As some of you may know, I've owned a 1972 Targa in Aubergine since 2017 but never really felt the urge to create a topic for it. At the time I was looking for a nice restored Targa but somehow I ended up buying a project car and having it fully restored. The restoration took more than a year (I thought that was long at the time but have since learned that it's actually not bad) and shortly after I took delivery of the car the engine failed. It needed a full rebuild which was done over the winter 2018/2019. Finally in May 2019, the Targa was mine and ready to go. Of course the whole process took longer and was more expensive than I expected, so that was a lesson learned. Nevertheless, after sorting out the inevitable teething problems I had a lot of fun with it. Drove to the Eiffel, Luxembourg, Belgium, and in 2020 joined the ESR trip to Switzerland / Italy with the Stelvio pass as one of the highlights. In 2021 we went to the French Alps and in 2022 I went to the Scottish Highlands with a friend. All great memories.
But, in Scotland I started to realize that the Targa might not be such a great match for me after all. Even though my roof had a very decent fit the wind noise was excessive on the highway, to such an extent that I used earplugs for every trip longer than 15 minutes. On really hot days I sometimes kept the roof on to avoid the heat of the sun (especially when you are waiting for a traffic light); if it's not such a sunny day you often wonder whether it's the right time to take the top off or not. Sometimes, on a perfect road, such as when we descended the Stelvio pass in 2020, everything comes together and it's great; on all other occasions less so. In addition, I had become intrigued by the S cars and especially the 2.2 because time and again, I had read that these were supposed to be the pick of them all: torqueier and easier to live with than the 2.0 and more racy than the 2.4.
So in the fall of 2022, I started to look for a 2.2S coupe. There was only one for sale, in Albert Blue, but the seller told me they were fixing a few flaws and they would contact me later. A few months later the car was sold. Then at the end of January, I found an ad for a Light Ivory 2.2S, 9110301624. Originally from Verona, Italy, completely restored by Dutch restorer Rens Ruts in 1998 and featured in a Dutch classics magazine at the time. Only one owner from 1989 (the year it was imported into the Netherlands) until 2018, two more owners after that. And with original Recaro seats (listed on the COA).
The car looked great when I visited the seller. Normally I would never test drive a classic car in winter with salt on the road, but it was a reasonably nice day and I realized it would probably be sold in the spring. I had arranged to drive it to a nearby Porsche center where the mechanic who rebuilt the engine for my Targa now works and asked him to do a PPI. On the test drive I was struck by how well it drove. Everything felt "right" in a way that never really happened in my Targa (even though it drives really well). The panel fit, the steering, the sound, the interior, the smell, the seats. Just the right patina on the gauges. The PPI confirmed that it was completely rust-free. The engine has been out in 2020 and is completely leak-free. (New experience: heater without oil smell.) Everything accident-free and just very nice all around.
When we were doing the PPI I started to wonder "is this really the car for me?" but on the drive back to the seller I fell utterly in love with how it drove. The engine sound and feel is just so different from the 2.4T. And I couldn't believe how nice the coupe is compared to the Targa regarding wind noise. So long story short, we came to an agreement right away and a week later, I picked her up!
The 2.2S is now at my local shop for a general service and tune-up. Both my PPI mechanic and I felt that the engine should have been a little more eager around 5500 rpm and up. After examining everything and confirming that it has the S pump and all the right bits (my biggest worry was to buy a car that wasn't a proper S) the conclusion was that it probably needs just some fine-tuning in various places to get where it should be. However, later on the test drive, and on the way home when picking it up, I ran it to 7000 rpm a lot and it seemed to get better and better. Also, I had driven my 996TT on the way to the test drive, and my mechanic had spent the morning working on a Ruf Turbo, so it's also possible our reference was a little bit skewed. I'm curious to hear what the guys at my local shop think.
Engine in full tune or not, it's an absolute blast to drive this 911 and I can't wait to go out for more road trip adventures and document my journey with it here.
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Originally Posted by frederik
