A 1997 Porsche 911 Turbo S in Guards Red just crossed $650,000 on Bring a Trailer with days still left on the clock. The car is a near-twin to the one Michael Jordan drove in ESPN’s The Last Dance, and the bidding war is far from over.
The auction surfaced shortly after a Ferrari 550 Maranello once owned by Jordan appeared for sale elsewhere, sending collectors and docuseries rewatchers into a frenzy. Jordan’s Guards Red Turbo S was a connoisseur’s pick, and now this virtually identical example has the auction crowd reaching for their wallets.
Only 176 of these cars were delivered in U.S. spec. That is not a typo. Porsche built fewer than 200 of the 993-chassis Turbo S for the American market, making it one of the rarest production 911s ever sold here.
This one carries 24,000 miles on its flat-six, wears its original Guards Red paint over black leather, and comes with a Porsche Certificate of Authenticity. Despite the low mileage, the car received a thorough mechanical overhaul in 2023, with belts, seals, and other perishables swapped out. It is, by all accounts, ready to drive.
The S badge was not cosmetic. Porsche fitted larger turbochargers, upgraded the cooling system, and recalibrated engine management to extract 424 horsepower from the 3.6-liter twin-turbo flat-six. Power went through a six-speed manual to all four wheels. No dual-clutch, no paddles, no launch control nannies.
At $650,000, you could buy two brand-new 2025 911 Turbo S models and still have money left for options. The new car is faster in every measurable way, more refined, more capable in the wet, and far easier to live with. None of that matters to the people bidding on this one.
Air-cooled 911 values have been climbing for well over a decade, and the fever has not broken. Entry-level Carreras from the 1990s that once sold for $30,000 now fetch six figures without breaking a sweat. At the top of that food chain sits the 993 Turbo S, the last air-cooled Turbo Porsche ever made.
It occupies the same emotional real estate as a final-year muscle car or a last-of-the-breed mechanical watch before quartz took over. The Jordan connection only adds fuel. Celebrity provenance has always inflated auction prices, and even proximity to celebrity provenance seems to carry a premium now.
This car was never owned by Jordan. It just looks exactly like his. That distinction may not slow the bidding.
The collector car market has proven repeatedly that story sells as well as substance, and this car has both. A sub-200 production run, peak analog Porsche engineering, and a visual link to the most famous athlete of the 20th century is a potent cocktail.
The auction closes September 18. At the current pace, the final number could push well past $700,000. Whether it sets a new record for the model remains to be seen, but the trajectory suggests it will get close.
Somewhere, a bidder is doing the mental math, trying to justify spending the price of a modest house on a 28-year-old rear-engined car that shares its basic architecture with a Volkswagen Beetle. They will probably talk themselves into it.
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