Last May I commented on a Registry thread involving "rear seat extensions" that are found in some of the 1971 911 S cars. The book I self published, The Lost Archive, sold all 25 copies in less than two weeks so I'm reposting a some of my comments in this General forum because several subscribers encouraged me to try to reach a wider audience. I'd like to explore if there might be other Registry members interested in a 2nd printing of the book which I'd plan to ship in about 30 days. If so, please comment on this thread. If you already purchased a book, I can't thank you enough!
- I own a silver 1971 S with seat extensions. I've done a fair amount of research on the 1971 S homologation cars and communicated with Jurgen Barth last year to ask him questions about these cars. I have a database of 71 S cars with seat extensions and have found fewer than 15. Interestingly, I have spoken to a few owners who commented that they found some "headrests" in the trunk when they acquired their 71 S cars and threw them out because they had no idea what they were. The question remains, how many cars were delivered with seat extensions?
- Further research (pertaining to the rear seats mentioned in earlier posts) revealed that one of the issues was the rear seat-back inclination angle that became the sticking point with FIA homologation rules pertaining to Group 2. Jurgen Barth confirmed this. In the pursuing the question about seat backs, I discovered that my car had two snaps in the rear seat-back straps. I think this is directly related to the homologation efforts and I postulate that all 1971 S coupes had two snaps in the rear seat straps to adjust the rear seat-back vertical inclination angle to comply with the FIA rules. I have yet to find an original 1971 S coupe without the double snaps. The ones I've seen with a single snap have been restored examples to match 1970 cars or Targas.
- Last year a fellow 71 S owner and Registry member pointed me to an auction of Porsche factory documents and papers belonging to Rico Steinemann, the head of Racing and PR from 1969 to 1971. I won the auction and being in possession of over a hundred pages of original documents in both German and French, I was compelled to organize and translate them so I could make sense of the story. The result is a 108 page "coffee table" book that I self-published titled "The Lost Archive." The papers tell the story of a conflict between Steinemann and the FIA culminating in Porsche threatening to sue the FIA in the spring of 1971, for revising homologation regulations without adequately informing manufacturers. They eventually backed down from the suit but the relationship between Porsche and the FIA was damaged. The documents provide a rare peek behind the scenes of factory homologation efforts.
Reply With Quote
