Best Porsche Mousetrap?

[cpcooper]

I've been "freshening up" a '78 wide body SC for about the last year and, although I've owned 911's before, I've been deeper into this one than any of the others. The design of some of the parts knocks my socks off in terms of cleverness of engineering and simple elegance of how they work.

Currently I'm smitten with the spreaders that work the emergency brake. Two per side, back to back, they spread the shoes into the drum to make the brake work. I've worked on a lot of cars for a long time and never run into anything like them. So simple, and work so well.

My previous favorite was the rear decklid latch that is designed to unlock the decklid if the cable breaks. Genius!

The fuel pump relay circuits should also be included in the hall of fame, although my quest to comprehend the ingeniousness here was admittedly somewhat protracted.

Any other nominations?

[fanaudical]

One of my favorites is the -009 WUR in the CIS. Relatively simple device that does an amazing amount of engine control.

Another favorite is the clock. It seems to be the most accurate timepiece I own (and it's 40+ years old!)

[Pierre911SC]

Yes, + on the clock.

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by fanaudical

Another favorite is the clock. It seems to be the most accurate timepiece I own (and it's 40+ years old!)

Mine is right twice a day.

[porterdog]

Rear wiper. Overcomplex engineering porn.

[gshiwota]

OEM Spark plug socket!!! It's amazing how well they work in such tight confines.

[algs911]

My vote is the room in the rear of the car. When I went to do my very first valve adjustment on my '86 911 I thought there was not way in hell I'd be able to even do it w/out dropping the motor. In fact, it's pretty darn simple! There IS room in there and it's not bad, really. Pretty clever to include enough room in the engine bay to perform basic maintenance. Not many engineering teams think about those special times when the car needs servicing down the road.

Ferrari, I'm looking at you here!

[pmax]

Door latch

[schnelltarga]

Body part interchangeability.

What other manufacturer allows an on owner to "swap", "backdate" or "reference" from the late '60's until 1989 - at the earliest. Forget the "small bits" as the British say, it's all about the totality of the design.

Even though today's models have a thyroid condition, the heritage from the 356 runs until today. Can you do the same with a '57 Chevy???

[steely]

From the title I thought you were trying to catch rodents ha ha.
+1 for the rear wiper and door latch.
I like the ICV, simple when it works - basically a cool servo. But I also like how rugged the DME is after all of these years. Nice blend of old school analog and digital. Gosh I hope I didn't just jinx myself.
And oh yeah, the fan belt tool

[cpcooper]

Yeah, definitely cool door latches. The whole door setup is pretty nice, including the window frames with lots of adjustment points, double seals around the door tops, all contributing to the characteristic "thunk" you get closing the door when everything is set up right. A small part broke off my driver side door latch, making it impossible to unlock the door from the outside. Repaired with the bunny rabbit shaped part I cut out and attached with a plug weld.