From Steve McQueen to Jo Siffert

[Milou]

In an incredible stroke of luck, while researching the first owner of my "slate gray" 911, Porsche Germany confirmed to me yesterday that they first send the car to their experimental department before delivering it new and tweaked to its first owner, Mr. Jo Siffert himself!
I always suspected the car came from Siffert's garage as it was first registered in Fribourg Switzerland, but I never imagined it could be his personal car! I'm now checking with the factory the precise circumstances/reasons for this factory gift to Siffert....

[CurtEgerer]

Milou - What does this have to do with McQueen? Is this one of the cars Siffert loaned or sold to Solar Productions for the movie?

[kenikh]

How in the woprld do you get the factory to tell you who the original owner was? The info we get stateside from Porsche CRAP.

[Milou]

I started with Steve McQueen because the car was originally restored to match the 911 used by Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans (see other post).

While reading a French kiss with death, I found out that Jo Siffert provided most of the cars in the movie with the help of his Garage Director Paul Blancpain (Siffert owned a large Porsche garage in Fribourg).

Living in Geneva, I contacted Paul Blancpain to find out if he knew the whereabouts of the garage archives (to trace down the first owner of my 911 which originally was painted green). That's when Paul Blancpain told me that Siffert had receive from the factory a green 911S which he (Blancpain) drove back from the factory into Switzerland.

I then contacted Mr. Landenberger, the newly appointed director of the historic archives at Porsche headquarters in Germany, provided him with the above story, and the full details of my car (chassis number, etc...) and asked him if the story was true and if by any chance my car was the one (since it matched the description)...A few weeks later, not only did I get an email confirming that my car was prepared for Jo Siffert and delivered to him but I even got a scanned photocopy of the original register showing me the chassis number the mention "versuch", the modified engine number above the crossed out original number and the written inscription "Jo Siffert". Not only super efficient and friendly but simply unbelievable.....

[kenikh]

Oh Jeez. That is cool. I wish my German didn't suck.

[72targa]

That is a great story, Milou. Thank you for sharing it!