This is my second Porsche. My first was a 1960 356B Drauz Roadster that I bought in 1990, then kept for about a dozen years. I chose a 356 because mechanically, it was a lot like the VWs that I was used to. I liked rugged, straight-forward machinery and that little Roadster, like the VWs before it, was super durable and easy to maintain --- oil changes, valve adjustments, tire rotations --- simple. My first open car, too --- lots of fun. Sold it to buy our house, but also because, well . . . it mostly sat for the last two years it was with me. As much as I loved that car, frankly . . . 356s are slow. Especially for the money.
Anyway, I’d started thinking about a 911 a few years ago. I always liked their looks and performance, but also their durability. I was pretty sure that a 911 would be more expensive to maintain than my 356, but I also thought I could afford it. So, I started looking for one of the later G50-equipped cars, an ’88 or ’89 coupe, maybe a Speedster, or even a Club Sport (if I could find one). The later 3.2s have a reputation for being exceptional cars, and also, for me, mark the end of the ‘real’ 911. I don’t care much for new cars (or their depreciation). All I wanted was a good solid German car that I could drive and enjoy, like a later-model air-cooled 911. That’s what I had in mind, anyway. . . . until I saw this old Porsche at a car show.
I’ve been going to the Ventura Show, ever since Bob Campbell first started it, back in my 356 days. I’d missed a few over the years, but those shows were always on my mind, if not my calendar, at that time every year. The Ventura shows had all the things I like: there’s the Car Show part, the Vendors’ part, and the Swap-Meet part. But my favorite was The Cars For Sale part, out in the back. Always something interesting there, from garage-queens to parts cars, and a lot in-between. This one particular time, maybe ’04 or ‘05, I came across an old 911 for sale.
The sign on it said it was an original, un-restored 1969 ‘S’ . . . and it looked it. The car was low-key shade of red, almost brick, wore an original set of California black ‘Z-prefix’ license plates, hounds-tooth upholstery, the usual dash crack, a sunroof (?), and a rear wiper --- I never knew rear wipers even existed back in ‘69, on any car. I think the sign said that the car had 136k mi, and that the engine had been rebuilt. The car definitely looked original . . . and apparently un-restored, its nose and hood covered in scratches and scrapes, sand-blasted paint. I looked at it once, then came back two more times, probably spent a good half-an-hour just walking around it, taking it all in. Not many people seemed to pay attention to it. I love un-restored original cars and thought it was wonderful.
$36,000.
For a beat old 911? You’re kidding! Really?
I hadn’t been following values on these cars, like, at all --- and almost never saw them for sale in the places where I’d been looking --- PML, Hemmings, PCA‘s web-site, etc. Didn’t know much about ‘em, either. So as soon as I got home though, I grabbed my copy of Ludwigsen’s ‘Excellence was Expected,’ and started reading through all those chapters that I’d skipped before --- basically everything between the 356s and the 917s. I did remember reading somewhere that the post-’78 3-liter 911s, the ‘SCs,’ were a huge improvement, in looks, durability and reliability ---- over the earlier cars. Because of that, or maybe just out of, I don’t know ---- prejudice? ---- those ‘60s and ‘70s 911s just never came up on my radar.
But now as I read Ludwigsen’s description, especially of those old ‘S’ cars --- with their mechanical fuel injection, magnesium engine and transmission cases, aluminum engine-lids and valances, ‘racing H’ 901 gear-boxes, forged aluminum wheels, and on and on --- well, I had no idea that those ‘old’ Porsches were so exotic.
Then there were the ‘numbers.' For me, a lot of cars, especially the ones that I’ve never owned or driven (or really know anything about) --- get summarized, abstracted, then reduced to a set numbers that I can refer to and compare: horse-power, displacement, weight, how many were built, and so on. And I had no real numbers to attach to the early 911s. Maybe horsepower. And I had never driven anything older than an ’83 SC Cab. Anyway, I’ve been driving mostly BMWs for a long time ---- all 3-series, including two ‘real’ M3s. Those 4-cylinder M-cars are still my yard-stick for measuring any high-performance small car. The e30 M3’s 2.3 liter S14 motor makes 192 hp, weighs 2866 lbs, with 19,017 units built --- with about 5,000 coming to the US. By comparison, a longhood ‘S’ has similar power and displacement --- but weighs 400-500 lbs less, with far fewer cars built to begin with, never mind imported. (Or surviving?)
So, when I’d read about all of their mechanical features, and remembered how beautifully built and enjoyable my 356 had been, then mulling over the 911’s ‘numbers’ . . . . well, an early 911 started to look like a really interesting car: basically, I had M3-power in a car ~200 lbs or so heavier than my old 356.
I’m in.
The question now was. . . .