My life with Porsche… List of pre impact bumper cars I've owned for prosperity

[dwa911]

So, I've been an Early S member off and on over the years... First joined back in 1995/96, then dropped out around 2000, and have come back recently ~2018ish... But I've never been one to post much...

With the price of our beloved early cars significantly more when compared with the early and mid 90s... I though I would post the ones I can remember having, with what I can remember about them, and with CoA when I have them... I went through a phase of getting them in the mid 90s for the cars I had... That way future owners have some record of a part of their life when I was their caretaker... I've written a much longer set of posts on the bird site about my latest RSR style build - as it started life as a T, and wasn't intended to be an accurate replica - just my vision for what I wanted to build - it seemed the more appropriate place to post... it can be found here for those interested or with insomnia...

I suppose I should start from the beginning with a short excerpt of how I got hooked on 911s and then post all the early cars here T, E & S...

So, here we go...

THE BEGINNING – FIRST LOVE:

After a childhood spent bouncing around the USA – born in Virginia, then to Oklahoma, Maryland, & Pennsylvania while my dad changed jobs. We ended up, and I mostly grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana in the '60s through the very early '80s.

Most people in Indianapolis at that time, and certainly in our mixed class neighbourhood, had American cars. My dad loved cars, but was a bit different than most of our neighbours. While he had a series of different American cars over the years - mainly Chevys and Fords for everyday use (I remember Falcons, Fairlanes, Galaxie 500s, and Chevelles) - he liked, and went through a number of British sports cars, as second cars (for my mom of course). (S)he had a TR3, Spitfire, TR6, and finally settled on a 1967 Austin Healey 3000, BJ8 MK-3 in British racing green. He completely restored the Healey over a few years, in between restoring old '50s Chris Craft boats. He wasn’t very mechanically inclined, learned while doing (making mistakes and breaking things usually), wasn’t very detail oriented, and was much better with varnishing and wood, than with metal and mechanics. The main memory I have, is the Healey ‘slept’ in the garage, under an electric blanket in the winter, because he was afraid the lacquer would crack if it got too cold. I had great times/memories going for drives with my dad in those British cars, but I also recall them never quite running right the entire time he owned them (if ever)…

My dad’s best friend, Dr. John Haslam (my dad just called him Doc, as I’m sure many doctors are called), was into German cars. He had a dark green Mercedes 4-door (can’t remember the model – probably a 280SE), and a gold 912. I never did know what year the 912 was, or get a ride in it, but I seem to remember the 912 badge and could never forget the colour. In 1973, Doc Haslam traded the 912 for a silver/black 911 S coupe. That was the car that stole my heart. I remember my dad taking me to see it when Doc brought it home. It was silver, with a sunroof and a 911 "S" badge on the back. Funny what sticks in a 9-year old’s mind. I don’t remember much more about that car specifically, like if it had sport seats, sunroof or other options. I had no reason to. It was my first ride in a 911. That was all that mattered, and I would have sworn it was cornering on 2 wheels every time Doc went around a corner. And that sound. It was the coolest thing I had ever heard. It seemed like it revved so high and for so long. It sounded like what I thought a race car should sound like. Little did I know how good they could really sound, especially with headers and straight through pipes. But, that was to come much later. Needless to say, that first ride imprinted on the 9-year old me, as only things can imprint on kids I suppose, and I was determined that I would own a 911 just like that one day… I’d be keen to hear about what happened to that car if anyone ever turns up Dr. John Haslam as a previous owner.

Fast forward to me living in California - I had moved there after a age 17, hitchhiking to NYC, dropping out of NYU, playing blues guitar in bars, giving up being the next "Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck", and finally after a few months on my brothers couch, becoming a Foley & ADR post production sound mixer for TV and movies... Finally able to afford a 911, I started with an SC... which soon became a 73 911 T... for more colour & detail (If interested) - check out the other set of posts (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...1121235-a.html)


1st LONG HOOD - 9113110650:

Now the upside of having an SC, was I got to compare this to the early 911 T, E & S cars I had driven. While it was a great car and I had a lot of fun with it, the G model - impact bumper cars just didn’t look as cool to me as the early cars, and targas didn’t look as good to me as coupes, and it certainly wasn’t a 1973 silver S sunroof coupe. So, the SC was sold for about what I paid for it, and while looking for the S, I found a silver 1973 911T Targa – 9113110650 (now in Sweden after a circuitous path), which was a little worse for wear, but was running, driving, had factory sport seats, and only cost me $3,000. Still a targa, and not a 1973 S sunroof coupe… But fun in the sun, a pre-impact bumper car, and would hold me over until I could find an S coupe…

9113110650 & HARD LESSONS:

So... in movie speak... we fade in to the scene...

