From new the car was ordered with the front spoiler and rear wing, but sadly, the rear wing is no longer with the car. Factory ordered Turbo/Sports seats finished in Cork Leatherette with Tartan inserts. These were rebuilt in 2023 and are in beautiful condition.
6×15 Fuchs alloy wheels completed the order sheet and I believe these to be the originals still on the car. The odometer is currently showing 159,081 miles, just 6,928 miles since a complete engine & transmission rebuild.
My 911 was registered in the UK on 08/05/1998 and I assume that this was around the same time that it was imported from the USA. Unfortunately, I have no records or history for the time the car spent ‘stateside’. I have previously checked with the US DMV to try and find the first owner, but their records only go back to the early 80’s, so no luck.
I bought the car in May 2014 from a reputable dealer in the south of England. I have a few invoices and M.O.T certificates from a previous UK owner that date back to 2003. At the time there was 145,533 miles on the clock and the records I have, indicate that it had only covered 764 miles in 11 years. The dealer confirmed that it had in fact been part of a collection and hadn’t been moved, taxed or road registered in that time.
So, a deal was struck and I became the proud owner of a Porsche 911. However, it was obvious that it would need a thorough service to get it back to a good driving state. At the same time, I decided to have it sympathetically repainted as there were a few blemishes in the paint due to the Californian sun. Luckily, there was no rust to be found and the body/chassis was solid. The car had some nice Patina and I wanted to keep this history visible, so we decided on keeping the inside of the door ‘shut panels’, inside of the bonnet and engine bay in its original and first coat of paint, therefore, preserving the original factory stickers etc. A few weeks later, I picked up the car and drove it back home to Germany.
On the return to Germany the car was put through the intensive Import/TÜV inspection, which it sailed through, and was then registered on a Historic vehicle plate. At the same time, it was officially inspected for insurance purposes and its condition was registered as 2, on the national German classic vehicle database.
Over the years my wife and I have enjoyed this car by using it for classic regularity rallies, weekend trips away and regular drives back to the UK to visit family, friends and car shows etc. Over the years, I have been restoring and improving the mechanicals of the car to get it up to the same standard as the bodywork. I have been a motorsport Engineer for 25 years and I have always carried out mechanical work on my cars/bikes myself. It would be fair to say that I have had my hands on 90% of this car.
In 12 years of ownership, I have either rebuilt, restored or replaced these major components/assemblies;
- Front & rear suspension components (upgraded to Turbo tie rods)
- Front & rear braking components
- Front & rear wheels bearings
- Steering rack rebuilt
- Momo Prototipo steering wheel fitted
- Front strut brace
- Full Dansk stainless steel heat exchangers and muffler
- Wevo Classic shifter fitted & all linkage parts renewed
- Full Engine rebuild
- Transmission rebuild
- Electric air conditioning – Classic Retrofit
- Front & rear fusebox upgrade – Classic retrofit
- Engine CDI unit upgrade – Classic Retrofit
- High output 175A Alternator – Classic Retrofit
- Full interior rebuild – seats, sound proofing, carpets, door cards, seats belts etc
- Pedal box rebuild
(There’s much more but it’s too much to list here)
After deciding to do the engine rebuild myself, I completely stripped down the motor and sent the engine cases, cylinders, heads, crankshaft, camshafts etc, to Nick Fulljames of Redtek in the UK, for the necessary machining and inspection procedures. Everything was machined, inspected and given a full bill of health by Nick and his team. I kept the rebuild ‘as stock’, apart from changing the camshafts to the 3.0ltr SC spec, upgrading to Carrera spec hydraulic chain tensioners and fitting JE Pistons, which would allow for a higher compression ratio. As standard this engine had an 8.5:1 compression ratio and during the rebuild it was calculated at 9.6:1. This definitely gives the engine some more power and is an improvement over the standard output of 165bhp.
The rest of the rebuild was ‘by the book’ and involved many news parts, as well as the necessary tools required to perform the task correctly. I kept a spreadsheet of costs along with every single invoice and the total is close to 25,000€. I literally have hundreds of photos of every job that I have completed on this car.
Owning and maintaining this car has been a labour of love and I have only ever used the best parts and components. It’s a real pleasure to open the garage and see this car in there, but that’s also one of the reasons why I have decided to sell it.
This has been a show car, a classic regularity rally car, a commuter, a Sunday cruise to a restaurant car and has even enjoyed a couple of fantastic outings with the Sick Alps family. (see photos) It’s a beautiful car to look at, but it’s made to be driven and enjoyed.
As mentioned above, I have stacks of history since the car has been in my ownership. I also have a lot of original parts that I couldn’t bring myself to sell, so they can be negotiated in the sale, if desired. I welcome any enquiries and serious offers but I’m not desperate to sell, so please, let’s not waste precious time.
If you have made it this far, then thanks very much for reading and please do not hesitate to get in touch.
1974 
