Robert Redford’s Porsche 904 GTS

Words by Knotty Nawadhinsukh

Porsche ownerships among Hollywood legends from the past are not totally reserved with those who many of us are already aware of. How many times have we come across with so many iconic photographs of James Dean driving his 356 Super Speedster or being seen with his ill-fated “Little Bastard” or Steve McQueen in various poses with his own 356 Speedster, THAT Slate Grey 911S from “Le Mans”  or the 908/2 K Flunder Spyder that he co-drove with Peter Revson to second-place at the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring?

Apart from some grainy stills of him with a Porsche 911 T Sportomatic in “Downhill Racer” or in the brief driving shots with a 912 in “Spy Game”, it is quite understandable that not many would immediately associate that Robert Redford, who aside from Dean and McQueen, had a penchant for Porsches as well. It is just that any photos of Redford posing next to or driving his very own cars are virtually non-existent to the public.

Famous for his unforgettable roles in “Barefoot in the Park”, “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid”, “All The President’s Men” and so many others, the now 82 years young Hollywood star and highly-acclaimed producer and director drove Porsches quite regularly since the beginning of his career way back in the Sixties. Among several 911s and 912s that he has driven over the years, Redford also had a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder RS—as well as a beat-up Porsche sans engine sent to him as a “joke” present from Paul Newman (which Redford in turn had it crushed and sent it back to Newman in a friendly retaliation)!

On the 17th of January in 2019 during the Scottsdale Car Week at the Westin-Kierland Resort & Spa in Arizona, Bonhams will introduce this 1964 Porsche 904 GTS, chassis number 904 012, as one of the main feature cars to be for sale at their auction—which for a time was a part of Redford’s collection during its early days.

Purposely-built to be a racing car, the 904 coupé was the first Porsche with a revolutionary (for 1964) fiberglass body and had a two-litre Flat-4 engine matted to a five-speed gearbox that delivers 180 brake horsepower. To comply to the sportscar racing regulations for the under two-litre class at the time, Porsche had to produce at least one hundred examples of the 904 GTS (the final tally was 106 produced). Given that kind of volume, it meant that the GTS was made available to the general public to compete as a private entry or for personal road use as a street-legal one.

Chassis 904 012 was one of the early cars made by Porsche for its customers and was delivered new in California and eventually raced as an entry under Otto Zipper—the very Porsche dealer based in Beverly Hills who sold the car to the first owner. Robert Redford subsequently became its third owner right after the car had retired from full-time competition a couple of years later.

Redford parted ways with the car some time during the Seventies before it moved on to the next owner who had the car restored that included removing the original engine and replacing it with an updated one and repainted it in period-correct green as found today.

Given its brief Californian racing pedigree and the special celebrity provenance that Robert Redford was one of its several owners, it will be very interesting indeed to see how this vintage 1964 Porsche 904 GTS will perform under the auction environment.

All Photos & Video Provided By Bonhams/P.Litwinski