Porsche 911

The vehicle in detail

Few sports cars have proved as versatile as Porsche’s perennial 911, a model that, for the past almost 60 years, has proved equally capable as a Grand Tourer, circuit racer or rally car. This particular 911 is one of the early, short-wheelbase cars of the type much favoured by the historic rallying fraternity. It belongs to the ‘0-Programme’ series built from the start of production in August 1964 up to the introduction of the ‘A-Programme’ model in August 1967, and thus represents the Porsche 911 in its earliest, purest – and for many most desirable – form.

This early Porsche 911 was first owned by George Giusti, artist, advertising creative, and inductee of The Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. The accompanying Porsche Certificate of Authenticity reveals that ‘301780’ left the factory finished in Light Ivory with black leatherette interior, and was equipped with a Webasto heater, Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio, loudspeaker, antenna, and Phoenix tyres.

The accompanying FIVA Identity Card lists another owner in the 1990s followed in 2011 by Jeff Zwart (USA), the famous film director, photographer, race/rally driver and Porsche enthusiast, who is renowned for his many wins at the notorious Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado. The next name in the FIVA Identity Card is that of Benjamin Clymer (USA), who acquired the Porsche in 2016. Our vendor purchased the 911 in 2019.

While owned by Zwart the car had featured in the Porsche magazine Excellence (June 2012 edition) in a comparison test alongside a Type 997 GT3 RS 4.0 (copy on file). According to Zwart: “The second owner decided to make it into a bit of a racing version. He painted the hood, decklid and chrome trim black…. When the next owner, the owner I got it from, got hold of it, he wanted to get rid of all that. The funny thing was that all the chrome was perfect because it hadn’t been exposed to any weather. A paint job was probably inevitable, so the car is just a really nice original car – the only thing that isn’t original is the paint.” Summing up what makes the early 911 so special Zwart said: “The excitement in the two-litre comes because it’s the beginning, and you need to experience what that car was like. The excitement is experiencing the 911 for what it was.” The Porsche had covered some 32,000 miles at the time of the test.