First official 911 Press Car found - ex Paul Frère

[kouwenhoven]

This is Porsche 911 VIN 300330. It's a januari 1965 car and officially the first press car by Porsche as far as I know. There was of course also 300005, but that was a prototype 901 car. Nevertheless they also used this early one for press purposes for the first few months since the 911 was on the market end of 1964.

The car was not 'found' as it had been for sale for some time in the USA, but the price was high for a project, the brown color not too appealing and nobody knew about the history and neither did I. At least, until I looked up the kardex. Second owner: Paul Frère it said. First owner: WE - meaning Werks (factory). I have met the famous Belgian ex-Formula 1 driver a few times since he also was a car journalist until a very old age. He always arrived in his red 964 and drove off in any test car like he was involved in a race. He also wrote many books about Porsche.

The most interesting about the car was the fact that the license plate number was also written on the kardex - this is something you hardly ever see. S-UX-911. Maybe not too sexy in English speaking countries, but is a cool plate. I started searching for this license plate and found out that this is the car that you see driving around the test track in Germany in all black and white videos about the history of the Porsche 911. Also there's many early publications featuring this specific brown 1965 car.

After its life at Porsche it was sold or given to Paul Frère and this must have been his first 911. It was delivered to him by the Presse-Abteilung (Press Department). After that it had two more owners in Germany and what happened after that is unknown to me. The car has a quite rare brown color code (711) and will be restored in original condition. It would be nice if others can shed more light on this particular car, maybe the USA history also.











This is one of the movies where the car can be seen (from 18:06 minutes)

[StephenAcworth]

Simply 'WOW'!... look forward to more of this story unfolding...

[Bullethead]

Frère's first 911 was brown? Subscribed.

[moito]

very cool...

[haul]

....
1. presse
2. paul frère, lended by the press department
3. Ing. Max ......., 7 stuttgart, sarweystrasse 46 on 04.11.1965

above right is


reus/klaus/hans Lindner or Zimmer Neustadt / Weinstrasse
(auftraggeber) Landauerstrasse 197
.......Autohaus ....Neustadt

[Jon B]

The original engine was replaced on 30.4.65 with number 901122.

Jon B.
Vista, CA

[Bobs 67S]

And it still has it's 20mm tall grille still on it.

[Unobtanium-inc]

The best kind of find, where it is pure surprise!

---Adam

[superelfje]

Extremely cool find Erik!! Congrats.

[Chuck Miller]

Whoa.... Amazing... !!!