Twice as nice: the tale of two classic Porsche 911 sports cars
Is this the ultimate birthday present?
When Markus, a long-time Porsche owner from Mannheim, Germany was about to turn 40, he began hunting for a classic 911 from the year of his birth. And then he wanted another…
Let the dreams begin“When my 40th birthday began to appear on the distant horizon, I set out to buy myself a very special present. I had owned a new 911 before, but it’s the dream of many to own classic Porsche 911 sports cars. My plan? To buy a car that matched the year of my birth – 1973. And I knew it had to be a 911 F Model in silver. At least, that was the plan. The first thing I had to do before my search was research, due to my lack of knowledge about air-cooled Porsche cars. With my 40th being in 2013, I started my hunt for my car well in advance, spending much of Christmas 2011 reading, looking, and investigating. But I just couldn’t find the right one. Wrong year, not the right colour, poor condition.“And then, a full 12 months later, there it was. I had been searching for 1973 F Models only when, by mistake, an ad slipped into my search results for a 1974 911 G Model. It had all the specs I was looking for. It looked incredible, had all its original matching numbers so could be properly vouched for, a newly overhauled engine, silver paint and a black and dark blue interior. It had Fuchs wheels too. But it was not an F Model nor, it seems, a 1973 car. I decided to put it aside and carry on looking elsewhere, and yet after a week I still couldn’t stop thinking about this car. I realised that it had me hooked.Markus’ 911 G Model was built in July 1973 – the year of his birthBirthdays are all about surprisesA few days into January 2013, I decided to take the plunge and give its owner a call. Which is when fate reared its head. As luck would have it this 911 turned out to be from 1973. It was a very early example, Model Year 1974, a small-body car with impact bumpers, and a 2.7-litre engine that delivered 150hp. Its VIN number was 9114100049. This meant it was the 49th G Model – G means it was a second-generation 911 – to have ever been made. And just to round things off, despite being a G Model, it was actually built in July 1973 – the exact month of my birth. When it comes to classic Porsche 911 sports cars with your name on it, this one was so perfect it might as well have used gold lettering.
Getting into it is like stepping into a time machine, taking me back to 1973. It brings me great joy, from the way it looks to the way it sounds
“Call it fate, call it destiny, I had to have this car. So I did. I’ve loved driving the car ever since. Getting into it is like stepping into a time machine, taking me back to 1973. It brings me great joy, from the way it looks to the way it sounds – oh, that noise made by its Abarth sports exhaust. And yet, having ticked all the boxes with my first ever air-cooled Porsche, one tick was still missing – that of owning an F Model [aka first generation] 911.911 fan, Markus, wanted a 1973 F Model – but first bought an early 1973 G ModelAn air-cooled love affair“So, it was back into search mode again. But this time I had acquired lots more air-cooled knowledge when I was looking through the online ads. It still had to be a 1973 car, but this time I had decided to go for look rather than originality. The car I eventually settled on was a 140bhp 2.4-litre 911 T, a F Model, in light yellow. It was what is called an ‘Outlaw’ build in Porsche circles – in other words, it had some slight modifications. So here I was, the owner of two classic Porsche 911 sports cars.Not so mellow yellow: Markus’ 1973 911 F Model“And it had come a long way to be sitting outside my house in south west Germany – about 9,000km (around 5,500 miles) in fact. It was originally a US-registered car, delivered to its first owner by Bob Smith Porsche-Audi of Hollywood. But the stunning looks of the car also came with a surprise. Its VIN number of 9113101501 meant it was the first ever Porsche 911 with a CIS engine to have ever been built. F Model cars with a CIS engine – it stands for continuous injection system, a Bosch innovation – were only produced between February and July 1973. This just added to its charm for me.Records for Markus’ 911 F Model show it was the first of its kind to have a CIS engine fittedTwo classic Porsche 911 sports cars are better than one“Each of the classic Porsche 911 sports cars that I own has its own completely individual character – whether it’s their looks or how they drive. But what they do have in common is that unique Porsche DNA and their year of birth. The year 1973 represents two epic generations of Porsche models. The end of the F Model and the start of the G Model. It’s not a bad year for a 911 fan like me to have been born.”NUMBERS GAME What is the 911 F Model and G Model?The 911 F Model hit the market in 1964. Production of its successor, the G Model, began in 1973When Markus talks about having a 911 F Model and 911 G Model, he is simply talking about which generation the car is. The 911 F Model was the first generation of the iconic Porsche sports car built. Production for the F Model began in 1964 and would run until 1973 – although there were incremental amendments made throughout its lifespan. The 911 that replaced it – the G Model – would go on to last longer than any 911 generation ever produced, finally being superseded in 1989 by the 964 as Porsche switched to the naming format that it still uses today.
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