This 911 story - evolution or devolution?

[krono_knut]

I hope you enjoy this story and your thoughts on “evolution or devolution” are invited.

After owning a couple of 356 coupes and a 1972 911 T (non-sunroof coupe) over the years, it was time to get something slightly more modern and I was thinking a drop-top.

Porsche’s for me have become a sunny Sunday afternoon car and after thrashing around a bunch, settled in on a late 1980’s Carrera. Following Bruce Andersons advice, purchasing the best example I was willing to plop my money into. After a few missteps (long story) I found a 1989 911 Carrera cabriolet in middle Tennessee.

The car had less than 50,000 miles on the odometer and was extremely original – original paint, original top and top boot (both in very nice shape). The interior was clean and very original. A few rubber seals on the door could use replacement, but overall very stock and unmolested. It was exactly what I was looking for!

After a PPI and going around on the price, a deal was struck and the white cab was headed to east Tennessee.

This first shot is of the previous owner and I doing the handshake as I’m getting ready to head the car east. The Porsche was maintained well under his ownership and I’m grateful for the car care provided by him. I’ve masked the previous owners face because he is in the law trade and I didn’t wish to plaster his likeness on the internet without permission.




As with any car purchase, I wished to make sure all was right with the car and had a short list of things to update to my specifications. You’ll note in the first picture, there is a bunch of daylight between the top of the front tire and wheel arch. It’s hard to see from this picture but the cars stance appeared lower in the rear and was extenuated by the Turbo tail added by a previous owners. First order of business; a big tune up, change all the fluids, put on a proper set of tires and a full alignment, adjusting the ride height so the car maintains a proper 911 stance.

This second shot was taken on the Cumberland Plateau on a late summer Sunday after the tune up, ride height adjustment, etc.



Because I’m a self described lunatic for originality, I did some investigating and according to the documentation I was able to obtain, the car was originally equipped with color matched wheels. I’ve always liked grand prix white cars with color matched wheels so I began watching our host’s used parts postings for a set of grand prix white wheels. A fellow from St. Louis posted a set of 6 and 7 x 16 Fuchs with tires which were off his 1986 Carrera. The wheels were factory GP white and in very nice original condition. A deal was struck & I was headed to St. Louis to pick up the parts.

The third shot was taken in the fall, again on the Cumberland Plateau (Bandy Creek Camp ground), with the wheels / tires off the 1986 car. I boxed up my 8 x 16’s and sent them to Weidman’s in California for a refinish with factory type anodizing and GP white paint.



Since the Turbo tail was added by a previous owner and I liked the appearance of a stock 911 with no tail, I had been looking for a GP white engine lid to replace the lid on the car. After much looking and purchasing two which were returned to the sellers for not representing them accurately, I finally located a used GP white lid in great original shape.

These final shots were taken a couple of weeks ago (up on the Plateau) with the car sitting on proper 6’s & 8’s with a stock deck lid.










I still have the GP white 7x16’s and will likely place them in the front of the car.

So is this evolution or devolution?
Your comments are invited!

I hope you enjoyed reading this & thanks from East Tennessee,
Steve

[silverc4s]

Steve,
Don't what to say, except I like your style. All the work you have done is by way of putting the car back to original condition, nice that you were able to do this without resorting to a paint booth...

Very nice looking Cabriolet, btw.

[livi]

Great story, Steve!

You have a fantastic car and IMO you have absolutely made it even nicer. Definitely Evolution!

[RWebb]

Why would it be devolution?

- I'd have killed the tray too, BTW. If you want wind stability you cold always mount a motorized 964 spoiler.

The wheels are fine - Colored wheels go well on a cab.

[Grady Clay]

Steve,

Great story. You are a man after my own heart.

I’m a fan of including all the fun, ‘trick’ and later technology. I also espouse maintaining the ability to return to original. It is too bad the all the POs didn’t retain the OE wheels, deck lid and I suspect more.

You are to be congratulated for your perseverance returning this Carrera to close to original. Keep it up.

Now your mission could be the ‘over maintenance’ to bring it back closer to ‘new’. Sorta like restoring a car while driving. Very satisfying.

Best,
Grady

[the]

Oh, those are great changes, that's a no-brainer.

The Turbo tail is way too big for a non-turbo flared car. It wasn't designed for narrow bodies, and totally overpowers and ruins the rear end.

Chromed wheels - blah. Chrome wheels are what you see filling the wheel rack at Pep Boys. Chrome is very non-Porsche (and non-Euro in general). Anodizing is an expensive and unique process for wheels. It's part of what makes the 911 unique. Not many mfrs paid so much attention to details like hard anodized wheels and featherweight lugs.

The white wheels look great on your white cab.

Nice job, two thumbs way up!

[Komenda Fan]

Everything you did to the car mirrors my preferences, as well. A very nice car made fantastic. Well done.

How do you find the car, having owned a long hood? I recall the article in excellence when they tested a new 1989 Baltic Blue Cab, and they talked about the weight and how the car made a good cruiser, rather than a 10/10ths machine.