A couple of weeks later, with the top stowed in the front trunk, I’m enjoying my ‘new to me’ 911 T targa, and the California sunshine… I’m heading north on the 405 freeway, just accelerating and entering from the Marina Del Rey 90 interchange, shifting through the gears to the 6500 RPM redline, and revelling in ‘that’ wonderful sound and driving experience, through the corner of the onramp, that makes driving an early 911 so magical…

All of a sudden, I started feeling heat in the cockpit… I quickly checked that the heat lever in between the seats was off… It was… I checked the dash controls and that ventilation was allowing fresh air in… it was… Then, I glanced at the gauges, and noticed the engine temperature had soared to the top of the scale… So, I pulled over to check everything was alright…

And, unfortunately, I saw flames coming from the rear decklid… Yes, the engine of 0650 had caught fire and as I opened the decklid to inspect to see if I could put it out with the little fire extinguisher I had with me, the flames leaped out, and after using up the extinguishant, and even trying to beat the flames with a towel I had in the car, I had to eventually retreat as the flames grew larger and the heat became too intense… A few people pulled over and tried to help extinguish the fire with their own fire extinguishers, but to no avail, and I stood by with tears in my eyes, watching 0650 burn pretty badly before the Los Angeles Fire Department showed up and was able to put the fire out after what seemed an eternity, and more water and foam than I would have thought…

So if you passed a burning silver 911 targa on the 405 north of the 90 interchange, and saw flames about 3 stories high around 1990, that was me…

A few hard lessons…

1) Always regularly check and change any suspect fuel and oil lines – I had 0650 serviced the first week after buying it and had all of those things done by a reputable shop… I still don’t know what was the cause, but imagine a fuel line split or came loose as the probable cause… There are a lot of fuel lines in 911 engine compartments, especially with MFI, which 0650 had…
2) Even if just having the above work done or doing it yourself, stay vigilant… Check and recheck before and after every drive… It is easy to become complacent…
3) 911 engine fires quickly burn beyond control… Especially magnesium cases…
4) Magnesium fires are tough to put out, even for the fire department…
5) Always have a suitable fire extinguisher in a an easy to access place and ready to use… check them annually or even more often…
6) Stay safe… at the end of the day, it is a car, albeit an amazing one, and can be replaced… I or you can’t be…

After the firemen put the fire out, I had 0650 towed home to assess the damage and contemplate what to do next… After a couple days, I determined it wasn’t ‘that bad’, and saw it as an opportunity to really learn about 911s…

So, I set about disassembling 0650, determined to use my misfortune as a catalyst to restore it and learn by doing…

After the dirty job of tearing 0650 apart, it seemed to me that only the engine (the plastic MFI parts, wiring, and other plastic parts had melted and the case itself had become part case and part blobs of magnesium in places on the top - surprisingly the bottom seemed fine, and the gearbox, seemed untouched), some parts in the engine bay, the back glass, which shattered, and the water logged interior were not salvageable…

After this tear down and assessment, and with me determined to save 0650, once stripped to the bare chassis, 0650 was off to Brace’s auto body and repair shop. Brace’s was close, had a great reputation and importantly, a Celette bench to repair 911s… They did a great job repairing the body, especially the rear sheet metal, which had been warped by the intense heat of the fire, and needed to be replaced with new panels. Brace’s then finished 0650 off with a respray of silver ‘code 936’ Glasurit paint… I was pleased with the result and the shiny paint inspired me to get 0650 back on the road…

But, as I’m sure many will relate to, weeks turned into months, with work and other priorities keeping me from really making progress, unfortunately, restoring 0650 never happened, and eventually, after a long time languishing in storage with all it’s parts in boxes, I eventually sold 0650 to Wayne Dempsey who I believe was considering doing a series of articles on restoring a 911, and was looking for a car to completely restore at the time (I may have that wrong – long time ago)… I had met Wayne via Tom Gould while they were setting up Pelican Parts in the early days, and Wayne seemed like a good home for 0650… I never really got to know Wayne very well, as I mainly chatted with Tom... I’d known Tom since when he worked at Otto’s in Venice, but that’s another part of the story that we’ll get to later…

