4 Attachment(s)
1968 T/R - "Out Of Africa"
Having followed a number of recent threads on the early competition 911’s I thought it was about time I contributed to a forum that I have found to be invaluable/entertaining/educational for a couple of years now.
As has already been discussed in other threads the term T/R, or T Rallye, seems to be a title adopted in more recent times to differentiate a particular group of cars; one could probably argue the same for both ST’s and maybe RSR’s in the early days prior to say Kremer involvement, when the factory knew them only by a model number – I have yet to discover such a model number for the T/R but like so many things to do with the “early years” I would not be presumptuous enough to say one was not used internally by the factory in addition to the part & kit numbers for the various “sport option” parts – as one of my old teachers used to say ‘you never know how much you don’t know’.
Whilst there was undoubtedly the option to take a standard T (or other models I presume) and specify a number of ‘competition’ type extras/modifications carried out either by the factory(?) or the dealer, we know from the FIA homologation document (577) together with the “Information Regarding Porsche Vehicles Used For Sports Purposes” booklet that a planned programme of enhancements were available for the 911/911L/911T & 911S for Touring Car Group 2 & GT Group 3 competition.
As a keen follower of the early “sports purpose” 911’s I thought the chances of me ever owning one were slim (my view) to non existent (my wife’s view), however, through a somewhat lengthy series of events and old connections, I have ended up owning an interesting car which although subjected to a crude repaint in its troubled past, is from what I have discovered to date, fairly complete and original.
Firstly a few facts (i.e. that have been confirmed in writing by Porsche UK and subsequently by the Classic Department at the factory) about the car from new:
Chassis No. 1182xxxx (‘T’)
Engine No. 408xxxx (‘S’)
Gearbox No. 928xxxx
Colour – Tangerine (6809)
The car was ordered by Gordon C.R. Crow (the then East African Porsche agent) and was delivered new to Nairobi, Kenya and is therefore Right Hand Drive with options including ‘Rally Kit’, Roll bar and Limited Slip Differential. Subsequent correspondence details “Recaro sports seats instead of serial seats, rubber mats instead of carpets, sport brake pads, stronger generator, front bumper lighter, without additional heating, engine: cylinder heads and intake manifolds polished, flywheel, clutch and sparkplug connectors for racing”
Whilst all of the above is present on the car there are also a few other things I have spotted to date such as up rated drive shafts and slight body differences (more detail to follow) so I will reserve judgement on the full specification until I have visited the archive; I hope to visit later this year to try and get the full build detail on the car plus any other information I can pull together on the so called T/R’s.
Over the last month or two I have been slowly dismantling the car and cataloguing the parts (picture below), up to now all date stamps found point to a June or July 1968 build. I aim to capture as much detail as possible (and post accordingly) having been inspired by the sort of detail found on a number of threads; I am particularly enjoying the detail Tom (“Flunder”) is unearthing on the parts he is using on his great build.
The only non original parts I have found to date are a ducktail rather than the standard engine lid (even I could spot that one! – this was from an interesting part of the car’s life which I will go into in more detail at a later date), the windscreen (see photo below), and a 380mm steering wheel (part no. 914.347.803.10 date stamp 12/72, it still has the foam thickening under layer but has lost its leather so will require refurb – I will retain this wheel on the car because although not original specification it is part of the cars history and at 6’4’’ is of help with leg room!).
Having spent all of its life in Africa, Kenya then Uganda, the climate has been relatively kind to the panels in most areas but less so to the interior although great to still have all the lightweight door panels/handles etc....I suppose one advantage of it being in Africa for 40 years is that there were not Porsche dealers in every town for parts upgrading so should be beneficial in terms of originality.
Whilst I do not have the skill to restore the car fully myself I do want to undertake the disassembly/cataloguing plus restoration of some of the parts (H1 headlights and front & rear light units completed) so there will no doubt be plenty of requests for help and advice! With this approach and financial constraints this will not be a “passed to specialist, phone me when its finished restoration” so it may well take some time! I will be using a number of the very skilled people we have in the UK for certain parts of the project so that I finish up with a car that meets my overall aim - one that I understand, have personal effort invested in, is to as high a standard as possible in terms of quality and authenticity.....but most of all is a great drive and goes like ****!
More to follow....
Tim
