I guess for many of us one of the Early 911 ownership fantasies is that we unearth some fascinating piece of history relating to our car. Even something as humble as finding a service record from 20 years ago can feel precious. The ultimate dream would be a discovery like Craig's Norfolk Island photo . . . his 911 being delivered by sea (http://test.early911sregistry.org/fo...livery-by-Sea-....).
Well, for me it happened today. I received an email form Greg Gaylor, of the Porsche Club in New Zealand, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty and assembled an incredible package of materials that fill out the early history of my car. I thought I'd share a small part of the tale with you:
Noddy (as the car has been known for many years) was ordered from the factory by Hamiltons, the agent for Porsche in Australia, along with a signal orange 1971 911T sportomatic coupe. These two cars were shipped to New Zealand in early 1971, to George Palmer Motors, as inventory to fill the newly established showroom. At the time George Palmer Motors had just been appointed as the New Zealand distributor for Porsche cars. George and his son Jim had visited Norman Hamilton the previous year to seek the distributor rights for New Zealand after the previous company, Shelly Motors in Wellington, had decided to relinquish the Porsche brand after three years of limited sales success. The two new 911s were supplied on spec and the Palmer family needed to find buyers.
When Noddy arrived in the Palmer Motors showroom in February 1971 the local newspaper ran an article featuring these rare and very expensive cars (for New Zealand). Thanks to the NZ tariff protections that were in place at the time, the pricing and rarity of these cars was probably more comparable to an exotic like a Bugatti Veyron than today's 911 or Cayman. At that time Jim Palmer was a well-known race car driver who had been very successful in both open wheel race cars and saloon cars. So perhaps to maximise media interest and generate publicity for the dealership launch, sitting alongside Noddy and the orange 911T was the ex. Brian Foley 1969 Chesterfield 911S/T race car that Jim had campaigned in the 1970 Australian touring car championship. Some of you may recognise the S/T . . . it was recently fully restored and featured in Christophorus, and raced at the Rennsport event a couple of months ago. Noddy was also at Rennsport, so 42 years later I guess these cars had a reunion of sorts.
Here's the newspaper article from Jan 1971, "The Rare Beautiful Porsche" with a group photo of Noddy, the 911T sporto, and the S/T. Also nice interior shot of Noddy . . . brand spanking new in the showroom:
1971.02.05 - The Times - porsche dealer article.pdf
A photo of the Jim Palmer's 1969 S/T and the signal orange 911T outside the new Porsche dealership
A great period photo of Jim Palmer with the S/T . . . love those shorts with knee high white socks
And finally, that same Chesterfield S/T 42 years later . . . fully restored at the recent Rennsport (can't remember if I took this photo or copied it from someone else? Apologies if I stole it!)
Again, a big big thank you to Greg in New Zealand. You made my day, week, month! To see my car sitting brand new at a Porsche dealer . . . 42 years ago . . . is pretty damn special.
Reply With Quote