A few more hard lessons…

1) I will fall in love with my 911, and it will cause me to be irrational and not think objectively… It still happens to me, but I have a bit more control of myself these days…
2) Be realistic about how hard, time consuming and expensive a total restoration can be – even in the early 90s this was going to cost a lot to put right, even with me being willing to do the work and the inexpensive access to used parts back then in Los Angeles…

For the record, according to the notes I have from the CoA (I have a spreadsheet with the info I have on all the 911s I’ve owned)…

9113110650 had engine 6131660 (now melted), gearbox number unknown, Silver Metallic – 8010, Black Leatherette – 16, Koni shocks, sport seats, comfort kit, 6x15 fuchs, and tinted glass. I will post a copy and what pictures I can find when I’m back home next week… Again, apologies for the lack of photos at the time of the post…

As a postscript to this section and 0650… 0650 changed hands a few times, and ended up with Johan in Sweden… Here is the link to his story or getting and restoring 0650 (https://forums.pelicanparts.com/pors...weden-now.html)...

After not paying attention to the forums for several years, I had found some old boxes with some parts and some of the old CoAs from 911s I had owned, and decided to search the VIN numbers to see if I could find any information on what happened to them… I stumbled across Johan’s post in 2019, and after connecting with him, sent the original VIN tags from inside the trunk and on the A pillar of USA cars to him to reunite with 0650…



And I can just see the beginning of my signature on the California title as shown from Johan’s posting – Looks like I sold it in February of 1999… Not sure about the 90,000 miles, but it was in very good condition when I bought it, so could have been near correct mileage…



And a link to some pictures looking much as I sold it to Wayne, after sitting for a few years in storage (https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...t_chapter1.htm)...

Here is the CoA

[72targa]

^^^^ Thanks for this story! Excellent!

[dwa911]

JACKPOT, WINNING THE LOTTERY & MEETING YOUR HERO CARS - 9113301270:

A few months later, I found an ad for a 1973 911 S coupe – 9113301270 – in San Antonio, Texas advertised for $15,000 in the March 1995 edition of The Nugget – the Golden Gate region PCA monthly newsletter.





It had a sunroof, factory leather sport seats, power windows, factory AC and a limited slip diff, which the original ad doesn’t list, but I discovered later to my delight and education, as I got to rebuild the gearbox and the LSD later... But, and a big but… According to the ad, it was blue, not silver…

I was still determined to find a silver one… But, I decided to call Bill, the owner in the ad, as I knew from looking at many 911s by that time, that they were frequently resprayed different colours from the original factory delivered colours, and hoped I might get lucky… Fortunately for me, after discussing the car for a while with Bill, he went to look at the car, while I waited on the phone – no mobiles in those days, and confirmed the paint code of 936 on the door tag… Yes! A factory original silver metallic 911 S sunroof coupe!!! Apparently, it had been repainted by a previous owner to gulf blue… Yes, gulf blue, which happened to be my second favourite colour at the time – I’m sure most can imagine why (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Mans_(film))...

Bill explained the previous owner or if it was Bill (my memory just doesn’t have this info anymore – I’m not sure if Bill was the 2nd or 3rd owner) had bought and brought the car from Los Angeles, where it was originally purchased by Harold Luke, a Beverly Hills doctor, to San Antonio…

So, barely being able to contain my excitement, that I had finally found a ’73 silver sunroof 911 S, albeit currently in gulf blue, and after a little negotiation, I agreed a deal with Bill for $13,000, ‘FedExed’ a check for a $1,000 deposit, and booked a flight from LA to San Antonio for the next Saturday. Needless to say, waiting for Saturday was the longest week of my life…

But, before I knew it, I was in San Antonio, at Bill’s house, and there was 9113301270 in the driveway… gulf blue and beautiful… I had never seen a gulf blue car in the metal up until that moment – other than the 917Ks in Steve McQueen’s film, Le Mans… It instantly became my new favourite colour, and I decided I had to have this car… Not a great way to potentially be inspecting a car objectively or entering a negotiation to buy a car, but such is life… when addicted or in love, logic goes out the window pretty quickly… The paint was a bit faded from the sun, but still looked pretty good… good enough for me for sure…

After chatting with Bill, looking over the car, I soon found myself test driving basically ‘the’ hero car that started my love affair with the Porsche 911 all those years ago when I was 9 years old!

