Balancing the market

What is the “right” amount of special editions? It depends on who you ask. From Porsche’s perspective, one would think that they want to make just a few less than they would be able to sell while pricing it at a premium. Porsche knows that anyone who bought the 911R and 918 (along with the Turbo S 918 Sypder edition of course) will be interested in any new special edition. However, historically Porsche has produced far fewer cars than the market demanded, thus creating the secondary market. This positions Porsche at odds with the speculators who get allocations and subsequently offload the car to another prospective buyer who happened to be finalizing their divorce when they originally got the call from Porsche. Now that they have successfully shed their worse half, what better way to celebrate than by driving around in the latest Stuttgart metal. Thanks to the prenup, a $50K premium seems like a great way to celebrate.

How long can this market last?

Despite this seemingly magical scenario where you can drive around in a supercar while making money in the process, it appears that Porsche is now testing the limits of the market in an effort to capture a greater share of the profit. With the latest special edition vehicle, the 911 Speedster, they are building 1948 units. Far above the number of other other special editions in the 991 generation (the 911R had 991 examples). This is nearly twice the total number of Acura NSXs sold since the relaunch in 2017. Hardly a “limited edition”.