Rare Porsche 911 Turbo 'slant-nose' leaves Pompton Lakes lot amid recent swell in interest

POMPTON LAKES — A rare performance Porsche that had been drawing eyes on Wanaque Avenue left for New York Friday morning.

The vented oddity had been on consignment at International Autosport for the past year, with its impracticality and price in a down market for exotic cars putting off most buyers, said Rick Corsaro of the high-end, used-car dealership.

The buyer had known about the car for months, but only this week decided to buy the silver on black 911 Turbo “slant-nose” amid a recent swell in interest, Corsaro said.

“I’ve had the guy who basically wrote the book on Porsche slant-noses interested in the car, literally wrote the book, and a couple other pretty high-end collectors interested,” Corsaro said.

It went to Long Island for restoration early Friday, he said.

Exotic investment

John Vogt, who sells rare used Porsches at his High Marques Motor Cars dealership in Morristown, said the slant-nose would have been gobbled up several years ago at its list price of $199,999.

“Two-hundred (thousand dollars) is a lowered number but still an amazing number from whence it came,” Vogt said. “If they had bailed years before, they would have gotten [$250,000] maybe more.”

Financial speculators, after muscling enthusiasts out of the high-end car market by adding exotics into their portfolio in recent years, stepped back from the market two years ago to gauge valuations, Vogt said. The bubble market that allowed speculators to profit subsequently stalled, he said.

“The stall is only fueled again by people buying in, and no one did because they saw the stall,” he said.

The 911 at International Autosport was listed for about $6,000 less than one could expect to pay for a 1987 Turbo Targa slant-nose in excellent condition, according to car insurance and valuation company Hagerty, which declined to comment. Bought new by its consignor from Alpine, the car has less than 25,000 miles, its stock toolkit and a certificate of authenticity.

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The slant-nose’s sale price was undisclosed, but a sale at list could turn out well for both parties in five years, Vogt said. The car’s pedigree combined with its rarity make it highly-desirable, said Chris Erven of the Porsche Club of America’s Northern New Jersey chapter. The top-end 911 is an 80s icon, akin to a Lamborghini Countach or Ferrari Testarossa, he said.

“I’ve only seen a handful of them in person and they always draw a crowd,” said Erven.

Supercar styling

The slant-nose is made distinct by slashes on its front fenders, a massive whale tale and ducts masking the car's bulging rear end. The look is all-important, said Corsaro. With 282 horsepower, the once-mighty Porsche is less powerful than a new Chrysler Pacifica.

“For 1987 it was something, [but] most cars out there will go right by it,” Corsaro said. “But, for the people who buy this, it’s not going to be let’s go commute to work in this car.”

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Despite its modern status as a trophy-winning show car, the slant-nose was inspired by a race car. The first slant-noses started to appear out of aftermarket garages in Germany not too long after the introduction of the legendary Porsche 935 race car that competed in Le Mans and other major endurance races in 1976.

“At that point, the shape was hot, because it emulated the 935,” Vogt said.

The 935 featured a massive rear wing, but so did the 911 Turbo on which it was based. What made the race car’s shape special was trading Porsche’s trademark round headlights for a more sloping front-end to improve aerodynamics. The look and track prowess of the 935 immediately caught the attention of Porsche aficionados.

Requests for front-end modifications to the high-end 911 Turbo, called the 930, were eventually taken up by Porsche’s "sonderwunsch," or special wishes, department starting, Vogt said.

“An aftermarket one is kind of a butcher job,” Vogt said. “The factory version is a very prestigious car to have.”

Factory special

Starting in 1981, Porche wheeled new Turbos across the street from the main production line to have their new fenders ripped off and replaced in a specialzed body shop, Vogt said. The pop-up headlamps that enabled the streamlined shape were mechanized by parts from Mazda, he added.

The cost of the slant-nose modification was roughly half of the Turbo’s base price, leading to a total cost of about $106,000 for the convertible. That bill equates to roughly $240,000 in today’s dollars.

“Because of the commas and zeros, people were scared away, but they still had the lust factor for the car,” Vogt said.

Only 200 slant-noses were shipped to America in 1987, a year after the Turbo – made notorious for snap oversteer in the late 70s – returned to the U.S. market, Vogt said.

Only nine of those 1987 slant-noses were Targas, Corsaro said. Not quite a convertible, the Targa sports a detachable hardtop to couple a more rigid body with open-air driving potential.

“I’ve been selling Porsches for quite a while, and I’ve never seen one of these,” Corsaro said.

Email: zimmer@northjersey.com