912 or 911?

[braxtona]

I stumbled across a 911 for sale at a back woods town local used car dealer. It looks to be around a 76. But after looking at it for a bit I started thinking that it may be a '76 912. It had a 6 cyl. in it with a slighly askew 911 badge on the back grill. But was missing a couple of things I thought a 911 would have (primarily, it did not have a passenger side rear view mirror). What are some key things I could look at to determine whether or not it is a converted 912 or a true 911?

[wckrause]

Get the VIN number, and post it here. We can tell you exactly what it is (or was).

Many 911's don't have passenger side mirrors.

[david c.]

easiest is to check the VIN, as the other posters have mentioned. if it starts "912..." that's a pretty darn good indication. Also, there is a wierd ingot under the suspension of a 912E, presumably (?) to cancel out some harshness of the four-banger. It may have been removed for the six conversion. I don't think a regular rear sway bar will clear it either.

Check the gauges. A 912E has a 5500 or so redline , no oil pressure or temp gauge, etc. (although a decent swap for a six should have included the updates).

I don't believe any 912E's came with rear sway bars. I am not sure if all 76 911S models had a factory sway bar. I doubt it. The 912E has a tiny front sway bar, I think it's like 16mm. Mine is about to come off!

No oil cooler or plumbing originally in the front end. Of course, that was probably added during the conversion. An oil tank was a component of the 912e, it's not a dry sump engine, but a conversion would necessarily require this of course.

Rear brakes are distinct from a 76 911 also. I think the 912E was also equipped with steel wheels standard.

Also, there are transmission characteristics; like the ring and pinion are different.

David