Car of the Week: This Ultra-Rare 1959 Porsche Raced in the Congo. Now It’s Heading to Auction.
The collector-car world will start the new year with Mecum’s biggest auction, which will be held at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Fla., from January 4 through 15. One main attraction that rolls out on Saturday, January 7, is a 1959 Porsche 718 RSK center-seat race car. It’s being offered from the estate of Rick Grant III, who acquired it for his collection in 1990.
Adding an early Porsche competition car to one’s stable is an uncommon opportunity, as many—or most—were ravaged by time and attrition in their early race careers, long before they became the multimillion dollar treasures they are today. Chassis No. 718-028 was built in 1959 with a center-seat cockpit and delivered new to its first owner, Christian Goethals of Belgium, who raced it for one season and took first place overall at the 1959 Leopoldville Grand Prix in the Belgian Congo. This car went on to place sixth overall and third in class at the 1960 Buenos Aires 1000km Grand Prix, followed by two overall victories at the Lance Anvers hillclimb in Belgium.
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According to the Mecum Auctions lot description, with the conclusion of his first racing season with the car, Goethals had Porsche install a 1,600 cc engine. The car then remained at the factory in Stuttgart, Germany, until Goethals sold it to Carmelo Guiffre of Mohawk, N.Y. Eventually, Rick Grant of Dayton, Ohio, acquired the car, commissioning a restoration for vintage racing. Over the course of his ownership, it ran in more than 100 events with driver John Higgins behind the wheel.
Introduced in 1957 and produced through 1962, the 718 RSK features a spaceframe chassis and Porsche’s Type 547 roller-crankshaft engine used in its predecessor, the 550 Spyder. In comparison with the flat-four, pushrod engines used in contemporary production Porsches and Volkswagens, Porsche’s Type 547/3, a 1,587 cc, DOHC flat-four, which developed about 142 hp, was a notoriously complicated and high-strung design.
Of the approximately 34 examples of the 718 RSK constructed, six were produced with the center-seat setup and only four came from the factory with the ability to convert between center and offset steering, thus allowing for a left-hand drive, two-seater configuration for F2 and sports car racing, a swap that could be accomplished within a few hours. Nimble and light, the model was a “giant killer” in the hands of great drivers on the right circuit, like the 718 RSK that finished third overall at Le Mans in 1958, besting much more powerful competition.
Chassis No. 718-028 is rare in retaining most of its original aluminum bodywork by Wendler. The complicated Type 547/3 engine (No. 90220), dual Weber 46 IDM1 carburetors and five-speed transmission were rebuilt by Bill Doyle at Rennwagen Motor Company in Costa Mesa, Calif. Doyle’s shop specializes in restoration of the Ernst Fuhrmann four-cam engines and the race cars powered by them.
Included in the sale are letters and telegrams dated from 1963 through 1964 from Goethals to Guiffre, shipping invoices for the car’s export from Germany to New York in 1964, and an original Porsche 718 RSK driver’s manual. Rare to market, fewer than a half-dozen examples have sold at auction over the past three years, fetching between $2.2 million and $5.1 million. Bidding for this particular car is estimated to go as high as $4 million.
Click here for more photos of the 1959 Porsche 718 RSK on offer through Mecum Auctions.
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