Please share story of first time you saw a 911 or similar.

[Scott A]

I searched for a thread about first sighting. But came up empty.

Can some of you share the story of the first time (or early memories) of seeing a 911?
I was interested in older stories from the 1960s early 70s.

Perhaps include your age at the time, and the year, the car, etc.

I have been in the automotive design industry for 35+ years...and cars are designed/styled to attract their buyers. So I am interested in what caught a person's heart.

For me, I was 5 years old, in 1969, when my father took us, 3 brothers, to a dealership in Long Beach, California. I saw the cars, brand new, inside a full glass dealership.
There must have been about 3 to 5 smooth and intensely colored cars inside. I remember running from one to the other. (Later, one was in our home garage, a canary 912)
I was taken by the colors, and the smallness of the car and smooth shape...but a VW beetle didn't do the same thing for me.

The other cars in our family were large Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs, they were sharp, and large, and lacked color. They were not cars I wanted to touch.

Maybe once a month in those years we would see a 911/912 in the wild driving or parked in Southern California, which was a family treat. (I have no memories of seeing a 356, the first time I really started looking at those were in the early historic races of Sears Point and Laguna Seca)(by the time I could drive myself to a dealership, the 914 had come and gone, and that's when I started seeing 924s and the 928, I thought the 928 was a marvelous creation)

I rarely feel the same about the new cars I see today....I think they are just too similar....and have lost the colors. It is very uncommon that I am attracted to a modern car.
50 some years ago bring nice memories to me.

[bob joyce]

I believe it was 1967 I would have been 18. I was taking a short cut thru a neighbor hood in Mill Valley Ca. to get to the 2AM club that was the beginning point of the accent to Mount Tamalpiase.
Then to Bolinas Ca. to surf....
It was a slate grey 911S.
It was so stunning and impressive it set my concept of functional design.
This inspired be to think of a Pontiac GTO as a long board (9'6") and the 911 Porsche as a short board (7'6")..
I came to integrate the "lines" of Porsche into the short boards i designed.... cheating the elements in a most complementary fashion.
This carried thru to other works such as designing freeway detours to have a subtle intuitive flow...

[steve shea]

1965 going north on 101 from Tiburon to the old Cotati track. I was in my '55 speedster and was passed by the new model. It was obviously a Porsche but being used to 356s it looked other worldly. Lt Ivory.

[targatuesday]

Disney movie, Condorman. Hero is chased by an elite assassin squad all driving Porsche 911 models.

[tom1394racing]

It was the fall of 1972 and I was a in my first year at Lehigh University. It was a long uphill trudge from my Engineering classes back to the dorms each afternoon. A few of the upperclassmen had new 911's that would scream past me chasing each other back up the hills to their fraternities. I'd only seen photos and magazine articles up to that point. I was awestruck by the shape, sound and speed of those beautiful machines and decided then that one day I would own one.

[silverc4s]

It was in late summer of 1965 and following four years in the USMC, I had moved to Toronto and was working for IBM maintaining Time Systems and electric typewriters. My work had me in & out of offices and factories all over the area and one day I was called in to service the office typewrites in the local Porsche dealership.
Well, I was a life long racing fan, especially F1 and other European types, but I had never owned a foreign car, or even anything beyond beater status at that point. There on the showroom floor was the most beautiful car I had seen in person many years. It was a brand new Dark Green 911 coupe with a tan leather interior and a wood dash and a wood steering wheel. I was in awe, and just stood staring for maybe 10 minutes before coming to my senses and getting back to work. Was way beyond my pay grade at the time but almost exactly 20 years later, in California I was able to acquire a 1969 911T targa from the original owner, and have been until today in possession of at least one early 911. The perfect sports car, to me at least.

[Bullethead]

Like most boys obsessed with cars, my brothers and I would shout out makes and models of just about anything we saw when on a road trip. That I began a subscription to Road & Track at age nine was a contributing factor.
For that kid, everything British was glommed on, but in our neighborhood of engineering types, the guy with the 356 was just a few doors away from the Volvo P544, and a block over was a guy that commuted in a Messerschmitt KR200.
Probably the first time I ever saw a 911 was when the VW dealer started selling them, so around 1967.

In 1973 a buddy bought a used '67 911S SWT which made a huge impression on me, not least because it was Aubergine with white interior. Felt incredibly fast, almost scary, but the handling and sounds were intoxicating.

For someone that drove a big Healy or an old Jag, that car felt like a space ship. About the same time, another friend got a 2002, and a drive in that after years of Britcars was a revelation. I've only owned German cars since.

[raspritz]

Los Angeles, the summer of 1966. My dad was enamored with sports cars, necessarily red, and Porsche most of all. He was most excited by the new S model. My dad would have given his right nut just to have a ride in a Porsche. Sadly, I don’t think he ever did. And his widow, to whom I told this story, never had any idea of this. I salute my dad every day I drive, be it my ‘69T, my TurboS, my wife’s Cayman GTS, but most especially my red ‘67 911 racecar.

[Alaskan911]

In 1979, my father drove my mother to the hospital in his 1966 911 while she was in labor. A few hours later, I was welcomed to the world. This was my first experience with Porsche. Does that count? ha

[raspy2point2]

1966 silver 911 with blacked out Thrust D wheels in Pacific Palisades, CA. Car belonged to Barry Hilton-yes that Hilton. That was 1966 stopped me in my tracks.