black/terra

Owns 43 Porsches. The largest private collection in the States.

The collection's centerpiece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 200 ever built. To Jerry's frustration, he isn't allowed to drive it. US government emissions and crash-test standards have never been tested on the car because Porsche refuses to hand over four vehicles for destruction tests. Jerry, therefore, has had to bring in his rare Porsche under an "exhibition only" clause -- the car must never set rubber on an American road.

Semi-retired television actor Jerry Seinfeld is spending nearly $1.5 million on prime Manhattan real estate. But it isn't for himself; it's for his cars. Nearly two years ago he bought a building near his home on Central Park West for about $1 million. And he had planned to spend another $500,000 renovating it to meet the needs of his Porsche collection. The garage (which is large enough to fit 20 cars) was reportedly expected to include a cushy 844-square-foot office, kitchenette and a bathroom and shower. Two years later, after delays and permit problems, drilling finally started this week, according to published reports. And neighbors are already complaining.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0527041jerry1.html

allegretto

I have also heard that he has the first and last air-cooled 911's produced. Not the first year, but THE FIRST 911 and the last 993 to go off the assembly line. I think the 993 is a Turbo S.

MJones

The 959 is one sweet technologically advanced ride
http://erntheburn.tripod.com/autos/959/

Pictured below, the only one in the US was legally imported.
It is sweet!!

Leader

When Jerry lived in Los Angeles, his "collection" was housed at Santa Monica Airport. He had "staff" that would start the cars up and drive them around the hanger (out one end, once around, and back in the other end) on a semi-regular basis, just to get the oil in motion, no doubt.
When the internet was very young, someone posted a video of this "Porsche Parade" which had been shot from the top of a tree adjoining the airport property. Jerry had the video pulled.

billco

Interesting..... I knew he was a Porsche nut. I actually saw him at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance about five or six years ago, where he had a 1964 911 which was perported to be the first one ever sold. It had a personal plate which said something like "FIRST 1" or "1ST ONE", or something like that.

Crazy Canuck

collection bigger than Otis Chandler's?

Here is Jerry's 917.

mkozink

I remember seeing Jerry Seinfeld on the David Letterman show when Letterman was working at NBC (Letterman is another big time car guy) and he talked about his passion for Porsche cars. I remember him saying that he had more than 50 Porsches when that interview was done. Interestingly Seinfeld purchased the first production 1997 993 TT S for the US. It is now featured in the inventory of Richard Sloan and can be viewed at the following link;

http://www.sloancars.com/vs1/detail.asp?CarID=153

As the description states, "This car is number one (1) of the 182 1997 Turbo S coupes built for the US market."

BTW- I don't think it is still open but down in Naples, Florida, is/was the Collier Brothers Auto Museum. It used to be open to the public a couple of days a week. If I remember correctly, for $5.00 admission one could view what was billed as the largest collection of Porsche race cars in North America. There had to be nearly 100 cars displayed. While most were Porsches they all had significant racing provenance. They were all beautifully displayed and documented. This was several years ago and I don't know if the collection is still there but it was extraordinary.

MMD

He was interviewed about his Porsche hobby and he said it was "stupid." Like he enjoyed it and all but wasn't particularly proud of having it as a hobby. Like a bunch of older guys getting together and talking about fishing or golf or taking naps..., funny because I feel the same way. All this energy going into something better suited for grade school kids on summer vacation. Kinda fun but don't take it at all seriously.

OTOH, HIS collection is truely appreciating, by virture of his owning the cars they instantly are worth more... . So for him it's a fan-tastic investment.

Alan Smithee

Cars can be brought into the US for exhibition and still driven...a maximum of 2,500 miles/year, if I remember correctly.

The last air-cooled 911 mentioned that Jerry has is not a Turbo; it is a regular Carrera...one of the bright blues...looks like Gulf or Mexico. Jerry has a special relationship with Porsche...he gets the first (and apparently last) of each US model if he desires. He doesn't keep them all, and sold some when he left LA after the series was over. I've had the opportunity to buy a couple of his cars over the years, but it was never the model I was looking for at the time.

MoneyBiz

i was at the comedy cellar back in the day after he had like 250 mil and he did a walk on and it was great. After the show he asked the audience if they had any questions to ask him but nobody would ask him anything except this drunk korean guy. He asked him if he could drive his porsche, why he was doing the act if he had 250 mil and if he was going to buy them all drinks... he said no, of course... the korean guy was w another korean guy and 2 chinese grls who no speak their language or english... lol.

I heard on tv that in real life he is not a nice guy like on the show but he wasn't a jerk or anything. It was pretty much the same as the tv character...

uzj100

I saw this car at Chandler's facility in Oxnard. I know I saw it once on the 101 traveling toward SB. Believe that since it is a museum or collectible etc that it can be driven via special permit, but only a limited # of miles as posted?

Is this that car, Brian?

FlyingLow

There are actually more than that now. He has a facility in NYC, Santa Monica, and is building another "garage" in the OC. Also, just before ANDIAL closed their doors (because of Dieter's and Alwin's retirement) they were doing, and have done 959 DOT compliant conversions. I know these things because my older Carrera was serviced at ANDIAL for years and I met one of Jerry's personal assistants (you don't think he actually drove his own car to be serviced do you ) . ANDIAL performed the service on his California-resident collection.

MJones

You are correct, that is the car!
No longer owned by Chandler but by the gentleman who owns Stuggart Performance in Costa Mesa.
Saw the car and spoke with him at the POC Tribute to Le Mans at Cal Speedway a few weeks back.
It is the only legaly imported car in the US.

Interesting note when I was at Werk1 in Stuggart last year there were no less than 5 959's there for service shipped from sandy, oil rich countries.

uzj100

I haven't been to the location in Oxnard for awhile. Don't know that it is still in the hands of the Chandler family since Otis' passing. Do believe that there is still a car collection there though. And not too far from there is a place that mods many high end cars for some of the "elite" here in SoCal. Was nearby a couple of weeks ago and I saw a nice Aston driving by.

My jaw dropped when I saw the 959 on the road here. Told my buddy about it and he said "no way". He was under the impression that it could not be driven. I got the info on the special permit because it's a part of a museum from someone at the Chandler building.

TNF

Just to be clear: You can buy federalized 959's all day long for $300 and drive them all you want to these days. As for the 959 being the 'centerpiece' of his collection, I can tell you it is not remotely in the top 5 value-wise.

TNF