One to Buy: ex-Porsche Hekla / Carl Thompson 1965 Porsche 904 Carrera GTS
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Having created various iterations of the four-cam Carrera-engined 356 for competition use, Porsche came up with the all-new mid-engined 904 GTS to serve as a replacement for the 1964 racing season.
The 904 was the first Porsche to use a ladder-type chassis which was then draped in a handsome fibreglass body (another Porsche first). 904s were normally equipped with a 180bhp two-litre Flat 4 engine although the works team used both six and eight cylinder motors at various times while contesting the Protoype class.
During a stellar career, the 904 went on to dominate the under two-litre GT class of the 1964 and ‘65 World Sportscar Championships. Perhaps most famously, it secured an outright victory at the ‘64 Targa Florio thanks to factory drivers Antonio Pucci and Colin Davis.
Such was demand, production ultimately exceeded the 100-car requirement to qualify for the Group 3 GT category.
Currently on offer at the Grand Prix Classics showroom in La Jolla, California, is the second-to-last 904 GTS produced: chassis 107.
The third of only four Series 2 variants built, these last-of-line derivatives featured an array of uprated parts to include a reinforced chassis, improved brakes, a centre-fill gas tank, shortened doors with pull-up plastic windows and a subtly reworked Kamm-style tail.
Originally used as a promotional vehicle by Porsche of Hekla in Iceland, chassis 107 was then sold to American privateer Carl Thompson who used it for SCCA Midwest region events.
Today, this exceptional 904 GTS remains in highly correct condition having undergone a recent sympathetic restoration.
