“The right time is now!” – Nils Stemmann and his 911 backdate

In life, things rarely go according to plan. It’s often more about how you deal with setbacks and what you learn from them. Nils Stemmann was brutally thwarted by life at a young age – but he fought his way back. Almost 30 years later, Nils is living his automotive dream and enjoys sharing his passion. In the Elferspot Porsche Talk, the building contractor tells me about his rocky road to fulfilling his childhood dream.

Nils Stemmann jumped off the brink of death at a young age

“I am Nils Stemmann, 47 years old, grew up in Hamburg, now an architect and trained carpenter. Together with my wife Anke, I have a now grown-up daughter and live near Celle in Lower Saxony. I drive a Porsche 911 Targa Backdate based on a 911 Carrera 3.2,” the entrepreneur introduces himself.

When you meet Nils for the first time, you see a friendly, young-at-heart man and have no idea of the major hurdles that the self-employed man had to overcome early on. “At the beginning of my studies, it turned out that I had a congenital vascular disease. One morning I had to go to hospital with a severe thrombosis, where the doctor advised me to say goodbye to my family. There was nothing more he could do for me. Fortunately, this assessment did not prove to be true. However, I was in a wheelchair for a year and had to relearn how to walk,” recalls Nils.

One morning I had to go to hospital with a severe thrombosis, where the doctor advised me to say goodbye to my family. There was nothing more he could do for me.

Nils Stemmann(nilz.78)

I would like to know what impact this borderline experience had on Nils Stemmann’s everyday life. “To be honest, it has only made me more pragmatic. I don’t quarrel,” says the family man. Although Nils can hardly pursue any sporting activities as a result, the smiling fighter found other hobbies – including motorcycling and later a love of classic cars.

A Porsche 911 Targa model car for the sixth birthday

Where does the passion come from? “For my sixth birthday, my parents gave me a model car of a Porsche 911 Targa. It was a G-Model and I loved it,” recalls the 47-year-old. “From that moment on, I couldn’t let go of that car, even though I always thought it was out of reach. But from then on, cars were omnipresent in my life!”

Like many car-crazy teenagers in the 90s, Nils was initially a fan of contemporary tuning. “Back then in the car quartets, I was fascinated by cars from Strosek or Rieger. These completely exaggerated wide body conversions… When I was at school, we used to walk past a used car dealer in Hamburg. There was one of these extremely wide Rieger Golf I. After passing it several times, I asked for a test drive. But the dealer asked for a deposit of 500 DM. Of course, I didn’t have that available at the time.”

Instead of the wild Rieger conversion, Nils’ first car was much less conspicuous. “A Fiat Punto! I optimized it together with a good friend as far as we could,” recalls the Hamburg native. “New seat covers, a bit of paint, a decent hi-fi system and a few wraps – everything was still in its infancy back then. Unfortunately, someone crashed into my car and it was a total write-off. I then bought a Golf II from a pensioner. From today’s perspective, maybe I should have kept it.”

“The right time is now!”

After training as a carpenter and then studying architecture, a few years passed during which Nils drove company cars as an employee. But one dream remained: “Of course I had this dream in the back of my mind of driving a Porsche at some point,” he says today.

His wife Anke played a big part in Nils actually turning this dream into reality. “From a medical point of view, there is still a risk that one day I will be dependent on a wheelchair again. When I was undecided about buying a Harley, my wife Anke told me: ‘The right time is now!’ She encouraged me to buy it just for myself and enjoy it on my own.” A mantra that the building contractor still lives by today.

From a medical point of view, there is still a risk that one day I will be dependent on a wheelchair again.

Nils Stemmann(nilz.78)

But then Nils experienced what envy means. “The neighbors in the terraced housing estate where we lived at the time made it clear to me that they didn’t approve of the hobby. My garage door was demolished from the outside – but in a garage yard with ten garages, the other nine doors remained untouched”. Later, there were complaints about supposed “night noise” when arriving by motorcycle after 8 pm. When the opportunity arose to move a little further out into the countryside, the Stemmanns seized the opportunity.

In 2018, Nils Stemmann opted for a very special Porsche 911 G-Model

A few years later, the dream of the Porsche 911 G-Model was back. “Back then, the first commercial Porsche 911 backdate projects were just starting to appear in Germany. I particularly loved the early Singer models,” recalls Nils. “Such conversions were of course far beyond my financial means.”

After several internet searches, Nils became aware of the company Fineeleven at the beginning of 2018 and met Jasper Eckert there. The workshop from Brietlingen near Hamburg had just started the first Signature Edition 911 backdates. “I’d never driven a Porsche before. Jasper gave me the opportunity to drive a G-Model with a 915 transmission. I felt like I missed 40 gear shifts within the 20 minute drive.”

“Jasper explained to me that “my” car would later have a G50 transmission, which should make things more relaxed. But by then I was already determined to buy a 911 anyway. And if I did, then exactly as I had had it in my head since my childhood. After consulting with his wife Anke, Nils decided without further ado to take the plunge and commissioned Jasper and Matthias Eckert from Fineeleven with the conversion.

