There will be plenty of four-wheeled fantasies up for grabs at Gooding’s Pebble Beach car auction, which takes place next month as part of the city’s annual Concours d’Elegance, perhaps the greatest annual gathering of serious auto enthusiasts on earth.
The otherworldly 1960 Abarth 1000. The ‘84 Middle East Rally champ. The ‘46 Cisitalia driven by Piero Taruffi at the 1948 Mille Miglia.
But there’s only one ride that’s really making our spurs jingle-jangle: Paul Newman’s ‘79 Porsche 935 (above).
The top-drawer competition car was helmed by Butch Cassidy himself, who made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in the lollipop red racer in ‘79, snagging second place overall. Fifty-four years young at the time, he drew the largest Le Mans crowd to date.
But the steed’s history lived on. In 1980, she was sponsored by Apple Computers, and to this day is the only racer the tech company has supported. And come ‘81, she took home the overall winner at 24 Hours of Daytona, driven by Brian Redman and Bob Garretson, and then nabbed first overall in 12 Hours of Sebring with Wayne Baker, Jim Mullen and Kees Nierop at the wheel.
Restored in ‘06 by Porsche specialist Paul Willison to its ‘79 Le Mans “Hawaiian Tropic” livery, the 935 more recently took Best in Class at the ‘07 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
Despite a pre-auction estimated value of $4.5m-$5.5m, we still think she’s a steal.
Here’s a couple of the others we love:
1960 Abarth 1000
1946 Cisitalia
1984 Porsche
Main image: Keystone / Stringer
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