Unfortunately, on the test drive, disappointingly, it crunched going into 2nd and 3rd gears, didn’t quite have the acceleration or ‘push’ from about 4K RPM that other 911 S’s I’d driven had, and it was leaking oil on the heat exchangers – not a lot, but enough to make ‘that smell’ – and the shocks were completely worn out… But, having found ‘my’ 911 S, and not wanting to let this one get away, and after quite a bit of negotiation, and me almost missing my flight home, Bill and I agreed a deal for $10,000, and 1270 was mine!

Afraid to drive it home – after my recent engine fire experience with 9113110650, I drove it to a hotel near the Riverwalk (can’t remember which one), paid to park it in the hotel garage, left the key with the hotel manager, took the title, and promised to have a transport company pick it up as soon as I could arrange for one, once back in Los Angeles on Monday, and grabbed a taxi for the airport…

A very excruciatingly long 2 weeks later, and 1270 showed up on the back of an open transport car hauler in Venice, CA, where I was living at the time… Finally, a dream fulfilled… (I think I have some photos of delivery, but will need to find them once back home)

(for the record, according to my notes/spreadsheet… 9113301270 had engine 6332006, gearbox number unknown, Silver Metallic – 8080, black Leather, Koni shocks, sport seats, limited slip differential, electric sunroof, electric windows, factory AC, and tinted glass)

The only photos I can find on my storage drive, are of a trip to Laguna Seca for the historic races and Pebble Beach concours on PCH (California highway 1), after I’d ended up installing a front RSR style oil cooler and RS front bumper – note the current gulf blue on the spoiler is brighter than the faded paint on the rest of the car…









Here is a registration from my ownership



And request for CoA - can't seem to find this one (not sure why it is posted rotated)...

[dwa911]

BLAST FROM THE PAST:

One day while searching for a suitable car to get back into early 911 Porsche ownership and enjoyment… I decided to do an internet search for my old 911s – just go to Google and search the VIN numbers… I’d done it off and on over the years, but never had any results…

This time I found 9113301270… My first 911S… The original silver car that was gulf blue that I had bought in San Antonio, Texas from Bill Carder… And it was being auctioned at Historic Auctioneers! Right here in the UK - where I currently live! What were the odds of that?! Then I realized that the auction wasn’t coming up, but had just taken place the prior weekend… But, 1270 had been a no sale… I phoned Historic Auctioneers and asked if they still had the car, and they did, but that there was interest, so I jumped in the car to go have a look… On the way, I had all sorts of emotions and memories, and was determined to buy 2170 back again… I mean if fate had brought her all the way to the UK right when I was looking for a car, it must be meant to be… right?

When I first saw 1270 at the Historic Auctioneers facility, I was at first a little underwhelmed… It’s hard to explain really… I guess I was expecting a jolt of electricity or something… Maybe I had worked in Hollywood too long… I have since surmised that perhaps it was because 1270 was now silver metallic… I had done a respray to silver just before taking 1270 to the Monterey auction as part of liquidating my “collection” during my divorce, but all of my memories with 1270 were in gulf blue… I saw many familiar things… There is a scratch on the chromed plastic on one of the electric window switch surrounds on the driver’s side… it is still there… I wouldn’t have remembered it, but it is one of those things, that when you see it, it triggers a memory… I knew every inch / cm of 1270… although it seems it had been “restored” a few times, since my ownership… so in some ways familiar, and in others not… Maybe this is overdramatic, but perhaps it is like seeing your first love many years later, and somehow it just doesn’t generate the same emotion… That is how I felt about 1270 on that day… The guys at Historic Auctioneers also informed me while I was on my way to see 1270, someone in France had made a deal to buy her… So, just like that, 1270 was gone again…

I learned she had been bought by a guy in Seattle from the Monterey auction, and coincidentally was in the area when I moved there to take my job with Microsoft… And then found her way to the UK when I was already living there… Seems like our lives are intertwined… perhaps if the French owner ever decides to sell 1270, I’ll be re-united once more… who knows…

