Time Machine

The major setback for anyone buying an historic racing car – apart from your accountant’s cardiac arrest – is the brutal hammering they’ve all had. Racing cars are sensitive souls when new. Campaigned for a few seasons in the hands of a professional hell bent on victory, and the cracks will be starting to show. Nothing is cheap on a high-end racer either, but you can be fairly sure that all of it wants replacing.

Which is where this 962C comes in. Up for sale at historic Porsche specialists Maxted-Page, it has barely turned a wheel, and even when it has things didn’t last very long.

Built by the factory in 1990, chassis 962-163 was one of the last to come out of Weissach with a water-cooled three-litre turbo. Sold to Brun Motorsport, who planned to enter it into the World Sportscar Championship, it debuted late in the season in Montreal, where it soon retired. A second outing in Mexico City proved similarly short-lived, with a broken driveshaft calling time a few weeks later.

From there it was sold into private collections in Spain and the UK, never to be raced again. Which means that what’s up for grabs is essentially a 962C with delivery miles. The chassis, bodywork and beautiful Repsol livery are all original, and the interior – the dog’s dinner of any hardened racer – is as new.

We don’t know what Maxted-Page are hoping ‘163’ will fetch and are, in all honesty, better off not even asking. But if you’ve been saving hard for the last few decades and fancy an open-door policy at most major historic motorsport events, step this right way: www.maxted-page.com/cars