We’ve just found the ultimate proof that air-cooled Porsche 911 values have left the stratosphere. Auction website PCarMarket was bold enough to list a 1990 911 Carrera 4 that sustained extensive fire damage, and against a great many odds, someone paid more than $17,000 to have it.

The seller, a Connecticut dealership, explains that the 964 is one of several classic Porsches that were destroyed when the barn they were stored in caught fire. PCarMarket sold it for $89,000 in August 2021 and, at the time, it was a beautiful car. It was finished in Silver Metallic over a burgundy interior, had about 42,000 miles, and hadn’t been significantly modified. We’d say that the 2021 selling price was pretty fair.

Fast-forward to 2024 and the selling price is a lot more surprising, to put it charitably. It sold for precisely $17,350 excluding the 5% buyer’s fee that PCarMarket collects, so that’s another $867.50. We’re at over $18,200 before you factor in shipping, and finding a company willing to load a car-sized lump of coal onto a trailer is probably easier said than done. There are a lot of other cars you can buy for $18,000—even Porsches!

This wasn’t a small, “dump snow on it to put it out” type of fire, either. Everything inside and in the engine bay looks like it was put in a Weber barbecue and forgotten there for an afternoon. The upholstery is mostly gone, the dashboard looks like it was dipped in lava, and the bumpers are partially melted. Some of the underbody panels actually look kind of alright, but I’d argue this 964 doesn’t even qualify for parts-car status.

PCarMarket went right to the point in the description. “Melted,” “deformed,” and “compromised” are some of the terms used to describe this poor 911. And yet, it’s offered with a clean, accident-free Carfax report and a clean title. It was presented as a project car “offering an opportunity for restoration,” which sounds a little like saying that getting sentenced to six months in jail without parole offers an opportunity for a digital detox.

Here’s the important thing: this was a no-reserve auction, not an “I know what I’ve got” Craigslist ad. No reserve means the highest bidder takes the car home, regardless of whether it sells for $75 or $7.5 million. Bidders decide the value, and the market has spoken. The comments are closed so there’s no word on what the winner will do with the charred 964. Full restoration? Probably not, but who knows? Track car? Perhaps.

The three other cars from the same collection that were auctioned at about the same time sold for less, though the winning bids were still pegged deep in batshit-crazy-land. The 1974 911 Targa went for $1,100, the 1970 911E sold for $5,159, and the 1973 911T ended at $12,557.