In the auction description for 1270, I was saddened while reading it… It seems a lot of 1270’s US ownership history was left out of the description… I’m not saying it was done on purpose, but the description made it seem like the original owner Dr Harold Luke, had kept the car all those years and sold it at Monterey around 2000… A nice tidy ownership history, and gave the illusion of being a one owner and well cared for car all those years… That wasn’t the case at all, 1270 had led a reasonable life, but Dr. Luke had sold 1270 after just a few years of ownership… I had bought 1270 from Bill Carder in San Antonio, Texas, and owned 1270 a couple of times, having traded and sold her, and bought her back from Carlo Abesamis…You get the idea… It also had no mention that it had ever been gulf blue, and indicates just a cosmetic repaint… It stuck with me, and one of the key factors in deciding to post all the cars I had previously owned earlier in this thread… So future owners / caretakers would know the history, and at least my little time and what I had done with the cars… Is that my ego talking? Perhaps. I’m not sure I can explain the feeling, but imagine others may know what I’m writing about…

Here are some photos as 9113301270 looked at the time of the Historic Auctioneers auction and link to the site… (https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/a...rsche-911-24s/)

[dwa911]

1193100010

Detail not here, but I had decided to go racing in an early 911, and decided a 1972 would be the best base car due to the location of the oil tank...

The first car I found in my search for a 1972 donor car was of course not a 72, but a 1969 911S Targa – 119310010…

‘0010’ was brought over from Europe at some time, was a bit rusty, but not beyond repair by today’s standards, with prices being where they are…

‘0010’ no longer had its original engine and gearbox, but drove and looked OK… Hell, most early 911s looked OK to me back then… I was really hooked… ‘0010’ had a 3.0 liter and 915 gearbox from a 76 3.0 Euro Carrera… I figured the 3.0 liter engine could be the ‘new’ engine for the ’73 T targa ‘0650’, as it needed one due to the fire, and the gearbox could be one of my race gearboxes, while I looked for a 1969 S engine and 901 gearbox for ‘0010’...

And the price was right at $3,500! Amazing how one can convince themself and rationalize that one needs to buy something… So, of course I bought ‘0010’, and off to Otto’s it went…John deemed it a great buy, and the engine and gearbox in great condition, running strong and in need of nothing… So, the engine came out, and instead of going into 9113110650, would end up being my race engine at a later date…

I never did find a 69 S engine for ‘0010’, and it languished in Otto’s as a parts car for ages stripped of its dignity and parts to the point it ended up pretty much as a bare shell with steelies to move it around… But it gave up it’s parts to several other 911s in the noble effort to make them ‘whole’ again…

If anybody knows what happened to 119310010? I’d love to know… I hope somehow it was saved and restored, but missing it’s original gearbox and engine, and being a rusty car in California back then, I’m thinking probably not…

This is the only picture I can find of ‘0010’ shortly after I bought it and the CoA for history…

[dwa911]

Thanks Peter!

^^^^ Thanks for this story! Excellent!

[dwa911]

119301377

The next car I came across was 119301377, a Light Ivory / Black 911S coupe…

‘1377’ was straight and rust free except for the front pan… neglect and 2 old batteries had taken care of that… It also had the wrong outside mirror (a 74/75), was missing AC components, and had Zenith carbs instead of the MFI… The owner had bought 2 new batteries to get it running to sell, and it did run – very roughly… stock Zeniths just didn’t seem to be the optimal solution for a 69 2.0 liter S engine… and the gearbox crunched going into a few gears… ‘1377’ was basically pretty tired, and hadn’t really been kept to the standards it deserved… the owner had a personalized license plate ‘MUSIK”, and I guess knew more about music (except how to spell it I suppose), than about caring for a thoroughbred like a 69 911 S…

Everything should have told me to walk away… I was looking for a 72 911 as a donor for a race car… You guessed it, I couldn’t resist, and ended up buying ‘1377’ too… I can’t remember the price paid, but seem to recall it was around 6,000 – 7,000 USD ballpark…

