Factory prototype Porsche 911 goes up for auction

According to Michael Bennett-Levy – famous as a collector of everything, in particular early technology and TV sets – the first example of anything is always worth buying, (almost) regardless of the price.

Bennett-Levy died in 2016, but were he alive today he’d probably be urging us to hold up our paddles at Bonhams during this year’s annual Bond Street sale and bid for the Bali Blue Porsche 911 pictured here – because it’s the first right-hand-drive 911 ever made.

A factory prototype built by Porsche’s ‘experimental division’, the car was collected from Germany by employees of AFN, the Isleworth, Middlesex dealer that had been the official importer of Porsche cars in Britain since 1954 prior to the founding of Porsche Cars GB in ’65 .

Having been driven back to the UK on export plates – in tandem with AFN’s last 356 demonstrator – the car was given the appropriate registration mark MMU 911C and first taxed for the road on April 1.

Being the first 911 on British shores it was initially used by AFN both for dealer training and as a rolling test bed for mechanical improvements – but it was soon sold to first owner Derek Pobjoy, who had recently founded the private Pobjoy Mint that specialised in making commemorative coins and tokens (but is scheduled to close its doors at the end of 2023).

Pobjoy returned MMU 911C to AFN and collected a brand new 911 as soon as the first official customer cars reached the UK in the late summer of 1965, after which it remained with the dealership until being bought by Formula 3 driver and Titan Cars founder Charles Lucas in 1967.

It subsequently passed to celebrated racer Willie Green (well known for campaigning cars from Anthony Bamford’s JCB collection during the ’60s and ’70s) and, before the decade was out, it was on to its fourth owner, Dr Who television production designer Roger Murray-Leach.

Several other custodians followed prior to 1997, when it was bought by current owner Simon Corbett, one of the names behind Warwickshire-based independent Porsche specialist PCT (now PCT Select).

Although the car has been repainted several times (always in the correct factory colour) it is remarkably original and, refreshingly, not in concours condition but preserved as a car for regular driving.

Hopefully the new owner will take the same attitude – even if he or she has had to fork out £500,000 (or more) for the privilege of owning this very special ‘first’.

1965 Porsche 911 Prototype. On sale with Bonhams, London, December 15. Estimate: £300,000-£500,000. bonhams.com