Porsches and a Private Jet

A client had asked me to find a few cars for him, amongst them an Austin Healey 100M and a Porsche 356 cabriolet.

We found a selection, and he found a very beautiful one himself, for sale in Monaco, however I was of the opinion that it was too expensive. Whilst looking at this one I continued the search and found a beautiful example, fully restored, down the coast, just beyond St Tropez. I went down and inspected it and after some discussion on the price, we agreed a price that was €42,400 LESS than the one in Monaco.

We duly bought this car and had it delivered to a parking space that I had found for him in Monaco. Once it was registered and insured the client took if for a drive and was absolutely delighted. I have driven a couple of other 100Ms, and they are a joy, with their fold flat windscreens and fabulous exhaust note, this one has a side exhaust and is one of the nicest to drive.

We then proceeded with our hunt for a perfect Porsche 356 cabriolet for him. We found a perfect looking black one in Berlin, but sadly, although the bodywork was immaculate, the mechanicals had several issues as we found out when it was delivered to a local classic Porsche expert also in Berlin…all arranged in German, thank goodness for Google translate!

We found a second Porsche in North West France, that was in very good condition indeed but sadly the seller wasn’t prepared to move on the price, so we had to leave that one for someone else.

Finally we found a very nice looking example in Strasbourg. The owner, this time said he would like to come too, so I said “yes of course, let me look at flights for us to go”….he said “no, don’t bother”, which was disappointing, until he called back to say he had booked a private jet for us to go in! We went the private terminal at Nice Airport, where we met our pilots Max and Stephanie, and boarded our Beechcraft Premier 1, a small and fast 8 seater.

The car this time was mechanically very good but the bodywork although extremely good had a few rust bubbles. It was decided that this car might be the one as long as the price was correct. We agreed a price and then they quoted €37,000 for a complete strip down and repaint. This seemed a bit steep to me, so I contacted Alex, a very skilled bodywork and paintshop man outside Nice, after some discussion we agreed on a price to do the same work for €9,100. The new owner was extremely pleased, and we await the result in mid April. I have used Alex before on a classic Alfa Romeo and a Rolls Royce Corniche Convertible and his work is outstanding, so no concerns there!

The joy of the private jet was not only the luxury of having one’s own plane for the flight, but the time saved, we left Nice at 12.30pm and were back again by 4.20pm, rather than probably having to stay the night in a hotel to allow for the timings of commercial flights. 

It has been a very enjoyable time working for this client, we have found him exactly what he wants and saved him almost €70,000 on the two cars, which is considerably more than our fees. He I interested in a Jaguar XK120 or XK150 roadster next, so we will see what we can find him and I’ll keep you posted!