Once I had ‘1377’ in my possesion, it was over to Otto’s in Venice (long story covered in other forum) for a once over… John deemed the engine sound, but in need of the complete 69 S MFI system, which started my education into the differences between the 69, 70-71, and 72-73 MFI systems and the T, E, & S systems for each year… Fortunately for me, John went digging into his ‘spare parts’ bins in the back and upstairs at Otto’s, and he managed to piece together a complete set… It needed to be rebuilt of course, and it was off to Pacific Fuel Injection for Gus to work his magic again… I remember John had an old well-oiled, dirty, yet stout wooden box specifically to secure and protect MFI fuel pumps while in transit to Gus for rebuilding, and I ended up using it several times…

‘1377’s’ gearbox needed synchros, and dog teeth on a few of the gears, so I also got a great lesson in rebuilding the 901 gearbox, and it’s nuances… I was in heaven and learning more and more about 911s all the time… What’s not to like? What else was a single guy going to spend his money and time doing in Los Angeles? At least it kept me out of trouble – sort of… But, I was no closer to finding my race car…

While the MFI was off to Gus, ‘1377’s’ body went to Brace to have the front pan replaced… and then all back together again, with a bit of a brake, suspension, and of course fuel and oil line refresh…

It was really interesting to experience the difference between a 69 2.0 liter S and a 73 2.4 liter S… both had amazing merits…

‘1377’, the 69 S was a little sluggish around town, but get on a canyon road, and keep the revs up, and it was magic… the slipping around in the standard seats in hard cornering wasn’t great, but it was manageable, and a blast to drive…

‘1270’, the 73 S was more fun for me… easy around town, and still would wind up through the rev range in the canyons… maybe not quite as quick to rev as the 69, but the 73 S was definitely my pick for the moment… especially with the mods made to the suspension, refreshed engine…

Seems I can only find photos from just after buying ‘1377’, no finished ones… Here they are and the CoA for 119301377 for history…









I can’t remember when I sold ‘1377’ or to who (frequently the case with many of the old 911s I’ve owned), but looks like it became a race car... and lost the S injection... again...

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/1826...-no-119301377/




And more recently...

https://juanrivas.co/2018/03/27/1969...-car-polo-red/

[dwa911]

A FEW OTHER Ss ALONG THE JOURNEY:

With 119301377 underway to revival between Otto’s, Brace’s, Gus & Norbert, 1193310010 sitting in the driveway ready to give up its Euro Carrera 3.0 liter engine and gearbox, and 9113301270 as my daily driver, PCA and POC competition car for autocross and slalom track events… I continued my search for a ’72 to convert in to my race car…

And, of course I found everything but a ‘72… Including a very special 1973 911S… I had become obsessed with 911Ss… and had decided I needed one from every year they were made… maybe not to keep, but at least to experience… Have I mentioned I might have a slightly addictive personality?

9113300757 - THE S WITH THE MYSTERY ENGINE THAT ALMOST GOT AWAY:

I can’t remember how or why I found this car, as I already had a 1973 911S, so I’m just not sure… I remember it was on the east coast… either Westchester County, NY or Connecticut… My dad was going back and forth between L.A. & Manhattan at the time for work – he loved sailing, kept a boat in New Jersey, and I was trying to convince him to move to L.A., bring and live on his boat in Marina Del Rey instead of the constant in and out of the water for the winter, and non-use on the east coast, which he eventually did, and finally saw the light when it came to Porsche 911s vs his beloved English sports cars…

In any case, pestered by me, and armed with all the info to look for, my dad dutifully went to see the car… I explained he needed to validate all the numbers… The 4 VINs which had to all match; inside the trunk, the A pillar, on the front latch panel, and on the driver’s door latch panel sticker, if it was still present, and that they should all start with 911330… To identify the paint code tag number on the driver’s door hinge panel, and finally the engine numbers – the type number which I told him should be 911/53, and the serial number, which I told him should start with 633, and the fan shroud should be red… I wasn’t to focused on gearbox numbers back then, as I had seen enough 915 gearboxes with the serial numbers ground of from bottoming out, or maybe more nefarious reasons… who knows… In any case, I just wasn’t too worried about the Gearbox number…

