First owner's photos of RS #451

[racemor]

Originally posted by pwd72s
30K in the first year? Obviously, he was smiling...and driving!

And now I am too!

[fryardds]

Thanks for the comments,I knew you guys would share my enthusiasm. Yes Don now I know what happened to the original tail. I have written back in hopes he still has it.

To prove what a small world it can be sometimes, GeorgeK has informed me that his good friend and mechanic knew Mr Madoerin. Here is what George writes in an email I just received.

I have some very interesting info:

I talked with my mechanic. We are doing some research on Don's RSs, and we turned to your car. Well it turns out he remembers it. The orange with gold stripes struck him when he saw it. Turns out he knew Mr Madoerin (back to that farther down). The picture of your car with the yellow one in front of it: RSs without the Carrera stripes were very rare in Switzerland, and he had a yellow car without stripes. It could well be that the yellow car was his as he did a lot of racing with his first RS. At that time he can’t remember seeing your car, only later when it was with Madoerin.

Back To Madoerin: He was a good mechanic and racer. My mechanic knew him since he had your car, it seems he used it for a while. The color scheme struck him at the time.

Madoerin was a racer, who graduated from RSs to RSRs, to 935s, to Formula 3s. It could well be the RSR he owned, and turned into a 935 body is the orange “Jaegermeister” car that was on Excellence a few years ago. When he took up Formula 3, he was less fortunate than before, having a hard time finding the feel of his car. It all came to a tragic end around ca. 1990 (could be a few years off) when he crashed and died at the Ayent-Anzère hillclimb. That race is held exactly above our heads, on the mountain which base we live on. It is an open road the whole year, and I drive it from time to time.

Hanspeter told me that Mr Madoerin bought the RS around 1976 for his wife but later sold it becasue the car was too much for her to handle. A New Zealander, that the Madoerin's knew and that worked at a nearby hotel bought the RS from them in 2/81 with 59,300 K and had it shipped to Auckland in 9/81 with 69,000 K. I think Madoerin must have put on the Gold script and had the wheels done in Gold also. Here is how it looked when I inspected it the first time. Jared I will keep the stickers and Gold script, but I just have to have the correct finish on the wheels.



Melanie's father, Allan may have actually bought it through he because the registration changed to his name in 4/82 with 74,500 K. I was told by Hanspeter and another source in Auckland that knows the car, that Allan ralley raced the car often while he owned it. In 10/83 it was sold to Dudley, also from Auckland, and there it stayed until around 1997. He went through a divorce and then moved to Western Australia, near Perth. He tried to sell it on eBay in 2001.

A physician from the US saw the auction listing after the auction didn't meet reserve. They worked out a deal and he had the car shipped to Michigan in 11/01 with 99,000 K. The Dr. listed it in an RM auction near Detroit in 4/03. He then withdrew it fearing it would be a waste of time to put it in a predominantly Muscle car auction. As most of you know I bought it in May shortly after coming back from the RGruppe gathering (after much encouragment from a number of you guys). I couldn't resist.

[fryardds]

Originally posted by pwd72s
This is difficult to explain to you young guys..but really...back then, the 70's? 911S's, and yes, even the now revered RS were considered much the same as the muscle car guys considered GTO's, 'Vettes, and Camaros. Cars to be played with, modified to the owner's pocketbook, taste, and purpose. In other words, "just cars". We had no idea that today's insanity was in the future. We were just playing cars...only with real ones.

Paul,

I hear you. This car is a great example of that mind set. Now its our turn to play with them

[nick-moss]

Brian

A great story and I would love to have that kind of history on any of my cars

[Jens]

Good for you Brian. It's always wonderful to be able to fill in the history to a well loved car. Great story and great car.

Jens

[silver911]

Great story, glad you could bring your car to 'life' with its history.

Its also great for us 'younger keepers' that these cars link us firmly to others in the past and we are custodians of these for the future.

[CurtEgerer]

Brian, thanks for that story! Ironically, I was planning to attend that RM auction, but backed out at the last minute because I suspected there wouldn't be much in the way of Porsches!!! Apparently, sellers have the same fear that no Porsche buyers will be there so they don't bring their cars! -- Curt

[fryardds]

Curt,

I think Jared (JCR) said he was going to look at it before the auction. I don't even remember why I looked at the auction listing, but I do remember reading down through the list of cars offered on RM's website and about fell over when I saw the listing for the RS. There was a very short description, most of which was wrong. I called up the auction company and left my contact info. with them. Shortly the owner called me and we had several discussions about the car. He said that several 'dealers' had contacted him about buying the car before the auction, but he said that he wanted it to go to a Porsche guy instead. Eventually it did.

[fryardds]

I do have a small mystery concerning the seats in the RS. Currently the car has Sport seats with Perloncord inserts. Looking at the Production/conversion form for #451 as well as the Carrera RS book, it shows interior code 12 (leatherette w/leatherette seats and Perloncord inserts) and code 409 (sport seats right and left).



GeorgeK noticed in the original photos of the car that the seats have no headrests. Also when I sent photos of the interior of the car the way it is currently, Hanspeter responded saying that the seats have been changed, originally it came with leather seats. So I began to wonder if the car came with the standard Series seats with no head rests.

Did Sport seats always come with headrests? Looking at the production record the first two options, 12 and 409, are marked out so maybe the order was changed. Kind of weird, any other thoughts?