72T with MFI or 73T with CSI? HELP!

[gruen911]

Guys,
I have the option of either buying a 72T with original MFI recently overhauled and working very well, or a 73Twith good original running CIS (both cars are targas and the same color, and both cars drive very well) .

The 73T with CIS is a completely restored car and needs nothing. The The 72T with MFI needs some body restoration, paint job, complete exhaust, and complete interior. However, when factoring in all of the work and parts needed to complete the resto on the 72T, it will cost about the same as the turn key ready to enjoy 73t.

So barring any unknown surprises with either car, which car would I better off buying? Both sellers are waiting for me to get back to them....

[Paul Schooley]

Hehe, what a dilema. I just wish I had the ka-ching in my hand to help you with that decision.

[mike walker]

Wow where did you find almost identical cars? I now have a CIS. I've had carbs, and mfi and here's what I can tell you. With the T, the performance differences are not very noticeable, but the sounds you get from the carbs, mfi are better. The starting characteristics on the CIS are better from a cold start. I adjusted around with my carbs a lot, because I could, hence they where always out of tune, the mfi not so much but still needed adjustments occasionally. On the CIS I don't think you can adjust it to get more performance, so I don't touch it and it runs perfect all of the time no backfires or popping sounds. For a plain T motor I like the CIS. When I rebuild it to a hotrod motor this winter of course I will go to carbs or mfi.

All of that said if it where me I would pick the 72, it is a cool year and I like to restore em. Keep us up to date on which one you choose.

[37yrold911]

MFI is for sports cars, CIS is for cold starts and for economy cars...

Also, '72 has better balance and a great 'cool' factor.

It would take me a nanosecond to decide on the '72. If you get the '73, let me know the phone # for the seller of the '72!

[Mr9146]

Engine issue aside, the 73 is just a better car than the 72. It was the final iteration of the long hood cars and thus benefitted from all the design improvements.

From a "cool" standpoint, the 72 takes the cake with the one-year-only oil door.

I'd buy the 73 ... but that's just me.

[tom dance]

I agree that a 72 is really unique and perhaps the favorite. However I would advise the 73 cis. I've got one and that car is really fun to drive. On day I took out a 72E, a 69S, a 70S and a 73T cis out along a 5 mile run. Each car back to back and you know what? I liked the 73 cis the best. I was surprised. The car is really smooth and the tourque is great. The S of course has it beat way up there but how often are you over 5k? The 73 has good low end grunt.
Anyway most of the other cars are gone, I still have the 73 cis.
Tom

[Bobboloo]

Marco and Tom make great points backed by experience. Points I've come to realize as well in my years of early car ownership.

I'll add my 2 cents.

Performance wise the two cars are a wash. They both perform very similar. The 72' has a better loud pedal. You may or may not want that. I owned a 72'T that I rebuilt and the sound was awesome when the motor hit 4500 RPM. The one drawback was that it grew attention from other drivers that thought you were trying to race them when in fact all you were trying to do is enjoy the car in the manner it was designed.

Reliability wise I think they are once again pretty equal.

Cost of maintenance used to go to the CIS but those parts have also gone through the roof and Porsche has stopped making them. One thing to keep in mind though is that with the help of Pelican you will find that many DIYers' have found that it's not hard to repair the peripherial of the CIS components. They are quite simple in design and can be repaired rather than replaced. MFI periphery are simple as well but the pump is quite complex so I think CIS gets the nod for cheaper cost of maintenence. The 72' your looking at has a sorted MFI setup so this shouldn't be an issue.

One thing to consider is in 72' the early 72's had 915 trannies that had a main seal that can only be replaced by dissassembly of the tranny. It will cost you atleast $500 to replace a $2.00 seal so if this tranny is leaking from the mainshaft brace yourself for a rebuild. This problem was fixed during the 72' production year.

My guess is that when it's all said and done and the 72' is brought to the level of the 73' the 73' will have cost substantially less. Your probably already aware of this since you restored that 67'S you had.

If you think you might want more torque down the road the 73' will still atleast look correct with a larger 3.0CIS motor in it and the swap would be fairly easy.

I think it really comes down to what you want from a car. Do you want a project that you can have "fun" tinkering with or do you want to be able to just hop in and drive.

[kenikh]

Here's a trivial point to most, but not to me: the '73 has no chrome.

[mike walker]

Here's a trivial point to most, but not to me: the '73 has no chrome.

??? my window trim is chrome..my headlights trim are chrome

[Intheshop]

As long as we are mentioning minor points -- doesn't the '73 have those annoying lables on the dash switches/knobs, including a seatbelt light. My understanding is that the 72s (at least the early production ones) did not have the dash lables. I think it makes for a far cleaner interior and I hate the constant reminder that the federal govt thought some people would not remember which is the light switch.
SCOTT