Is Porsche Wrong?

[nvr2mny]

So here's the deal. I ordered COA's for the 5 tubs and various engines I bought (yeah I know, expensive BUT I needed to know what it is/was they showed the cars coming with) to see if I had any matching cars to engines, trans, etc., etc. So when they provided the info today (over the phone whilst I wait for the certs to show up) the ONE car I was hoping to be confirmed as a '68 912 SWT Targa - WAS NOT. They said it would show up as a SWT on the COA if it had left the factory that way. But, the car has ALL the right hardware and evidence (sans the soft window) to confirm it was a SWT. The exterior Targa bar to body trim pieces, grab holds(?) on the interior bar and no rear seats, are all there. Also, they said the color was one that does not match the color id plate on the drivers side door post. The color according to the id plate shows it being Bahama Yellow, and that is the color found underneath the rubber trim pieces, interior of the doors and elsewhere. There is NO evidence to found ANYWHERE that it was Bahia Blue as Porsche is stating. According to Porsche, I have NO matching engines or trans for ANY of the cars we bought BUT the engines/trans I do have all fall within the various numbers for their respective years. How plausible is it that Porsche is wrong?

[racer]

It seems there are many reports of innaccuracies with Kardex information, especially on older cars, which makes finding one with a known and documented papertrail worth even more.

It also wasn't just porsche who did a bad job of tracking this stuff either.. I imagine it was simply something makers weren't interested in at the time.

[Jaems]

The Germans are highly motivated to keep actuate records, as seen at the Nuremberg Trials. The inaccuracies of the Kardex is do to the factory having Porsche American doing it instead of the factory. The factory Kardex will have what the car had when it left the factory. However, not what the dealership added or removed. Porsche America have been rather lacks sometimes in their translations of the Kardex.

Also, you really do not know whats been done to your cars since when the PO's had them, or the car may have been stolen at one time and had the Vin tags change. You can check this out by looking in the spots where the Vin is stamped into the Body. One place is under the knee pad on the bottom part of the dash.

[Rick Becker]

Personally, if I received a COA where the info did not appear consistent, I wouldn't hesitate to recontact Porsche and reconfirm that the COA was translated and prepared accurately. Porsche sometimes used different names for the same color code (i.e '319' could be Ossi Blue or Prussian Blue). However Bahia Blue was apparently not a standard or special color '65-'69, based on literature printed for the USA market.

At Rennsport Reunion IV, Porsche customer service had a laptop set up with kardex images loaded for viewing. At no charge, they allowing owners to view and write down most of the kardex info for their car(s), except info protected by German privacy laws. An extremely helpful Porsche employee from Germany translated information from the the cards, including factory installed standard items such as tire types originally fitted, as well as options.

Viewing the kardex images for my 912s at RR IV, the cards had the info noted above, plus the original dealers names (and original owners which were covered from my view), demonstrating those kardex files had been supplemented with information after both cars were delivered. Some info was typed, and some hand-written. The engine and trannie numbers for my '66 match; for my '68 the trannie matches, but the engine does not, being a '69 sequence. The paint codes included an alpha letter suffix not in the usual paint manufacturer pattern (i.e. 6602B and 6809B, not '-G,' '-H', or '-L'.) However on the '68 door plate, below the VIN the paint code is stamped '97-6809L'.

[perry911]

Quote" So here's the deal. I ordered COA's for the 5 tubs and various engines I bought (yeah I know, expensive BUT I needed to know what it is/was they showed the cars coming with) to see if I had any matching cars to engines, trans, etc., etc. So when they provided the info today (over the phone whilst I wait for the certs to show up) the ONE car I was hoping to be confirmed as a '68 912 SWT Targa - WAS NOT. They said it would show up as a SWT on the COA if it had left the factory that way. But, the car has ALL the right hardware and evidence (sans the soft window) to confirm it was a SWT. The exterior Targa bar to body trim pieces, grab holds(?) on the interior bar and no rear seats, are all there. Also, they said the color was one that does not match the color id plate on the drivers side door post. The color according to the id plate shows it being Bahama Yellow, and that is the color found underneath the rubber trim pieces, interior of the doors and elsewhere. There is NO evidence to found ANYWHERE that it was Bahia Blue as Porsche is stating. According to Porsche, I have NO matching engines or trans for ANY of the cars we bought BUT the engines/trans I do have all fall within the various numbers for their respective years. How plausible is it that Porsche is wrong? "

Trust me they are wrong.
This is not the first case I've heard of.
The paperwork got swapped and the wrong build sheet went to a different vin number. The key is finding the other car (the Bahia Blue one). You need to contact the factory and have them research your engine and transmssion and go from there.
Peter