Barnfind 911S chassis 310001S in South Africa

[gregary]

I bought original bumpers and boot lid for my car so far.

[leedurrant73]

Good luck Greg, I've tried Tim Abbott.

My only other lead was a previous owner in 2000,
A mr Marc Wade, but cannot track him down..

I have his address in Fourways, sandton but cannot find
Any phone number for him...

Your car look pretty solid , lee

[leedurrant73]

Have you got any pics of the interior?
Cheers lee

[platas]

What a true barm find Congrats

[ajwans]

Engine No. 981712

I would ask for a double check on this engine number, it's not in the accepted range of available engine (nor is your chassis number but you have stampings to prove that is correct)

All other 67S engines start 96.

It could be a test engine or it could be a typo. The reason I feel it could be a typo is because April 67 production cars had engine numbers right around 961700. They were not produced in strict order but they were in rough order.

andy

[Stevie]

Congratulations on the barnfind and good luck with the massive project!! Something about the side pics keeps bugging me apart from the butchered wheel arch. Isn't that wheel sitting a bit far back? Did some funny character actually try to convert the car to LWB or is it just the angle of the photo?

Cheers, Steve

[HughH]

Great find

I agree that the engine number may be a typo. But stranger things have happened. In my experience the factory also had a number of engine series numbers and chassis series numbers that are not "in the books".

However with such a high number "1712" it is unlikely to be a special series. For example the books say the range for the "96" "s" series engines (901/02) in 1967 ended with serial number "1178"; ie the last one was 961178.
BUT
if you look at the kardex details of "sports purpose" cars from that time they have much higher numbers. For example a 1967 S rallye car 307671S had engine 961778 (which was also shown in 308101S at one stage); 308291S had engine 961989; 308505S had engine 962163 etc

so it might be 961712 instead of 981712, ..............an easy mistake with poor writing

are you sure it does not ALSO have another "production" serial number for the chassis. Some Versuch cars seem to have both a internal number like your 310xxx and a production number (usually very low in the series - ie under 10) as well

best of luck with your research

[ajwans]

However with such a high number "1712" it is unlikely to be a special series. For example the books say the range for the "96" "s" series engines (901/02) in 1967 ended with serial number "1178"; ie the last one was 961178.

Hugh, do you have the source for this? We have heaps of cars in the registry database with numbers well into the 2s, i.e. 962XXX engines.
Surely not all of these are sport purpose cars. Perhaps it's the 66 calendar year which ended at engine number 961178.

andy

[HughH]

andy

I think the some of the "main" source books perhaps copied each other on some matters - such as Morgan - and one had a typo at one stage. Morgan has this range, as do a number of others however as many have noted there are errors in the detail of Morgan's book

The best source of these that i use is Boschen and Barth 1978 edition that says the 1966 911S engine range went to 962178 not 961178 (for chassis numbers 305101S to 308523S).

However they show it in 2 separate lines: 960001 - 961144 and then 961145 - 962178.

In other reference books i have like Morgan and the online http://www.elferhelfer.com. they show the 1967S with the same chassis number range but the lower engine number range to 961178. Maybe they mis-copied the numbers from Boschen??

The higher range fits in with the numbers i have seen on kardexes etc and i think is correct BUT I was trying (maybe not clearly enough) to make the point that just because an "accepted reference book" does not have a number or range listed it doesn't mean it does not exist.

interestingly the Boschen and Barth book calls the "1967S" chassis number range from 1180001 onwards - ie when it was written were they were using the year MADE not the model year as reference?. Therefore i suspect that the split range for the "1966S" may be the calendar 66 and calendar 67 cars???

the advantage of using an early edition book is that it was written closer to the time - the disadvantage is that it misses out on new information. I think this time the advantages outweigh the disadvantages

also the relatively recent Achiele "Porsche 911 engine history and development" also has the same breakdown as Boschen and Barth AND calls them model year 1966 cars

also FWIIW neither book show a 98xxxx range of engines

[davep]

I would ask for a double check on this engine number, it's not in the accepted range of available engine.
All other 67S engines start 96. It could be a test engine or it could be a typo. The reason I feel it could be a typo is because April 67 production cars had engine numbers right around 961700. They were not produced in strict order but they were in rough order.

I fully agree with the likelihood of a typo. There is no 98xxxx series, and April serial #'s would be appropriate.

The 31xxxx, 32xxxx and 33xxxx VIN's are a little known series of prototypes from 1967 through 1969. Details are scarce. Very interesting that so many have popped up in the last year or so.