1974 Carrera Coupe - RHD, UK car

[carlbon71]

73 RS cost new £7232.90

[brembo]

If only I could find a 1973 price list I could do a quick calculation and work out how much more my 74 Targa was than a 73 RS, apply that calculation to the current price of an RS and work out that value of my car now.

Sam, here's price difference of second hand cars in 1974.

[Sam]

It's not fair to compare used with new, so let's go with the Targa costing 4.2% more than the RS.

So with a good RS now at least 250k I make a Carrera Targa worth 260k.

[Ferry Man]

Not sure if you have seen these or have a copy?

Thanks Jon, yes, I have a copy.

[Ferry Man]

The 911’s favoured on DDK follow a familiar format.
The base model ‘T’, a middle ground occupied by the ‘E’ and – top of the pile – the venerated ‘S’.

That changed in 1974.
The low-end model (formerly the ‘T’) became known simply as ‘911’.
The mid-range car was the ‘S’ and the premium model became the ‘Carrera’.

The 911 rewarded you with just 150bhp and cost £6,250 in the UK.
The ‘S’ had an output of 175bhp and would have set you back £6,990.
The Carrera had the magical 210bhp and was a rather costly £8,580.
Quite a hefty jump in price for the top of the range.

Although the targa was even more expensive ('thought I'd get that in early to save Sam from climbing up on his high horse.... ).

[Ferry Man]

It was tough being a marketeer at Porsche in 1974.
The RS of '73 had been a tremendous success and now they were charged with selling the new years model.
How could they entice people to buy the Carrera?
They needed a slogan.

'Only replace something good by something still better'.

I told you the '74 Carreras were good cars. Better than it's predecessor.



Only in 1974 could you use Compacta Bold for the bodycopy in the brochure. A fantastic typeface.

[misteralz]

You're getting bored of Univers and Helvetica everywhere as well, then? I'd love to see a resurgence in Eurostile Bold.

[rynoshark]

It's been *five* whole days since Paul posted...I'm getting withdrawal symptoms.

[Ferry Man]

It's been *five* whole days since Paul posted....

Yes, apologies, life has been getting in the way, sorry for the lack of updates.
I'll consider myself chided and I'll try and make amends.

[Ferry Man]

Anyway, a small diversion before we commence restoring the shell.
Ryan, I notice on your blog that you document your discovery of some date codes on parts of your car.
I too am finding evidence of originality throughout my vehicle.
There are casting marks from the foundry, ink stamps on electrical items, moulded dates in plastic parts.
I've found evidence of dates on suspension & steering components, dials, many electrical items, wheels, etc, etc.

I saw your post where you showed a date code on your steering rack.
I hadn't seen that on mine so I went and dug it out. And sure enough it's there. Indistinct, but there.
9-73.





In fact so far I've not found any components that are marked later than the September 1973 of the build date.
My car retains the original engine & gearbox and it seems much of the original running gear, electrics and ancillaries.

Sadly the interior didn't fare as well but that's a story for later...

[Ferry Man]

So, the time came to address the bodywork issues.
I'd be expecting miracles from Chesterton's and they didn't disappoint.

Firstly they needed to cut out much of the corrosion and strip back to the core of the car and then build up from there.
Literally from the floor up.

Some of the parts removed from the car are shown below.
There would be sections taken from these and grafted into fresh metal so this 'scrap heap' was kept until the end and often yielded useful parts.

[Ferry Man]

You'll recall I had purchased a brand new floor from Porsche.
This was the start point for the build.
You can see here work already done to alter the pick-up points on the floor which didn't match the '74 car.

[Ferry Man]

The pedal area from the original floor was grafted into the new.

[Ferry Man]

Well you have to start somewhere....

These points on the jig are obviously vital and the whole car builds up from them.

[Ferry Man]

Can you tell what it is yet?