Nils Stemmann was inspired by the Porsche 997 Sport Classic

Nils had a relatively clear idea of what the silhouette of his Porsche should look like. It was to be a Targa with the width of the early ST models. “We talked about lines, seats, door panels and instruments. I sketched out a lot of things beforehand, compared variants, discarded them, rethought them,” says the architect. The process was still almost entirely analog. Instead of visualizations, there was a lively exchange, numerous discussions, research in books and the study of old photos of the original ST models.

Nils initially wavered on the color scheme. “The color of a car is such an individual topic. If it were just a matter of color, we would probably have ten Porsches because I like so many colors! I could have imagined Guards red, Viper green or even Bahama yellow. I wrestled with myself for a long time, but ended up with Sport Classic Gray with a dark brown interior. That’s what I always had in mind anyway,” recalls the family man.

he color of a car is such an individual topic. If it were just a matter of color, we would probably have ten Porsches because I like so many colors!

Nils Stemmann(nilz.78)

“What I found quite charming about it was that the 997 Sport Classic is also a kind of backdate in the broadest sense. It was a contemporary, modern car with classic elements such as the Fuchs wheels and the Ducktail spoiler. So I thought, if you want a grey and you’re doing a backdate, why not this color?” Nils had imagined a dark brown interior as a contrast to the light paint.

Countless small decisions led to Nils’ dream targa

With this idea in mind, Fineeleven’s team around Matthias and Jasper set to work. Nils’ Targa was to be completely overhauled, so there were no surprises in store. Its engine was overhauled. The performance remained close to the original. “We fitted a different exhaust system because I wanted to have 911 GT3-style center tailpipes. However, I didn’t want an extremely loud car, but I didn’t want a harmless sounding car either. I wanted a healthy middle ground. But you don’t know beforehand what an exhaust system will sound like. When the engine ran for the first time, I was delighted that we got it perfect straight away.”

In general, Nils describes the conversion phase as very intense. “You make a lot of individual decisions. The car should be this wide. The seats should look like this. You want to design the speedometer yourself and so on. In the end, you hope that all these bespoke, individually designed components lead to a coherent overall result – after all, you’re not a car designer.”

The fact that you are so intensively involved in the process makes the lengthy process to the finished car a very special experience.

Nils Stemmann

Courage is rewarded – Even after years, Nils is still enthusiastic

However, the individual decisions that Nils made in consultation with the Eckerts proved to be spot on in the end. “I have the Fineeleven Signature Edition number 3. When you’re one of the first to commission a conversion like this, you don’t have the opportunity to look at earlier models to see what you would do differently. At the same time, you ask yourself whether you recognize things in later models that you would have liked to have had in retrospect. But I’ve never had that feeling in the last seven years.”

For Nils, awarding Fineeleven the contract for his conversion was exactly the right choice even eight years after starting the project: “It was the perfect collaboration for us. You can sense an almost family-like atmosphere there, coupled with passion and a genuine appreciation of us as customers, which is rare to find these days. We are still very happy with our decision at the time and would choose this workshop again and again.”

Enjoying the joy of others – Nils Stemmann likes exhibiting his car and organizing meetings

Nils didn’t have his Backdate 911 built to hide it away in his garage. Instead, the North German regularly goes to meetings to chat with like-minded people. The racetrack is not his territory, but joint trips to great photo locations or short rides to clear his mind are exactly Nils’ thing. That’s why he organized a meeting for other owners of Fineeleven Signature Backdates in Celle in 2021. “We lined up our Signature Backdates in front of Celle Castle, a locomotive shed or the lost place of an old prison, among other places, and took unforgettable photos in the best weather. I always have fond memories of this day.”

“My wife Anke was initially worried that she would mostly meet people in the scene that she wouldn’t want to talk to. She had this cliché of aloof Porsche drivers in mind.” However, this concern was completely unfounded, as the couple now know. “The first thing I learned at the meetings was that they are completely normal and cool people with the same crazy passion.”

Nils has only experienced one weird encounter so far. And at that time he allowed himself a little joke: “That was at the first Porsche overseas meeting in Bremen in 2019. At the age of 41, I was sitting at a table with an older, apparently wealthy couple. They asked if I was there to look at the cars. I replied that I was there with my own car. The man asked me, completely bewildered, what I would do for a living to afford a car like that. I replied that I was a brothel owner – whereupon the two of them quickly left,” recalls Nils with a laugh.

The big dream of driving a Porsche in the Alps

In the future, Nils would like to continue to experience a lot with his backdate. At the top of the list is a repeat of the Signature meeting, but in a different setting. “How cool would it be if you packed a group of backdates onto a car train, drove to the Alps and went on a really nice mountain pass tour?” Nils enthuses.

Of course, when it comes to dreams for the future, our traditional last question is a must: If money were no object, what automotive dreams would you have? – Nils’ answer: “There would be two, namely the two Sport Classic models in the 997 and 992 series. Of course, you could say that I already have a car in the same color, but if I came across an ‘affordable’ 992 Sport Classic, that would be a car I would seriously consider. It would be the perfect picture for me – my 89 Targa and a 992 Sport Classic side by side. That would be my automotive dream.”

Nils Stemmann is an inspiring personality through and through. The architect’s pragmatism and fighting spirit are admirable. This makes it all the more gratifying for him and with him when he talks enthusiastically about his 911 Targa Backdate.

Richard Lindhorst, Elferspot

Cover picture: © Roman Rätzke