This car, Lot 112, sold for $77,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s online sale on March 25, 2026.
Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann, best known as the architect of Porsche’s fabulous four-cam Carrera engines of the 1950s and ’60s, returned to the company in 1972 as chairman of the board. With ever-more-restrictive emission controls facing automakers, Fuhrmann directed Porsche’s efforts toward water-cooled engines and phasing out the 911. The death sentence levied on the 911 ultimately cost Fuhrmann his job, but the cornerstones of Porsche’s water-cooled future were laid. Hence the birth of the landmark 924 and 928 programs later that decade, representing the bookends of Porsche’s late-1970s lineup.
By 1980, the 924 had been developed into a proper racing platform, with three turbocharged 924 GTPs finishing 6th, 12th and 13th at that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The third of these Le Mans cars (924003) soon made its way to Holbert Racing in Warrington, PA, to compete in the U.S. IMSA and Trans Am series in 1981.
Racing royalty
Bob Holbert was one of the first Porsche dealers in the U.S. He was also an outstanding racer with great success in major national and international sports-car events, first mostly driving Porsches, and then Cobras for Carroll Shelby. His son Al followed in his footsteps, earning multiple Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring triumphs, five IMSA titles and ultimately becoming the director of Porsche Motorsports in North America. The Holberts remain true icons of Porsche racing to this day.
Meanwhile, Holbert Racing became a thriving business outside the dealership, with both discrete customer racing and internal racing operations. The customer side was successful selling all manner of racing and performance equipment, including 924 widebody kits, with the original fiberglass molds pulled from the 924 GTP noted above (SCM# 6971195).
An outlaw auction
Our subject car’s consignor, Magnus Walker, made his fortune both as a clothing designer to musicians and movie stars, as well as through opportunistic industrial real-estate purchases in the Los Angeles area, which he rented out part time as filming locations. His success allowed him to indulge his dream of collecting and customizing Porsche 911s and, as with his Serious Clothing line, Walker’s car builds bore his unique style. When the documentary “Urban Outlaw” was released in 2012, the story of his Porsche passion introduced him to a far broader audience. He instantly became a fixture in the Porsche scene and now might best be described as a serial entrepreneur, influencer and folk hero within the collector community.
Characterizing the sale as “shedding my skin,” and “kind of a rebirth,” Walker chose to downsize and refocus his collection via a one-off RM Sotheby’s online auction, offering 16 complete cars and 144 other lots of projects, parts and memorabilia. Half the automotive inventory was of the “transaxle” variety — front-engine, water-cooled 924s, 928s, 944s and 968s — with all but our subject car in largely stock condition.
Rags to riches
For market perspective, the normally aspirated 924, with its 110-hp 2-liter Audi-derived engine, resides at the very bottom of the Porsche collectibility chart. A replacement for the outgoing entry-level 914, the 924 sits just below its 143-hp turbocharged sibling, the market for which is conveniently defined by the other 924 Turbo sold at this auction. Lot 101, a stock silver-and-black 1980 924 Turbo with similar scruffy-driver condition and 50k-ish mileage as our subject car, sold for a market-correct price just under $15k (SCM# 9671925).
At the other end of the transaxle hierarchy, several rare models have traded hands over the past 13 months, including a nice 968 Club Sport in rare and striking Maritime Blue sold on Bring a Trailer for $84k (SCM# 6968894), a Weissach-built 944 Rothmans Turbo Cup racer sold dirt cheap last month at Broad Arrow Amelia Island for $89k, and two 924 Carrera GTs sold in the U.K. by Iconic Auctioneers in August and November 2024 for $77k and $73k, respectively. Note that each of these factory-built models has a far better financial upside than our privately modified subject car, which landed smack in the middle of this lofty grouping, but at over 60 grand more than the standard Turbo.
So the question is, why did bidders assign such a premium to an intrinsically low-value object? Obviously, it’s not model driven, and one could not easily argue it was the Walker provenance, as that did not provide any bump for the stock 924 Turbo. Neither car was significantly modified by Walker in his unique style. So, by the process of elimination, it’s either the genuine uniqueness of our subject car, bidders’ “red mist,” the functionally remote Holbert connection or simply shrewd marketing by RM Sotheby’s.
Eye of the beholder
It didn’t hurt that the widebody Turbo has been upgraded with thoughtful performance-enhancing modifications, or that only a few-dozen sets of “Superwide” fenders, at most, were sold in-period, per Bob Russo, Holbert Racing’s customer-division manager at the time. Or that our subject car may be the same one used for Holbert’s catalog photos. And perhaps most importantly, with just three owners prior to Walker, that this widebody Turbo has lived an exponentially better life than most 924s, many of which were victims of abuse and neglect due to their low value.
RM Sotheby’s was clever to link two highly regarded names from the Porsche community in Magnus Walker and Holbert Racing, the latter being unabashedly incorporated into this Turbo’s listing title. I can only wonder what this car might have sold for if Walker had a hand in its customization, or if Holbert’s shop had more than a finger in it beyond producing its fenders.
It is impossible to know what motivates buyers in a given auction moment, but logically speaking, this car was extremely well sold. However, for the right niche buyer, the price probably looks fair, as this car is most certainly more valuable than the sum of its parts.
