One of the things I haven't shared is the intended result of all this manual labour.
I have always loved the SWB cars. Particularly the ones with some anger in the back.
So the idea was always based around some kind of R spec, without really knowing much about the context of the R - what came before it and what came after it.
I'm not a huge fan of concourse cars. Well let me clarify; concourse cars don't really fit with my person. I admire those who have the patience and the attention to detail to bring a car back to all original level, but not for me.
Add to this my experiences (nay, my education) with a mate's 2.2S - the very same one Silver one featured in Total911 a while back.
The motor is utterly intoxicating: those top end revs (bites back of hand)
So a small capacity motor seemed to be the way to go.
What all this really means is that I fell in love with the form follows function approach of the early sports purpose and factory racing cars. To me, these were the first outlaws; a collection of sympathetic parts from different models put together to achieve a common purpose: to go far and to go fast.
I don't know enough about Porsche to have a decent argument with the originality crew, nor do I have the energy, but my uneducated view is thus: the most priceless and perhaps achingly desirable Porsches are essentially factory outlaws: the R, the T/R, the S/T, the 3.0RS, the 934, the 935, the SCRS. And lets not forget the customer cars that were ordered off the floor with access to the racing department parts list.
So the very essence of Porsche - that drove wins on Sundays and sales on Mondays - was the outlaw recipe. Do whatever you must to go fast and go far. To suggest that combining parts from different years or eras of Porsche is somehow not Porsche is bollocks. What is certainly not bollocks is doing whatever the hell you like with
your car. I'm not sure any other performance car brand allows as much self-expression as Porsche does and I bloody love the fact that i can have a conversation, i can find common ground, with a guy or a girl that is entirely the opposite of me and my beliefs / choices / aesthetic, because we both love Porsche; even though they think a wide body 80s Targa in speed yellow with 19" BBS rims is cool and I think a narrow body with steelies is even cooler.
So the formula is thus:
(Function + financial reality) / skill + parts x obsession with 60s engineering = LO
Where the variables are as follows:
Function = go far and go fast, loudly
Financial reality = 2 kids and a bond + silly exchange rate
Skill = limited
Parts = 2.2E engine with original MFI
901 5 speed box (S/E ratios)
Lightweight flywheel
Original oil lines and tank with single front wing cooler
Race headers, ceramic coated white
LWB front suspension with alu callipers
Factory front anti roll bar
Standard bushes
Monoball top mounts
Bilstien shocks all round
Momo GT wheel
3 x 15x5.5 '67 date stamped Fuchs (i suspect I will have to find one more)
or Widened steelies.
R-style seats
Half cage tied into B pillars
Standard tank
Bare interior (as bare as my ears will allow)
Factory alu engine lid
FBG bumpers (S-stlye front)
FBG front fenders and hood
H-4 headlights
2 X Vintage Cibies with yellow lenses
A suitably wicked paint job.
RSR style bonnet and lid fasteners.
R-style hinges
Durant mirror
Original green dials x 5
The engine is an interesting one...
Everything is there so that's a good sign
Handsome, noble things aren't they...even in this state
Something doesn't add up though: the heat exchangers looked like they are original and were completely rotten. The condition of the studs meant they hadn't come on or off in the last 10 years. But the pump drive belt in this pic looks to be in really good knick.
Some modifications to the output flanges. Maybe there is an LSD lurking in there....
Spare box:
I'll try to get it running as is.
Aside from checking all the settings and cleaning it up, I really want to stay away from rebuilding it right now.
Aside from the knackered heat exchangers, the pump turns freely as does the engine so my hope is that it was taken out of a car for the sole reason of replacing with something with more oomph. A 2.7 most likely. Apparently in the late 70s and 80s here in SA, Porsche was doing it all the time; to S's and E's and anything that wasn't 2.7 or 3.0 litres. Many of these engines are still floating around. Which brings me to another part of the story.
In preparing to buy the cars I checked the register to ensure that the cars and the engines (2 x spare engines) were not registered as stolen or written-off or some such. The LO came back as having the same chassis as a tractor in a farming area. No surprise there as often the 6 digit vins were duplicated in error and assigned to tractors and farm implements and such. The engines all came back clean. However i didn't check the detail of the report.
Turns out that my engine (the 1970 2.2E) is still registered to its original matching numbers car. The tax is all paid up which would tend to suggest that it is not sitting under a load of crap in a shed somewhere. The present owner at some point had the ending swapped out but didn't feel the need to go through the palava of amending the register to reflect the new engine. All this presents a dilemma as far as the engine goes: do I try and reunite the car with its original engine? A matching numbers 2.2E Targa, no doubt in some lovely early 70s colour, is a rather naughty thought. Whatever is in the Targa now could go into the LO and the Targa would then become a matching numbers machine. Hmmm. I sincerely hope my wife doesn't see this thread.
Dear readers, what would you do? And please bear the 2nd variable in my outlaw formula in mind: financial reality...
.or as my Porsche Boyfriends call it LOFAOC, meaning Lack of Funds Aside of Course. Usually used in the following context: there is a set of 46 Webers for sale, I really think one of us should buy them...LOFAOC. Or: X is selling a Rubystone 964 RS from his private collection and he has asked if I am interested....LOFAOC
