This year certainly wasn’t the first time Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Want your very own overall Le Mans-winning Porsche? Look no further! The 1982 Porsche 956 that won the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans overall—chassis 956-003—goes up for auction at Pebble Beach this year.
Gooding & Company expects that the number 3 car pictured above will fetch between $7-9 million at auction. That’s a small price to pay for one of the greatest Porsches of all time, however, according to Autoblog, even fetching $7 million would make it the most expensive Porsche ever sold at auction.
The Porsche 956 was the first ground effects Porsche, built for Le Mans’ insane Group C class. Rothmans Porsche was the factory-backed team of the day, and they debuted this car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1982, where according to Autoblog, chassis 956-003 took second place.
It wasn’t until its second year when it nabbed that crucial overall win. Not only did 956-003 win the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the hands of Vern Schuppan, Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert, but Porsche’s dominant 956 made one of its best posters of all time possible:
Gooding & Company will be auctioning off the car at Pebble Beach, on August 15-16, 2015. As it is one of only ten works Porsches (and twenty-nine total 956s, for that matter), a Le Mans winner and driven by a famous works team, it isn’t cheap, but I can’t yell out “crack pipe!” on principle. It’s a works 956. You know what to do.
I’ll confirm what those voices in the back of your head are saying right now. Of course you should buy it, but only if you promise to use it. Vintage racing or bust!
Gooding & Company’s listing for the car can be found here.
Photo credits: Porsche
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.