Adam Carolla Buys Paul Newman’s Le Mans 935 for $4.4 Million

By Adam Pockross - August 24, 2016

adam carolla 935

A lot of people walked away from Monterey Car Week happy, but probably no one was happier than Adam Carolla.

“I bought, in my mind, the Holy Grail of cars, for me in my collection. Which is the car that Paul Newman drove at Le Mans in 1979,” the comic/car collector said during a recent podcast of The Adam Carolla Show.

Newman, along with Dick Barbour and Rolf Stommelen, drove the 1979 Porsche 935, chassis 009 0030, to a class win and second overall at Le Mans. But that’s just a one of the 72 races this baby’s experienced. The car also won the 1981 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1983 12 Hours of Sebring.

And as if that wasn’t enough history, in 1980, it was the only race car ever supported by Apple Computer Inc. But since the car was restored to its Le Mans grandeur in 2006, the Apple livery had to go.

The estimate for this rare bird was between $4.5 and $5.5 million, which Carolla readily admits he doesn’t have — but he does have a lot of collateral, which he’ll likely have to liquidate (including his Miura SV). And the 935 is a one of one car, with serious provenance. Carolla reasoned that it would likely never come up for auction again, and if it did, it would probably cost about $10 million more.

So Carolla wanted to be there, just in case the car went for something less than what he thought it was worth. And once it was on the block, the car went up to $4 million in the blink of an eye. At $4.4 Carolla put it all out there, only to have a phone bidder jump on $4.5. But then it turned out that the person on the phone was working multiple auctions and made a mistake. So Carolla got his Holy Grail.

And just in case you thought Carolla would store this baby away for the $15 million dollar sale down the road, think again. “I will drive that car at Laguna Seca next year,” said Carolla.

Congrats, Adam. We can’t wait to see that.