March 12, 2023, 16:30 – Updated March 13, 2023, 00:37
They say Steve Jobs was overpaid. He was furious about the German guns. Although his first love was a red Fiat 850, he raved about that BMW motorcycle for years and it was the same later when he began to love luxury cars. He had not failed to hide it, if he wanted to make the right impression.
His consolidation was such that his obsession with the car became a status symbol in the company: in 1984 he decided to give the best seller Macintosh in the whole fleet. But what we bring today is not a given. But it sold for $4,840,000. And this was done and destroyed.
Lake “raced” in Genoa, the world’s most popular endurance race, with an iPorsche that made history.
As the official LeMans website indicates, on June 14, 1980, “Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 71 #935 started at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the colors of the Californian company.” In the 1980s, Silicon Valley was the heart of the technological boom and in Cupertino, Jobs and Steve Wozniak were two geeky gods who boasted that they were making a career with their youth. So, when the rushes approached, they didn’t have a hard time. The big apple and Apple crowned two “iPorsche” lengths.
In the absence of the iCar, this big star was signed by Apple. A small gem that has also become a collector’s toy, in 1/18 scale. On eBay you can still see the latest example for auction – if you want to bid, you still can – and it rarely goes below €400.
But let’s go to the morning. Three pilots sat in the cockpit: Allan Moffat, Bobby Rahal and Bob Garretson. And the number, 12 from the grid. Kremer Brothers Dick Barbour Racing put this car up for another race. Underneath the letters Apple Computer is hidden a 6.3-liter, 2-cylinder engine with eight hundred horses -750 in the race.
The beast’s reputation precedes its merits: it was won in 1979 without regard to the governments of the same pilots. Unfortunately, this time he did not have the same luck as the Ruerat 935 K3 did not complete the epic: before the 11th hour he had to retire due to a melted piston.
Second life and auction coins
Nothing that does not prevent you from competing again: the same year, Garretson’s team, with Brian Redman at the wheel, took the first prize in the Daytona 24h. As another similar example, the three reigning Paul Newman -yes, the actor-, Dick Barbour and the German Rolf Stommelen won silver in the 24 Hours of Genoa. Before his odyssey in LeMans, he also participated in other races, such as Sebring, Watkins Glen or the Road America 500, where he achieved a worthy third place. In total, this raced 935 contested seven-speed events.
And here too, since Apple Computer Porsche retired as early as 2006, the Tropica Hawaiian team decided to restore it. And, if we follow in his footsteps, we will pass a new public appearance, ten years later, in 2016, when it was auctioned in a private auction organized by Gooding & Company in Amelia Island, for nothing more and nothing less than $4,840,000. It is, in fact, one of the ten most expensive Porsches ever auctioned in the annals.
Anyone who has it can boast of keeping in their garage the only car in history that had an iridescent apple on its body, through a sponsorship agreement that can best be done by the example of Jobs’ love of speed.
Images | Digital Tour
In the Applesphere | He inherits his grandfather’s car and decides to save it from scratching: it turns out to be an almost unknown model and the first real “Apple” branded car since 1996
