Albert Einstein once remarked that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, clearly foreseeing the consequences of using an old Alfa Romeo on a daily basis. The late Matthew Drendel took this truism and applied it to his racing career.
This privateer racer started off his career in a Ferrari 355 Challenge, but after several “painful” losses, transferred his allegiances to a Porsche 911 GT3-R. Soon enough, he won, taking the 2001 GT Team Championship with G&W Motorsports.
This proved pivotal, and kick started a love affair with the “silly, 40 year old rear-engined car from Germany”. He began collecting Porsches - starting with a 930 road car - and soon his relationship with the marque took on professional levels of worship. He founded the Heritage Motorwerks Porsche dealer in North Carolina, and built up a collection of cars widely regarded as the world’s most significant private hoard of turbocharged Porsches.
Sadly, Matthew passed away in November 2010, but if you’re already a fully subscribed Porsche enthusiast, you’ll already know about his astonishing collection. And thus, you might be interested to know Gooding & Company has auctioned off his entire haul. The whole lot. Seventeen Porsches.
One of these includes a 1973 Porsche 917/30 Can-Am Spyder; a car packing a 1,000hp turbocharged flat-twelve engine, and one of four examples completed at the Porsche factory. It has been meticulously restored, was raced at the Monterey Historics, and was presented in Penske-Sunoco livery. It went for an astonishing £2.8m ($4.4m).
Click through for highlights from this fantabulous auction.
Images: Pawel Litwinski ©Gooding & Company
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