Deciphering early 911 Factory Owner's Manual date/publication codes!

[derwhite]

In about 1970, I visited the factory and did a two page photo article on the Porsche assembly line for the European Military newspaper Stars and Stripes. In a thank you letter, my factory contact asked if there was anything he could do for me. I asked to purchase one each of every Porsche owner's manual Porsche had on hand at the time. I received a box of more than 60 owner's manuals and was charged about $1.50 for each. They've been put away ever since. Now going through them, I have owner's manuals from 1965 through 1974. I'm finding the date/publication codes on these owner's manuals very confusing. Has anyone deciphered these codes, or understands what the differences mean? For example, I have two 911-L (USA) owner's manuals whose covers are idential in color and layout, but the date/publication codes on the inside first page are different:

One is: 4611.23 Edition X/67
One is: W337e Edition X/67

A quick look suggests that both manuals are otherwise identical.

Any comments or explanations welcome.

Charlie White
Scottsdale, Arizona

[davep]

That is a little difficult since there seems to be little information on the subject. In one sense you have the best chance of deciphering since you have the largest collection of literature. I'd love to have a list of all the publications and descriptions. I do not have a large list of publications myself, but would share the data that I have. I would have though it might be something to do with different markets, but perhaps that is not the case. I'd need to see a list to try and find a pattern.
Dave

[derwhite]

Here's what I think I know. 1. There are language versions, English (USA), English (UK), German, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish (and who knows what all others). 2. There were printing batches, same OM, but printed as a separate edition during the same Model Year. 3. There may be different versions for significant changes made within a specific Model Year. 4. During this time the publisher of literature changed from Porsche, to VW + Porsche, and Porsche + Audi (not sure what these changes may have had on owner's manuals. Even with as many OM's as I have, no rime or reason seems to be evident.

CW

[Bobs 67S]

Hello Charlie,
after all these years of you supplying us with stellar information. Let me take the opportunity to say thank you for all you have done for us.



I've only looked at the early 911 stuff so my exposure is limited - but I would suggest the first printing and reprint of each language edition has the two types of numberings.
First Printings were the W312 e
As they were expended the reprint than took on a 4604.20 style code.

Aligning the numbers on such a small sampling may be in error but here are some of the numbers from the Drivers Manuals I have or others have shown me.

4604.20 Type 911, January 1965, English, NOS. Orange and blue cover
W312 e Type 911, November 1965, English, 49 year old stock well used and dog earred. Orange and blue cover.
4606.20 Type 911, September 1968, English, Nos. Maroon and blue cover. (Model year 1967)
W312 e Type 911S, May 1966, English, Nos. Maroon and blue cover. (Model year 1967)
W316 e Type 911S, October 1967, English, Nos. Maroon and orange cover (Model year 1968)
W326 e Type 911L, ........, English, Maroon and orange (Model year 1968)
W361 E - 4000 - 01-69 (I'm reading that as print quantity 4000, issue date Jan 1969) Type 912, September 1968, Orcher and Yellow cover (Model year 1969).


Note there are two publications with the same number???? W312e is both in the early 1965/66 manual and the 1967 911S, who knows?

[911T1971]

my opinion that if everyone scanned their owners / workshop manuals / ads, etc and posted them to a common website, patterns would emerge and questions would be answered. And, as always, if there is a "porsche" version of thesamba that has all this info in one place, please direct me to it!

IMHO , its been done, all is on this registry.
Color cards, pics of accessories, codes, Pics of options, dealer infos, upholstery samples, ads, Prototyp IDs etc.
The only difference its not centralised on this board, the search button is your friend.
We once wished for a "Restorer Section" where this info could be collected, so far its not built.

P literature is less common than VW, some items are pretty rare and since about 5 years tripled etc, their value, unlike VW. Interest in P Lit. is up since these cars now command $ +100K.
Racing infos and technical are ultra rare since these cars got build from 25 up to 1500 cars only.

In any case, I have most P Lit., happy to answer and most infos/pics I do have are posted on this board.

[davep]

There are some Canadian versions also I suspect. For the 914 it is true, and it includes both English and French. Sometimes you have to look closely for differences such as those related to Imperial gallons vs US gallons ( 5 US = 4 Imperial / 32 oz US quart vs 40 oz Imp quart ), so look in capacities and MPG.

[derwhite]

Bob,

Thanks for the comments. Here's a couple of thoughts. I always thought the letter in the "W" numbers designated the language. (e) for English, (f) for french, no letter for German, (i) for Italian. That seems to be true with 356 literature and seems to be carried over to 911/912 lit. Second, and not to debunk your comment, but just a fact, the 60+ owner's manuals I got from the factory was back in 1971 or 1972, many have numbers like 4636.23, 4640.23, 46.13.20-01500-04-69, 4618.20, 4605.20 to name a few. I acquired these manuals long before I believe Porsche started reprinting them. The two manuals in my original post were acquired from Porsche at the same time back then.

Karim,

I have seen the excellent thread you participated in (started?) in which most the posts were yours. And I believe you contributed material to my website on the subject:

http://derwhites356literature.com/De...iterature.html

I'm primarily a 356 Porsche literature collector, but like Karim, in 40 years of collecting, I have most of the items I know about (and always looking for those I don't have. In collecting 356 stuff, I've also acquired a lot of 911/912 stuff. To put limits on all this, I stopped collecting after year 1973.

BTW, I'm currently looking for Porsche 911 Service Information Booklets for 1968 through 1973. These booklets contain detailed information about Model Year changes, which information until about 1967/68 used to be provided in regular Service Bulletins. Don't need originals, but will buy them if available, looking for the detailed Model Year change information, in scanned form would do.

CW

[911T1971]

Charlie, yeah its me. Most is on this board, on the ESSES and some also on our site.
I do have the Service booklets from 68-73 you mentioned.
Having this said, the knowledge on this board is amazing and each member contributes to a common goal one single member cant do or know all.

[gulf908]

Charlie,

I believe you have a 'piece of string' excercise on your hands here !
I dont have much but I have 3 x 1971 manuals to compare - 2 x original USAs and a repro RHD.
The 2 US have different reference numbers - 2625.23 and 4625.23 - both have 108 pp.
The RHD is 4625.20 with 112 pp.
I will do a page by page tomorrow to refresh why they are different to each other for the same MY.
Several years ago I ordered repros for 911 S 1971,1969 911 T and 912 1968 through the local agent.
I am assuming these would have been correct for the AUS / RHD market here for the respective years.
I can also post their numbers later just to confuse things !
BTW,my dictionary says W - werbung translates to advertising / promotional material - Karim is this a correct translation for these manuals ?


Cheers,
Dennis.

[911T1971]

W for Werbung is possible.