[boxster03]

After owning a couple of 356 coupes and a 1972 911 T (non-sunroof coupe) settled in on a late 1980’s Carrera

for sure devolution

[bell]

welcome to the gp white w/gp white wheels club

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by boxster03

for sure devolution

Well, I went the same direction and I'm happy about it.

Nice car, Steve, and some nice pics. Looks like you're not short on great roads either.

[dw1]

Thank you very much for posting the pics.

I very much agree that the turbo tail was "too much" with the non-turbo fenders, esp. on a drop-top, and the car looks much better with a standard decklid. (Although to my eye, there's something a bit "odd" about major aerodynamic aids like large rear spoilers on any convertible. It seems a bit of a functional contradiction.)

There's also something about color-match wheels on a white or black car - it just looks "right". (This is not to say polished wheels don't also look great - polished wheels go especially good with dual-out polished exhaust tips.)

IMHO, you took a very nice car and made it even better.

[Dottore]

Evolution. Well done!

[azasadny]

Steve,
Excellent story! Congratulations and welcome aboard!!

[Paul K]

Either way, the car looks a heck of a lot better now than it did when you bought it.

Good job.

Paul.

[Bobboloo]

The car looks great both ways but I prefer what you went for. I've always thought color coded GP White Fuchs with a GP White car is a great look. A signature 80's Porsche look just like Guards Red with polished Fuchs. I've never cared for black centered Fuchs for some reason. Just never worked for me.

Got to love having a car that doesn't fade so you can buy used parts that match. A little compound to remove stains and voila!

Turbo tails just don't do it for me on Targas or Cabs either. A Carrera tail would have made more sense but no tail would be my call.

Congrats on a great find.

[krono_knut]

Cup-o-la comments and full disclosure, etc.

First, I really wrastled (we “wrastle” in east Tennessee…) with dumping the long hood car and moving closer to the dark side with the purchase of a short hood car.

I had owned the 1972 911 T for almost 20 years. Close to ten years of that time were spent with the car parked in the back of the garage on account of the motor was running funny when it was parked and I believed it was going to cost a small pile of $$$ to fix.

Additionally the car had a new left quarter panel and new right front fender compliments of previous owners misjudgments… For those of you who live on the left coast or out in the desert southwest this place is hot in the summer and HUMID!!! What I want you to get a picture of is rust and corrosion that happens with non-long life Porsche bodies especially if previous body work was not up to snuff. The seam on the quarter panel where the new panel was grafted to the old panel was beginning to show rust bubbles and I knew it was just the start.

Then my mechanical woes kicked in and it was time to send the car on. For what it’s worth the motor was a screamer!!! It was a 1981 SC motor with 98mm Mahle P&C’s, reground cams, Weber 46’s, SSI heat exchangers, SC Euro spec distributor and the like. When it ran well, it would out accelerate most Corvettes and would run circles around most cars on account of the favorable HP to weight ratio and nimble handling of the car.

The nimble handling was due to 7 x 15 Fuchs all around, large torsion bars front & rear, turbo tie-rod ends, SC (Bilstein) front struts with Koni shocks at all four corners, SS break lines, x-drilled rotors, and on, and on…

When I decided to move the car, I sent it to some Porsche folks I know out west & they removed the sick hot rod SC motor (turned out to have three broken head studs & they couldn’t extract the broken piece from the case without splitting the case halves). They fitted it with a ~proper running used SC motor & sold it for me. Part of the proceeds of the sale of the 1972 car paid for the 1989 cab.

On to the full disclosure part – As much as I’m a lunatic for stock, the previous owner of the cab had installed a new “chip” & I’m leaving that in. A hollowed out catalytic converter has been installed in place of the stock unit. It appears stock with proper heat shielding, the O2 sensor is there, but no guts… I’ve swapped the US tail light lenses for European lenses. Proper configuration of a 1989 cab would be the third break light on the engine lid and as you can see the lid currently fitted is sans the third break light (the lid came off a 1987 coupe).

I thought about replacing the standard lid with a lid and spoiler from a 964, then I began to think about where I was going to re-mount my AC condenser, etc. Did mention it was hot and HUMID here… One note to consider was that the car was more stable at speed due to the downforce of the turbo tail. These things do work. I thought about a duck tail & ran across the stock lid first. I’d think a duck tail spoiler would be a good compromise in that they provide extra downforce and due to the extra air pressure probably force more air through the lid and into the engine compartment to provide better cooling???

On the general handling aspects of a cab, yes it’s heavier and is not as ridged as a coupe. I had a DAS roll bar installed for a short period and it helped tremendously with making things stiffer but I couldn’t move my seat back far enough back to be comfortable. The seat bottom was acceptable; it was the seat back which was problematic. So I sold it.

If I wanted to go 10/10’s I’d go with another coupe. If I could have found a late model US spec Carrera with no sunroof, I may have been swayed and if I was after the highest HP to weight ratio, I’d probably stick with a long hood (no sunroof) car.

For me the cab fits the bill of providing a fun drive, sounds really nice when you mash the accelerator and will look good going 8/10’s all day long (as long as it’s not raining…). After all I was after a sunny Sunday afternoon car when all this started.

Steve

[SCWDP911]

nicely done... if you ever get out to the western part of the state, look us up!