Homologation rules for racing have been responsible for some of the best cars in history, with handfuls of road-going race cars being built just to satisfy the regulations.
Ferrari’s most expensive and sought-after car, the 250 GTO, is perhaps the world’s most famous example of a homologation special.
Today Porsche’s main road-going sports cars today are mostly limited to the 911, Cayman, and Boxster, but there is a rarer road car that appeared thanks to homologation rules.
Built as just 106 examples, the 904 Carrera GTS has its own interesting story behind the elegant design, and today they are pretty valuable.
We take a brief look at how the car came to be and how many dollar bills you need to exchange to own the keys to a 904 today.
The Porsche 904 Carrera GTS: A Hardcore Race Car You Could Actually Buy And Drive
Drawn up by the Porsche team as a race car to succeed the mid-engined 718 racer – 718 is the name you’ll see on today’s Cayman and Boxster intended to evoke the heritage of the past’s agile, small-engined race winners from Stuttgart - this new car would be innovative and fast.
Porsche wanted to use the name 904, but officially went with Carrera GTS due to problems with naming disputes.
In the end, the rear-mid engined 904 Carrera GTS went with a fiberglass-reinforced plastic shell over a ladder chassis, the standard engine initially being a four-cylinder 2-liter engine with 180 hp; later 6-cylinder and 8-cylinder engines were also created for the 904.
This kind of power (up to 240 hp for the 8-cylinder) in a car weighing 1400 lbs meant 0-60 mph in around 6 seconds and nimble handling – good numbers for 1963.
Initially costing under $10,000 this car has likely appreciated massively today considering its heritage, beauty, and rarity – we check to see how much we can find one for online.
Porsche’s 904: Expensive In Every Way, But Worth Every Penny For The Soundtrack
As you might imagine, 904s are very, very expensive – if you can find one, that is.
With around 100 made and possibly fewer surviving, it’s just as rare as that Ferrari 250 GTO we mentioned earlier; Classic.com puts the value estimate at around $1.7 million currently.
The lowest sale in recent years listed on Classic was $788,000 in 2020 - presumably to help stave off costs for its owner during the pandemic - plus in 2022 of this year a car sold at Bonhams in Paris for over $1.5 million.
904’s pop up for sale periodically on auction sites like RMSoutheby’s and Bonhams and rarely go to the standard used car classifieds, but we found this 1965 Porsche 904 up on Classicdriver courtesy of Gooding + Company at an estimate of $2,500,000 - $2,864,000 – a 6-cylinder version.
The car looks great and has been refurbished completely in its life now looking factory fresh, with the correct 6-cylinder engine which was used to race against Ford GT40s and other legendary racing machines.
An impressive-yet-expensive machine today, with skinny tires and unassisted access to that flat-six engine - and the rasps it emits via those twin exhausts - this would surely sit high on anyone’s list of lottery-win dream car drives.