- 1949 Porsche 356/2 Gmünd
- 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder
- 1964 Porsche 911
- 1970 Porsche 908/03
- 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS
- 1957 Porsche 356 A Speedster
- 1986 Porsche 959
- 2000 Porsche Carrera GT Prototype
- 1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder
This is not an article about nothing.
Jerry Seinfeld made a phenomenal amount of money from his iconic sitcom, Seinfeld.
If you're on the younger side, we need to give you an idea of how successful the show was and is: Seinfeld ran for nine seasons. At its peak, Jerry Seinfeld was paid a million dollars per episode. It's so significant and widespread that, despite its age, when Netflix wanted it on the streaming service, it made a five-year deal that cost the company over 500 million dollars.
Seinfeld has been able to turn his passion for Porsches into one of the most valuable collections on the planet. In 1999, Seinfeld bought a New York brownstone near his house for a million dollars and converted it into a three-floor garage for his Porsche collection.
The comedian is serious about his Porsches, but unlike his contemporary, Jay Leno, he's not eager to share the collection details. Over the years, there has been a lot of speculation about what is in that garage, but the most extensive insight came in 2016 when he sold off 18 cars for a total of $22 million.
How many Porsches does Jerry Seinfeld own? We don't know exactly, so these are the most notable of Jerry Seinfeld's cars, past and present.
CarBuzz
1949 Porsche 356/2 Gmünd
The 356/1 was the prototype; the 356/2 was the hand-built production vehicle based on Volkswagen parts and the template for the 911. It featured a new cylinder head based on Strumboot design for light attack boats and an all-aluminum body. It needed to be light as the two-seater's engine only made 35-40 horsepower.
The one sitting in Jerry Seinfeld's Porsche garage is chassis number 40 of the 52 built, and it's all original.
Victor Varela
1955 Porsche 550 Spyder
“You can't drive a sonnet by Shakespeare or a symphony by Beethoven,” Seinfeld said before selling his 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder. “But this would be the automotive equivalent.”
Only 75 models of the 110 hp mid-engined sportscar were built. It's famous (or rather infamous) in popular culture for being the car that killed James Dean on his way to a race.
Why he sold what's considered the best example of the legendary sports car known as the “giant killer” on the track remains a mystery. Still, as has been said before, collectors are just custodians until the next owner comes along.
Gooding & Company
1964 Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 first went on sale in 1964, and Seinfeld's model was not just the first 911 imported into the US, but Ferry Porsche commissioned it as his personal car with metallic paint and a sunroof.
Seinfeld bought the car in 1996 for around $400,000, then had it sent to the Porsche factory in Germany for a complete restoration using original parts, which took two years to complete.
As a piece of Porsche history, it's a stunner and no doubt worth significantly more now than the $650,000 Seinfeld invested in the 1990s. It's seen here on loan to Porsche for display at the 2013 New York Auto Show.
Sean Connor
1970 Porsche 908/03
In the pantheon of Porsche race cars, the 908/03 is an icon amongst icons.
It was designed to race in two separate World Sportscar Championship endurance races. Seinfeld's fully restored 908/03 entered and won the Targa Florio, running its equally iconic Gulf livery. Then it entered the Nurburgring 24-Hour and came away a winner in its Martini livery.
On Jerry Seinfeld's car collection list, this one likely has an asterisk next to it that means “Do Not Sell.”
Wouter Melissen
1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS
The original Porsche 911 Carrera RS is a unicorn and the reason the ducktail spoiler was born.
Only 500 were built for homologation purposes, and it's often described as driving perfection. Which is strange for a car hardly anyone has driven. Seinfeld has, though. “There is something about this car that feels perfect,” he said.
Seinfeld drives his cars, which means they are put in harm's way, and his Porsche 911 Carrera RS has suffered as a result. While he was drinking coffee – not in his car with another comedian – someone made a mess of parallel parking their BMW and crunched the front end.
Daily Mail
1957 Porsche 356 A Speedster
“I have this old '57 Porsche Speedster, and the way the door closes,” Seinfeld once said, “I'll just sit there and listen to the sound of the latch going, 'cluh-CLICK-click.' That door! I live for that door. Whatever the opposite of planned obsolescence is, that's what I'm into.”
Specifically, Seinfeld owned a 1957 Porsche 356 A Speedster until he sold it at auction in 2016 for $682,000. It's fully restored, and it's beautiful. He also sold a 356 A 1500 GS/GT Carrera Speedster for $1.5 million, but we like the blue.
Gooding & Company
1986 Porsche 959
Something about the Porsche 959 grabbed famous people in the 1980s, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and tennis player Martina Navratilova.
Porsche only built 337 examples, and Seinfeld picked his model up for around $700,000. So few were made because it was initially developed for Group B rallying. The series was canceled for being too dangerous before the 959 could go on sale.
The 959's all-wheel-drive was so technologically advanced at the time that Porsche lost money on every model it sold, even though the car retailed for $225,000.
The amount on the road is even less, as 37 of those built were prototypes and pre-production models. However, there are eight more out there that Porsche built in the early 1990s from spare parts and with a new speed-sensitive damper system.
Barrett-Jackson
2000 Porsche Carrera GT Prototype
The Carrera GT is the last of the mechanical supercars with its 600+ horsepower V10 engine, manual transmission, and complete lack of computer-driven driver assist features.
Prototypes are rare to get out into the wild and into collector's hands, but Seinfeld somehow snagged this one in 2007.
Walter Rohrl drove it in Porsche's promotional materials for the supercar. He tried to sell it in 2016, but it was too expensive. Reportedly, Seinfeld also owns a second prototype. At the time, people were unwilling to pay $1.5 million, but that's small change in the hypercar segment these days. Perhaps he should try again.
Canepa
1959 Porsche 718 RSK Spyder
This is one of Seinfeld's most beloved cars and is featured in his YouTube series Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Kevin Hart.
It weighs just 1,260 pounds and is powered by a mid-mounted 1.5-liter boxer engine making 142 hp. It's also this writer's favorite Porsche. As Seinfeld pointed out, “this is the car Porsche used to prove that a small car with a small engine could be faster than a big car with a big engine.”
It won its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans several times and secured outright wins in the Targa Florio and the European Hill Climb Championship. The success led to Porsche building an open-wheel version for Formula 1.
Gooding & Company
Keyword: Take A Closer Look At Jerry Seinfeld's Car Collection