that you changed to the early Turbo tail rubber (or some kind of complete, aftermarket tail) - guess that was for looks/personal taste, since performance wise it is far inferior to the later tail (via Porsche published, wind tunnel testing)? If I bought the car, the later Turbo tail would go back on as it works better, and also looks better to me.

If I were a buyer, I would put the stock bumpers back on soon after purchase, as unlike Bo above, I think the stockers look a lot better than what you've got on there now (no offence meant, just that I bet what you have on there will limit the buying pool, and/or cause people to expect a discount).

Jeebus - complete removal of a/c?!?! That's a huge negative for anyone living in the southern part of the country, and many other areas as well, that wants to actually drive the car more than a couple months out of the year - big money to remedy (huge money if the car is simply taken to a shop for the work) so = significant purchase price discount.

[PcarPhil]

Bo,

I still have the stock bumpers and rear spoiler so it wouldn't be difficult to put the car back to stock appearance. I could go a step further and remove the single center out muffler and install the 2 out muffler and stock rear valance to go along with it. I don't have the stock Fuchs however but selling the as-new Fikse wheels would put a significant dent in the purchase price of the stock wheels.

Ronnie,

Yep short gears, no A/C, fiberglass bumpers etc etc etc. I'm not against reinstalling all the stock parts (including stock gear transmission) to make a sale but I'm not sure how it would affect price. I suspect I would keep all the non-original parts and sell them separately yet the price of the car would remain about the same.

The aftermarket rear spoiler was installed for cosmetics and weight savings. Yes it's not as functional as the stock 3.3 tail but it does just fine. The stock 3.3 tail always looked too bulky to me until the recent past where the look finally started growing on me.

The short gears are probably a love it or hate it thing. Personally I LOVE them - very similar ratios 1-4 as a late 915 trans yet with the strength of a 930 trans. The flip side is swapping in the stock trans with stock gears is easy enough that I'll consider doing it for a potential buyer.

To summarize at this point - as I suspected before creating this thread - the closer I get the car back to stock the larger the potential pool of buyers at a reasonable price. I've never done this with any of the 911 hot rods I've played with but perhaps this will be a first!

Thanks for the feedback fellow Pelicans!

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Scott, if it were mine, I would first try to sell it "as is" - you never know, the way you have it set up now might be someone else's dream car. Personally, I would never re-install stock items for a sale, as to me, that is the future buyer's problem - I just wanted to mention what I think could give pause to some potential buyers.

[PcarPhil]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

Scott, if it were mine, I would first try to sell it "as is" - you never know, the way you have it set up now might be someone else's dream car. Personally, I would never re-install stock items for a sale, as to me, that is the future buyer's problem - I just wanted to mention what I think could give pause to some potential buyers.

I agree 1000%. Again thanks for your feedback!

[galileo]

as is 65k, stock 85k

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Scott, thinking about your car some more (which I do really like, despite the picking apart I've done in this thread - always been envious of the "murdered out" look of it every time you've posted pics in the POTD thread, plus I have a thing for these cars in modded form, obviously ***forum dating*** right, Matt(s)?!?!), plenty of people like the look of the bumpers and tail, so I don't think that would be such a big deal regarding price (not talking about stock weenie buyers who don't deserve a car like yours , anyway), and opposite to me, many people do not care about a/c in these cars (fair weather & weekend warrior cars not meant for a/c, etc), so that probably won't have much of an impact, but the short geared gearbox will really limit who wants it (for the reasons already banged on); I wonder if you would be better off putting the stock geared box back on and selling the modified one entirely separately - might bring some good coin from someone looking for a short geared box for specific racing purposes (thinking of sandrails, etc., not just roadracing cars)? Guess if you don't get what you want for the car "as is", that might be worth considering . . .

[Mike80911]

Just my opinion but after trying to sell mine which has some simple bolt on mods, turbo, exhaust, headers and the other usual parts. I have found that people want stock even if you were to include the factory parts it drives the price way down. I would say put back as many stock parts as you can especially the body parts and you might get the $75K. Without doing that I am not sure it will sell for that much.
I think a lot of people who are looking at these cars today really do not have much knowledge about them and they have no idea how to swap out the aftermarket parts. Most of them have never owned a Porsche in their life much less a 930. I think they are all excited by the recent rise in value and are trying to jump on the bandwagon or are dealers looking for a quick flip.
As I said just my opinion and that is a nice car you have there GLWS

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Originally Posted by Mike80911

I think a lot of people who are looking at these cars today really do not have much knowledge about them and they have no idea how to swap out the aftermarket parts. Most of them have never owned a Porsche in their life much less a 930. I think they are all excited by the recent rise in value and are trying to jump on the bandwagon or are dealers looking for a quick flip.

Man, this is spot on, to me! I don't know how else you could explain why a lesser car would be valued higher - and as you know, a stock example of one of these is a far lesser car in terms of power, power delivery, durability/reliability, driveability, safety, comfort, etc, adnauseum - no comparison at all.

[PcarPhil]

After thinking about this more, along with the feedback you guys are giving me, I'm thinking it'll be a very good idea to reinstall the stock transmission before putting the car up for sale. I can easily get this done in a weekend by myself. No biggie.

I'm also considering the idea of marketing the car as-is but also give the buyer a chance to decide how he/she wants the car delivered. As stock as possible, hot rodded, or somewhere in between. I'd take a week off from my day job and set the car up accordingly.

BTW Rawknees - while I'm discussing current value on Pelican I'm not sure that I'll be selling the car. It's a great car that I really enjoy driving - it just so happens it's been mostly sitting for the past month or so due to the 100 degree+ heat index every day along with 80% humidity. You know... that whole A/C delete thing I've also enjoyed being a part of the 930 community. It's a very unique subset of aircooled 911 owners.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

100 + and high humidity, sez ye'?!?! The Mighty Meatlocker Turbo sez, "getcha suuummm"!!!