BaT Auction Success Story: Irony Comes in Black

This Success Story comes to us from BaT member Shasta_McNasty, who won this 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa from carl48 in an August 2025 BaT auction:

It was Jeremy Clarkson’s fault, really. I was perfectly happy with my 2001 Boxster S. I still am, in fact. It’s a great car. But I had a niggling thought in the back of my mind—put there by Mr. Clarkson—that a Boxster is not a 911, every time I drove it. The engine may be in the correct place in the Boxster, but it’s in the wrong place in the 911. Yes, the Boxster has way more luggage space for a long weekend away than a 911. And yes, the Boxster is a much better value than a 911. But in the end, it’s not a 911, and it was impossible to escape the feeling that Porsche artificially crippled the Boxster to ensure the 911 remained the more desirable car. I had a similar feeling pulling up next to Corvettes as a former Camaro driver. So it was probably inevitable that I would eventually get a 911. In late 2023, I seriously thought about buying one. But which one? I considered water-cooled cars, but I have a soft spot for air-cooled vehicles. Five of my six motorcycles were air-cooled, so why not get an air-cooled 911 to match?!

I may have also been influenced by 1980s advertising. In late 2024, I started actively searching. Due to my budget, I focused on pre-964 impact bumper cars (1974 to 1989 model years), with a preference for a Carrera 3.2. At first, I only looked at coupes versus Targas or cabrios in “interesting” colors (i.e., not black, white, silver, or Guards Red). But my pesky budget raised its head once again. “Interesting” colors often come with huge price premiums. The Porsche Club of America even made a website showcasing all the colors, ranking them by rarity. Fairly quickly, I expanded my search for any color car. I have owned several black cars in the past, so owning one was my least-preferred option due to the PITA factor of keeping it clean (this is what writers call “foreshadowing”).

More foreshadowing: in the summer of 2025, I widened my search parameters to include Targas because these were a bit cheaper than coupes. My wife prefers open cars, while I do not really like the look of 911 Cabrios. In some ways, a Targa was a good compromise.

In August 2025, I placed a bid on a black 1985 Carrera 3.2 Targa on Bring a Trailer. I put my bid in during the last two minutes, fully expecting to be outbid immediately. However, I was not. As the clock ticked down, I prepared myself for a “reserve not met.” I was simultaneously surprised, excited, and terrified when I won the auction. When I called my wife, she reminded me that I had given her firm instructions several years ago not to let me ever buy another black car. That’s on me.

I won the auction Sunday afternoon and immediately got in touch with the seller, @carl48, making plans to pick the car up in New Jersey the following Saturday. In the meantime, I paid Carl, insured the car, and borrowed an open trailer from a friend. Bring a Trailer, indeed! I also made an appointment at the Secretary of State to title and register the car, along with another appointment at the local-to-me air-cooled specialist shop for a post-purchase inspection to address any maintenance needs since the car had seen little usage for the last decade.

I started my 600-mile drive from my home in Michigan early Friday morning. If you like history, I highly recommend Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast. He takes deep dives into topics like the life of Alexander the Great or the Pacific campaigns of WWII. A typical series spans four to six episodes, with each episode being about four hours long. Perfect for long road trips. I arrived in New Jersey just in time to park the truck and trailer, and grabbed some Mexican food for dinner. Then I crashed for the night at a cheap motel. In hindsight, I should have spent a little more on that; the bed was awful, and the room was dingy.

I met Carl at the US Post Office at 7:00 the next morning. It seemed fitting since I was picking up my package—the 911! He drove it up, accompanied by some delicious Jersey breakfast sandwiches for me to eat on the drive home. After a quick drive through the local park to get the feel of the clutch (this was only the second air-cooled 911 that I had ever driven), we loaded the car onto the trailer, and he walked the two blocks home.

The drive home was mostly uneventful except for pulling a couple of tons of trailer and cargo, which makes one sensitive to just how crazy drivers are today. The only hiccup came about ten miles from home when a truly torrential downpour started. It served as a good test for the targa top seals. I was pleased to find that the interior stayed dry during the trip and the 45 minutes the car sat on the trailer in my driveway waiting for the rain to abate. I did not want to take the car off the trailer in a monsoon!

The Secretary of State and the mechanic shop were my next stops. I had budgeted 10% of the purchase price of the car toward deferred maintenance, including replacement of the 24-year-old tires. Thankfully, the shop didn’t find any real surprises in my post-purchase inspection, beyond one stuck spark plug (which was mentioned in the service records Carl gave me). The mechanic removed the stuck plug without incident; it took him almost an hour, working carefully to avoid breaking it off in the head. He also didn’t find any broken head studs, meaning we didn’t have to drop the motor for further repairs. Additional service included a valve adjustment, a compression test, an oil change, a brake service, installation of a new battery, and replacement spark plug wires. All this came in at or almost exactly my expected recommissioning costs.

Still, I had some minor issues to deal with on my own. The most significant issue left was a key-off battery drain, which I have since traced to the non-working aftermarket stereo. Carl had mentioned the battery drain issues earlier and recommended I make use of the installed battery cut-off switch when not storing the car on a maintenance charger. Although I think I solved the problem, I am still using the battery cut-off switch when parking it for more than a few hours. A few other minor things remain for me to address over the winter.

My first real test came in October when I drove the car two hours to the DeutscheMarques Oktoberfest event at the Gilmore Car Museum and then back home. The 911 performed perfectly. The only issue I experienced was some wind noise from the targa top, which “they all have.” Both the automatic climate control and the cruise control functioned correctly, although the cruise control speed steadily drifted upwards by some 5 mph over 20 minutes.

So far, we are enjoying being a two-Porsche family, even though parking has been a little tight since we just bought my wife a Ford Flex. The Flex is her absolute favorite car in the world. This one is her third.

Twins—just like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger!

If you have a Success Story about a car you’ve bought or sold on BaT, please send a few lines and pictures (or a video) to community.content@bringatrailer.com, and we’ll send you a $50 credit to the BaT Gear Store when your story posts to the site.

We love to hear from satisfied BaT buyers and sellers, and a Success Story feature is a great addition to any car’s history when you’re ready to sell.