We promise you, this Porsche 911 actually belonged to Matt LeBlanc and it’s not made of carboard. Since this is a story about the actor’s “unsellable” 1984 Porsche 930 Turbo Slantnose, we tried to refrain from referencing the said carboard box stunt his character Joey pulled in a Friends episode right in this intro, but simply couldn’t. With that load off our shoulders, we can proceed to discuss the star’s 911, including why it was so difficult to find a new owner for it.
As anybody’s who’s kept an eye on Matt LeBlanc will tell you, he’s a car guy (hey, you might’ve seen him in his days as a Top Gear host). Thanks to solid finances resulting from his acting career, he’s built an impressive car and motorcycle collection, which, at a certain point last decade, used to hold about six Porsches, all of which were 911s.
Now, this 1984 Slantnose is no longer part of the actor’s garage, but finding a new home for it took a bit more than using his Friends and Joey-demonstrated charisma (by the way, how you doin’?).
Back in 2019, LeBlanc’s mentioned the troubles he had with selling the vehicle while chatting to late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel (check out the second clip below). Despite the machine, which is quite a rare bird—we’ll get to that in a moment—having crossed the auction block twice at Amelia Island auctions, but failed to sell. And it was probably because of an overabundance of Porsches registered that year.
Now, if we check the various online auctions, we’ll notice there are still loads and loads of 911s from all eras currently on sale. And even when we restrict the search to 1980s Slantnoses, we a brief effort revealed more than one car. So, while we’re not aware of what helped the transaction happen, one thing is certain: the Porsche is no longer in LeBlanc’s hands.
How we found out the actor sold the 911
The Porscha was recently in the shop of California-based car care specialist I AM Detailing, which gave the car a refresh for its new owner. And while the 2019 auction listings involved an odometer reading of around 950 miles (1,500 km), it seems this hasn’t changed—speaking of which, here’s a… lowrider 911 Slantnose tribute reminding us of the Cali culture from decades ago.
To be more specific, the vehicle received a thorough dry ice cleaning. And, despite the specialist mentioning the car was in “pretty great condition” in the description of the first YouTube clip below, it seems that the previous rust prevention layer could no longer protect the belly of the beast.
So, once the dry ice part was done, the specialist treated the underbody to a Cosmoline spray—as the specialist points out in the clip, some enthusiasts might consider this quick method as insufficient, but we digress.
So, what is the Slantnose?
Back in the 1980s when this wild child showed up, Porsche wasn’t as determined as it is nowadyas to transfer racing car goodies directly into showrooms. But people were crazy for such offerings. After all, how could you not lust for a road tribute to the 935, a 1970s-born race car that won Le Mans and about a third of all the races it entered?
The 935 motorsport tool was based on the 930-generation 911 Turbo. However, its track determination saw the characteristic high-mounted rounded headlights of the road car being axed. These made room for a more streamlined nose sporting fixed headlights (hence the Flachbau/Flatnose or Slantnose moniker).
Now, given the official attitude of the automaker, German motorsport specialist Kremer Racing took it upon itself to offer Flachbau conversions for the 930 Turbo starting in 1981. The following year, TAG Heuer co-owner Mansour Ojjeh (the specialist was a major sponsor for the Germans) convinced Porsche to build him a street iteration of the 935.
Of course, that only increased other buyers’ desire for such an offering. As such, Porsche built 34 examples of the 930 Slantnose in 1984 and an extra 52 in 1986—the conventional headlights of the 935, which Kremer had replicated, were gone, being replaced with the pop-up units we see on this car. It’s worth noting that these specials boosted the price of the base 911 Turbo by about 60% (how about this modern-day Flatnose tribute built on a 997?)
European customers got these cars under the Type 930 SE badge, while Americans, who could buy these starting in 1987 knew them as the 930 SE. Now, in the video below, the detailing specialist talks about this example being the first Slantnose ever made, presenting the vehicle as a prototype, but there’s no proof offered for this.
Is this the first Porsche-made 930 Slantnose (prototype)?
However, when somebody took to the comments section of the clip to mention the said 1981 Kremer-built examples, adding that this may be the first to reach North America [we’d add it could be the first Porsche-made unit], the company replied: “We’re relaying the history from the owner that purchased this car at auction. It has some quirky things that tend to point this being correct, and from the looks of things, we could both be right in some ways here,“
Now, while the price for the car wasn’t mentioned, we can tell you that a good-condition example should set you back around $180,000. However, given the extremely low mileage (we’re not sure if or how the celebrity ownership impacted the sale), that price could’ve always started with a “2” and even a “3”, as shown by certain examples sold over the past couple of years .
Regardless, we’re glad to learn that this Slantnose doesn’t have to sit around waiting for a new home anymore. And we can only hope its new owner will enjoy some proper time behind the wheel.
