The auction at RM Sotheby’s has closed on the Porsche 906 Carrera 6 sports car, which was born more than half a century ago, in 1966. The car was sold not quite in its original form, but bidding reached 2,205,000 dollars. Such a high price is explained by the car’s condition and its rich racing history.

The Porsche 906 is considered the first sports prototype whose design was based on the Porsche 911 — the previous-generation racing car, the 904, had largely used solutions from the Porsche 356. The car featured a tubular space frame and fibreglass body panels, yet was road legal.

The example offered for sale is one of 52 906s built by the company with two-litre engines from the 911 Carrera. The engines were substantially reworked, including the use of a number of magnesium-alloy components. Output on the racing 906s reached 210 hp, which combined with a weight of 580 kg gave dynamics that were impressive for the second half of the 1960s.

Porsche 906s were built mainly for private teams and for several years dominated both the most prestigious European endurance races and less well-known events such as hill climbs. This particular car has more than 80 races and a great many victories to its name.


After its racing career the car changed hands repeatedly; somewhere in the early 1980s one of the collectors dismantled it, but the restoration went no further. The Porsche 906 passed from owner to owner as a kind of kit, and work on restoring the rarity began only in the mid-2000s. The sports car is now fitted with an alternative 2.3-litre engine built in 2012. That was done so as not to worry about the original engine during appearances at various retro rallies. The original four-cylinder unit, incidentally, was included in the lot.