77 Wide Body

[jeff1hughes]

Anybody ever hear of a 77 widebody Targa, non-Turbo being produced? I found one for sale that claims to be a factory widebody. I didn't get the vin, or I suppose I'd already have all the answers. If I get a chance I'll go back and write the vin down and we can all start from there.

[Bill Verburg]

I have seen a few one offs from the factory from that era, they had Martini livery. I'll see if I can find the pics.

They were definitely not rpo's

[kach22i]

I think I read somewhere that a few late 1977's got the 1978 rear wheel lips and engine- but that would not be a widebody.

Ask them to clarify.

True narrow body 1977's will allow you to stuff only so much rubber back there.

[jeff1hughes]

Well this one had plenty of rubber, I'll have to stop tonight and get the numbers down. I am curious as I am looking for another car now. If this one is special, it could be worth it.

[Shuie]

Is it a Carrera 3.0 Targa with SC flares or does it have turbo flares?

[jeff1hughes]

Looks like Turbo Flares

[IROC]

I posted this same response a while back, but in the early days of the porschephiles mailing list there was a guy in Iceland who claimed to have a factory turbo-bodied '77 911. It was a coupe. He claimed he had some sort of documentation that it was done by the factory.

Even if I remembered his name, I wouldn't be able to spell it. :>)

Mike

[jeff1hughes]

I wish I could find out, because I'm considering buying it

[jeff1hughes]

By the way, the vin is now available! 9117210782 : which tells me that its a '77 911 S, 2.7 Targa body #782. If this tells anyone something else I'd sure like to know.

[widebody911]

Who in the hell would ever want a '77 wide body targa?

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by widebody911
Who in the hell would ever want a '77 wide body targa?

Yupp. They suck

Ooops....what was that in your profile?

[Jack Olsen]

I would say the odds are about, oh, a million to one that it's a 77 S Targa that's had flares welded on sometime in the last 27 years. Other than the 'factory' claim from the seller, is there anything I'm missing here that would suggest otherwise?

Not that aftermarket flares are a bad idea, in my opinion.

[jeff1hughes]

looking inside the wheel wells... and if not, a very very nice job was done on the fitting. Plus, in my limited experience I haven't seen too many wide body conversions with all steel widebody bumbers. I know that this is a possibility that somebody put in a lot of $$ to do this type of job, but why? I'm still waiting on a reply from the owner.

[jeff1hughes]

Does anyone know who to contact to get info on whether the factory ever made these in 77?

[widebody911]

Originally posted by beepbeep
Yupp. They suck

They'd have to improve to suck!

[gzulli]

I have an 84 wide body and the factory did weld flares onto these car until sometime in the late 80's (88 or 89 don't hold me to that.) So an early factory job will show welds and not a single stamping for the fenders. There is a wide body user group on Yahoo that has started a registery for these cars and a post there could help you find out some history. The group on yahoo is "Porsche911FactoryTurbo-LookCars · 911 Carrera with Option M491". Don't know how to link to it but you can search on Yahoo for it. The home page for the group states Porsche had a few of these cars in the late 70's. Cars in the 80's had stickers under the hood showing the option codes for wide body cars. That code is M491. Not sure the 70's cars had the sticker under the hood. Good luck with the research.