Mobile phones weren’t too common back then, so I had to wait while my dad drove from Manhattan to check it out, give it a once over and a test drive, and then call me to let me know how it all went… As mentioned, my dad was not the most mechanical guy, but at least he knew where to look for rust – mostly – and was pretty sensitive test-driving cars – e.g. vibrations, noises, etc. And, if he deemed it in good shape, and the numbers all matched, then we agreed he would go ahead and negotiate a deal to buy the car… I can’t remember how much the asking price was, but was probably in the 10-15k USD range…

Finally, my dad called… He said he left without making an offer…

When I pressed him for more info, he related that on the outside, 9113300757 looked kind of rough with tired paint, dings, stone chips, flared wheel arches that didn’t exactly line up with the bumpers, some waves in the body work around the sills where they met the flares, rubber that didn’t seem right, mismatched wheels, the sunroof made a lot of noise, but opened, albeit slowly, and a spoiler of some sort on the back… For the inside, he said, the carpet was a little worn, but the dash wasn’t cracked and the seats were OK, but that there was red material on the dash, no radio, wires hanging from under the dash, and the passenger electric window was erratic… He then said that even though it looked rough, and didn’t think it was a very nice car, he went ahead and gave it a test drive since he had driven all the way to see it, and that it drove great… In fact, he said the engine was really strong, the gearbox shifted smoothly, braked in a straight line, had no oil leaks or smoking… he had driven 9113301270 post rebuild, and said it drove as good or better, in fact so well, that it almost made him want to overlook the other bad elements… but then he checked the numbers, and they didn’t match what I told him they should be, and when he asked about it, the current owner indicated the previous and original owner had blown the original engine, and this was a Porsche dealer warranty replacement engine… My dad being a little unsure of the nuances of 911s decided to leave it and walk away…

Once back to Manhattan, my dad called me to relay the news, and painted a pretty bleak picture of the car, and I was thinking I was glad he didn’t buy it, and that I probably needed to stick to California for cars, where I could look at them myself… Then for the hell of it, I asked him what the numbers were…

He said all the VINs matched – 9113300757 in all 4 places, just like I said. The paint code was 936 (silver metallic), but that while the engine had a red fan shroud, the type number and serial number didn’t match what I said they should be… He said the type number after rubbing looked like 911/83 not 911/53, and the serial number started with 663 not 633 and it had carbs not MFI…

My jaw almost hit the floor, and I must have either stopped breathing or made some kind of non-human sound, as my dad asked if I was OK… I said for him to hang on while I opened the Porsche books I had in front of me so I could look up the engine type and serial numbers to validate what I thought it was… It couldn’t be I thought… and then there it was… type 911/83 = 2.7 liter 210 HP… 663 = 1973 Carrera RS… I still thought, my dad must have read the numbers wrong… I don’t know how many times I asked if he was really sure… and then barely able to contain myself, I told him to go back and buy the car – no matter what… We had found a 911 S with a real ’73 911 RS engine… What are the odds I thought… And so, he called back the owner, said he had thought about it, negotiated a deal (can’t remember how much), and brought the car back to Manhattan, where it was shipped to me in L.A. a long couple of weeks later…

I can’t remember any more about the history of 9113300757… The previous owners… I can’t find a picture of the engine or numbers anywhere except the engine bay shot from the photos I took right after it was delivered in L.A. (the only ones I can find – maybe Carlo has some), or if Porsche dealers actually could or would replace a blown original S engine with a different type, let alone an RS engine, which wasn’t technically a legal engine in the USA back then (my memory seems to recall the numbers being in the 2000s from a serial number perspective, which is outside the production run, so maybe possible), or how it came to be missing the MFI, and had spray paint caps blocking off the heater hose outlets from the fan shroud, or a lot of other things about it… But I remember 9113300757 being an amazing car to drive, and the best road spec 911 I ever owned… NOT the prettiest by a long shot… It was rough… but mechanically it was great… And… It soon replaced 9113301270 as my daily driver…

Here are the only photos I can find of 9113300757 – taken shortly after it was delivered from the east coast, and the CoA… I would really love to know where it is today and it’s journey - it was a great car, and I have some great memories with it (including a cameo in a Roger Coreman film called Overdrive wearing number 7)…

[Bullethead]

Great stuff... you need to edit this into a piece for the Esses. Or maybe two!

[Chuck Miller]

Great stuff... you need to edit this into a piece for the Esses. Or maybe two!

Amen to that !!!! ... Or maybe more then 2 issues !!!

GREAT STUFF !!!

cm