The book title, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, comes to mind when viewing these crushed Porsche 356s. A recent Copart listing shows the remains of four highly-prized air-cooled Porsches, ranging in significance from a nicely preserved 356 C coupe to an exceedingly rare Carrera GT, as seen above. Given the lot location being in North Carolina, it seems likely these are the salvageable remnants from the Bob Ingram collection. Check out the listing here on Copart and scroll through the photos to see the extent of the damage to these once highly-prized collector cars. Can – or should – they be restored?
Barn Finds reader Desmond G spotted these wrecked Porsches on a Copart lot in North Carolina, and postulated that a building collapse took them out. It certainly seems like a fair suggestion, as all four cars were evidently crushed right around the back window and just ahead of the engine compartment. When racking my brain about a possible mass-casualty event, I recalled this story about a deadly gas line explosion in Durham, North Carolina. The sticker on the door leads us to believe that this ’59 participated in the Colorado Grand! The cream-colored 1955 convertible is labeled a Speedster, and certainly seems like the real deal based on the photos and the suggested value, which Copart pegs at $295,000. Given the scale of the Ingram stash, I’m sure it’s real.
Articles that popped up after the fire indicated many of the cars were being restored. I could be “off” that these aren’t Ingram cars, but I’m pretty confident they are. I’d love to know what the determining factor was for saving a vehicle versus writing it off. A video interview with Bob Ingram indicated that Hagerty was an exceptional partner in assessing the damages and moving forward with the resurrection of the damaged vehicles (and they are – I highly recommend that if you have a collector vehicle, you insure it through them or JC Taylor). Sure enough, this news article and interview with the owner confirms cars like the one-of-15 Carrera GT could not be salvaged.
It breaks my brain just a little bit to rationalize how you make the decision not to restore truly significant cars. Even acknowledging that structural damage of this magnitude is often a death knell, I’m shocked that cars like this 356 C coupe and the Speedster above couldn’t be saved, unless they were non-matching examples with other ills not yet fixed while in the collection. The Carrera GT is a monumental loss and I’m sure at least a few enthusiasts with impressive purse strings are considering bringing it back from the dead, even if the restoration costs will still exceed its impressive value. The Ingram collection will move forward, and thankfully, the 1961 Porsche Carrera Abarth GTL has already been restored and returned to its winning ways at Pebble Beach.
Just very sad to see such valuable and rare automotive specimens reduced to salvage.
does not look like these cars burned….. i think they can be fixed… a shame to see the damage though
I live in the big city of Mebane and only a few miles from the copart. I will have to stop by and take a look, though I am definitely not a buyer, can’t afford them and not a Porsches junkie.
I remember when this happened, my wife works for Duke Clinical Research on the 19th floor and saw the explosion. There was a lot of confusion when it happened and it was a tragic accident.
First I saw Mebane then your name. Small world!
Given the current value of old Porsches and the expertise of restoration shops, those wrecks are quite repairable.
356s get ‘restored’ from less all the time. That a couple of these are actually rare variants makes it all the more likely that they would be recreated from title documents if necessary. The only question is whether or not sanity will prevail in the pricing to get the documentation needed to create more new 356s.
These would make good Engine transplants for VW cars. 😏
Okay i just hope they get restored 👍👀
Yup, I remember that one from April of last year. A cable contractor drilled into a gas line and an hour passed(unreported) with 46K cubic feet of gas leaking out. Kaboom. Two persons died. Hope Mr. Ingram had sufficient insurance because I’d be mighty pissed if those beauties had been mine!
To rebody the back half of one of these would be simple. Unbolt the back half from the floor pan cut the rocker at the back side of the door sills and at the top of the a pillars now the damaged part is gone. Buy a body shell cut it in the same places and weld it onto the front half or undamaged part of any one of these cars. Then move on to body and paint, finally reassembly.
All Porsches are unibody, there is no pan to unbolt so clipping one of these is not “simple”. Spare body shells don’t exist, but there are good sources for new replacement panels.
The Carrera GT is valuable and significant and will be repaired.
The Speedster as well, but the C coupe? Maybe not.
I stand corrected on it being a unibody, but all that means to me is more cutting and welding. Still a straightforward fix.
I did a quick search on line and there is plenty of body panels available to restore these cars but there not cheep.
The vehicles were covered by insurance, They are at an insurance salvage facility. Nothing to worry about and nothing to see. The company who caused the accident most likely would be liable. A contractor carries insurance.
If not the owner who had the means to have a rare Porsche collection would have had stated value insurance on the collection.
The choice then would be to take a check and get paid exactly what they are worth and walk away.
Or take a check and repair the vehicles and have salvage stamped on the title. Spending said check plus more out of your pocket to restore only to end up with pretty cars again……Only now worth half the value. Can’t run with away from salvage history. Ever
The previous owner is obviously an astute businessman. He looked at his options and would be a fool not to take the money… and run. No one to fight over a bunch of rare cars. The family can now fight over a very nice nest egg.
It is a sad loss but an opportunity for someone else. They are Porsche. They WILL live again in some form or another.
I agree with your comments, but I do have a question. If a car is as rare and significant as some of these, does a salvage stamp matter? Or does it, in fact, add value because of the story? The history of the car. If those flattened Corvettes in Bowling Green were sold, they would undoubtedly be worth more than scrap metal price because of what they are and their story. Right?
We have all seen cars in worse shape than these get rebuilt. As you said if they are significant cars and have proper rebuild I think the salvage title because near meaningless. The dollars and cents side makes sense. They will be rebuilt and will be worth less at the beginning so the owner probably did get more money out of them.
The ugly little things never looked better.
No bolts to take off. They are fully welded together. No separate pan like the VWs. As you say, a rear cut is fairly easy to put on. Have done 911s, 914s, and considerable parts of a couple 356s. Our Bugeye race car is front half ’72 Midget and rear half Bugeye.
If you get a chance to go to the Porsche week our in So Cal, you can visit shops that rebuild cars in worse shape than these. I visited one shop that specializes in sheet metal and they had a pre A on a rack. All that was left was the dash board and the firewall. The rest had been cut out due to rust. They were creating the rest of the parts by hand. These cars are a dream compared to that one.
By the way, the engine in that 356C (Carrera 2) is worth a quarter of a million dollars if not severely damaged. That car will also be rebuilt.
When Ferd designed the bodies of his cars, he clearly had a turd in mind. Never will understand why anyone thinks Porsches are anything but ugly. I know many think they are the cat’s pajamas, but no amount of pointing out how awesome they might be can get me past what looks like something I might find on my lawn.
Youze peoples are nuts ! 🚀
One word……Aerodynamics.
What a really crappy deal to see your valued collection reduced to this!! I’m sure he had insurance but finding another for the money might not be that easy!!!
Just makes me think..i wish I had bought the 2 sitting on blocks across the street when I was 17,,,, Crazy money