1970's 911s - Page 1 - Porsche General - PistonHeads UK

I ran a 1972 911 2.4 E for 3 years in late 1989 - 1992, fully restoring it over that period. Practicality wise, the E had milder cams than the S and was totally tractible through the rev range, yet still maintained that revvy nature and light steering and handling feel that the pre impact 911s are famed for. I had the engine rebuilt by Martin Harvey (top, top man BTW) and pushed the power up to 190 bhp - S levels. The engine runs well on unleaded too. The main enemy is rust. They rust everywhere, even the galvanised floorpan on my car needed repairs and the semi solid rubberised underseal just cracks and allows water to seep underneath it, trapping the water and accelerating the rot. Best buy has to be an injected car - I thnk I'm correct in saying that all European spec Ts ran on carbs, US Ts did come in injected form too form emissions reasons I believe - the T had a different engine block ISTR and much lower power outputs - 110bhp to 130 bhp from memory - in 2.4 guise at least. 2.2s had 4 speed boxes, 5 speed being a (popular) extra... Make sure the car is original in terms of panels and interior - no later SC flared arches or trim and make sure exterior trim is in good nick as it's hard to come by. I wouldn't rule out an lhd car provided it's come from a genuine US sunny clime (i.e. not New York car shipped over to SF). Sunny imports often suffer from faded and cracked trim, especially dashboards which disintegrate and crack. Peter Nardelli at Tower Bridge imports early cars and advertises in Porsche Post (but I work near there and often see cars in what I presume is pre preparation state and they're often not pretty) - Ritchie King at Karmann Konnection used to import nice cars and Mark Waring at Worldwide Classics knows his stuff but tends to be pricey (but the cars are good and he's a good guy). I'm a big fan of pre impact 911s - their feel and handling to me is world's apart to any later cars - the only 911 that I've owned that came anywhere near to the feel of the E was my 964 RS....and early 911s are so cool now...just don't buy a 912...ir a 912 converted to 911 spec...or a Sportomatic.... Hope this helps

Many thanks for all that information, very useful.

Hi Would like to hear from anyone who is currently running, or who has ever run an early 70s 911 - particularly the T or S variants. I'm interested in looking into these with a budget of around 16k - reasonable? I'm interested in running costs, reliability, and practicality. I have looked at all the obvious places: - Autofarm - 911 Virgin - E nine eleven - Paragon ...anyone know of anymore? Also, I'm based in London. Anywhere decent that does reasonable servicing? Many thanks in advance.