"Magic 9" vin cars for MY75?

[blacklotus99]

The dealer below is advertising a '75 Euro Carrera 2.7 but with a very low number "Magic 9" vin number with a "9" engine number. Appears to be a standard '75 2.7 911/83 with the exception of the MY76 mirrors.

Supposedly 1 of 4 "special order" 2.7 Carreras delivered in that year. Does anyone know anything about these cars or particularly this car? Distinct California plates, figured someone would know it.

Current Offers | Morris & Welford—International Specialist Historic Car Consultants&Brokers

[TRE Cup]

i did not look at the vin of the car, but the motor pictured is a 911/53; which is the 210 hp 2.7 mfi row version. This is a desirable car as this is the same motor as the 73 Carrera RS with more performance than its cis counterpart.

these cars weigh just a little bit more than the 73 RS, so peformance if pretty nice

[peon77]

This is very interesting. It was for sale on pelican a few years ago.1975 Matching #'s Euro Carrera for Sale
What was the point of the 9 with its list of options it sounds like a typical ROW Carrera.

[blacklotus99]

Originally Posted by peon77

This is very interesting. It was for sale on pelican a few years ago.1975 Matching #'s Euro Carrera for Sale
What was the point of the 9 with its list of options it sounds like a typical ROW Carrera.

Agree. Looks like a heavily optioned ROW Carrera but that doesnt explain the unusual vin or the engine number.

The "9" vin numbers are usually reserved for the "sports purpose" cars like the RS3.0, 934, the homologation 123 '76 Carrera 2.7s etc.

The previous owners comments about the car being "special order" doesnt make sense. Unless it was ordered as a race car or by a race team or some such... Putting the vin mystery to one side, why would the factory use a 695* engine number on what appears to be a standard 911/83 engine?

There is obviously more to this story...

[gulf908]

The standard chassis series for the '75 Carreras should be 911 560 xxxx for a coupe and 665 xxxx for the type 83 motor.
The numbers in my '75 spec book(3/79) do not go up as far as 9 for either the chassis or the motor.
If you are serious about this car then ask for a chassis plate pic as well as a letter of authenticity,preferably from Stuttgart, as to its claim of speciality.

Cheers,
Dennis.

[fryardds]

I can still remember the day I drove this car for the first time at our annual R Gruppe gathering in Monterey, CA back in May '03. I was on the hunt for a nice '73 Carrera RS but had never driven a 2.7L MFI Carrera before. Rob let me drive this car and I was totally blown away by the performance of this car. Everything from the howl of the MFI induction to the wonderful lively driving experance. I was hooked that day.

I bought my RS shortly after I got home from Monty.

Here is a lengthy post put up by Rob that gives a bit more background on this unique Carrera. We always thought this car was produced not only for testing but for an important person at the Factory but could never prove this.

Green '75 Euro Carrera Acquisition Story - Very Long!!

I saw the car on this website over the weekend and sent off an email to the dealer to get the asking price, etc. The response back was a bit disappointing. Seems the engine has been rebuilt but on a different case than the original. The original case was damaged at the countershaft bearing support and not repairable. Of course the original case goes with the car at the sale but we all know that is really bummer for value.

Oh BTW, they are asking $90K, which is highly optimistic with the case change.

[twistoffat]

Originally Posted by blacklotus99

Agree. Looks like a heavily optioned ROW Carrera but that doesnt explain the unusual vin or the engine number.

The "9" vin numbers are usually reserved for the "sports purpose" cars like the RS3.0, 934, the homologation 123 '76 Carrera 2.7s etc.

The previous owners comments about the car being "special order" doesnt make sense. Unless it was ordered as a race car or by a race team or some such... Putting the vin mystery to one side, why would the factory use a 695* engine number on what appears to be a standard 911/83 engine?

There is obviously more to this story...

A "9" as the 4th last digit indicated a special like an RS etc. In this case the 9 is the 5th last digit in both motor and Vin which should be 1-8 indicating whether its a Euro 911 or a US Turbo

Also the Sonderwunschprogramm applied to features on the 930 like the slant nose etc. I´m stumped. Give them a call and ask.

What stumps me is that in 1975 Porsche did indeed have a special model"Sondermodell" which was to celebrate the 25 years of production at stuttgart

[blacklotus99]

I guess its one of those ones where if the real purpose for the car's special order status was identified that would greatly add to the appeal. Not sure why they would have used it to test a sporto though, sporto had been available for years by that point albeit not in a carrera.

I was also under the assumption that porsche produced the first 10 cars in any year to be retained for testing etc. Why would they create 4 special "9" vin cars when they could have just used one of their existing test cars? Maybe it was a "testing program" of some sort and they needed all 4 cars and didnt want to use production cars pulled off the line.

One gets the feeling there is a lot more to the story about why they were actually created. These 4 cars may be the only "special testing" cars produced in that era. The fact that no one seems to have heard about them seems very odd. "Testing a new sporto" sounds like a complete red herring to me! Sporto was quite common in '76 and it was the same unit as the old one!

Damaged case would hurt it a little but not a huge amount if the original is included. Someone might be able to weave some magic on that original case anyway.

[peon77]

I dont buy the story that this car was built, simply to be used for testing, and marked with a 9 instead of a six for that reason.

According to the PO of my 75 S (04/74 build date vin 9115200012) bought feb 75 w/ 12000 miles on the odometer from the factory the salesman told him that the car was used for pre production testing for the factory. The factory started production with vin no. 11. Typically four cars were built and used for testing or publicity and there were no 1-10 most years.
With that being the case with my car, the only option it was built with was AC. You can see that its a normal US 911s with AC.

Why would the factory build one tester with no options and a normal vin and one with a ton of options and make up a new series of vin for it?