Offered for only one model year, 1968, Porsche’s 911L was an attempt at finding the middle ground in the 911 range after introducing the entry-level 911T. 1968 was also the last year for the SWB body and the first year for the Sportmatic transmission, which this 1968 911L that failed to sell yesterday at $60,000 was equipped with. So was it the Sportmatic that kept bidders away?

While the market tends to frown on automatic Porsches when a manual transmission was an option, the innovative Sportmatic transmission doesn’t drop prices. In fact, the two highest prices paid for a 1968 911L in the past two years both belong to cars equipped with Sportmatics. $96,500 for a freshly restored coupe and $112,000 for a Targa.

When it comes to SWB pricing, the condition is the driver, not the transmission. Our Spotlight car was somewhere between a #4 driver and a #3 “better” driver. It was far from a concourse car and might not come home with a trophy from a local show either, but a car that could be enjoyed thoroughly on back roads without too much headache.

That being said, $60,000 was a fair price for the car which leaves us wondering how far away from the reserve we actually were. Maybe there is a deal to be had in PCAR’s Deal Tank a hair over $60k. If so, well done to both seller and buyer.

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