Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxhouse97
Reviving this thread to provide an update. I regrettably ended up selling my 87 (sorry Paul) on BaT. The good news is I was able to do well enough to be able to pick up one of these:
Was able to pick it up in Germany, drive on the Nurburgring, tour around the south near the mountains, etc. It is an amazing car and was an experience I will never forget!
However I find myself back here reading about middies and mag case 915s … why? Because I still want that lightweight, go-kart like experience (I’ve had 3 Miatas in the family and I peruse Elise ads frequently but can’t deal with the quality/reliability/parts). So while my timeline may be a bit longer now (the GT4 isn’t going anywhere), I’m still craving the aircooled experience.
However now that mid-year prices have gone up and longhood prices have flattened or even come down, to the question I posed around a original longhood vs a backdated mid-year with all the same criteria/costs/performance objectives … I was convinced the mid-year was the answer. But is it much closer now or reversed due to the above?
Good news is I have time to decide. Here is my current plan, as I have kids and a job that limits current free time:
- Buy a used motor in a couple of years after we build a garage addition for my new workshop
- Take the next year or two to rebuild it (thinking 3.0 to 3.2SS with EFI that has decent torque but can still zing to 7000 in order to match the character I am looking for). I love mechanical things and have always had a desire to do a rebuild on my own. By this time my girls will be teenagers and won’t have anything to do with me 
- Then buy either a 73 or 74-77 with a tired motor or in the case of the mid-year a tired paint job, fix it up/paint/backdate, and drop my rebuilt motor in. Keep it light, narrow bodied, 15” lightweight wheels with 205-225 tires, and drive the hell out of it.
My hope is to replicate the Miata-like feel with a car that has much more panache, allows me to invest substantial money without feeling bad, but still enables me to tinker (I love how these cars are like Legos).
So back to the question (now that the 87 is out) - 73 vs 74-77? What’s the right move? |
Congrats on the GT4! I purchase a 718 GT4 as well at the beginning of 2022 and just sold it in September. Absolutely great car and my only reason for selling was that after a long weekend trip with a group of friends and the GT4 on a drive in the mountains, I came back home realizing I wasn’t a mid engine guy. But the car is epic!
I used the funds from that purchase to buy a one-owner 1969 911 E. I’m still waiting on the car to arrive from Europe but I should see it in my garage right after the new year.
My plan is to now take my 88 backdate hotrod and go even crazier now that I have another aircooled car in the garage. The 69 will likely stay mostly original with the exception of some light restoration (suspension, brakes, etc).
While LH prices have stabilized and even come down, after roughly 6-9 months of searching for my 69, I can honestly say that most of the LH cars that “reasonably” priced have a lot of issues and/or stories. I can’t even begin to tell you the number of deals that fell through during inspection on various LH cars. And most of them were over 100k… So I decided to bite the bullet, increase the budget and go for the best car I could find.
IMHO, if you want the LH experience, chase originality and condition. This will unfortunately come with a hefty price tag, which also means those cars aren’t really hotrod candidates.
If you want to go hotrod, the galvanized IB cars are still the best starting point. They are less expensive to buy and will cost far less to get the project to the finish line.
If I was going to hotrod a LH car, I would probably go either MFI twin plug 2.5 or RS spec 2.7. Anything more and the motor will begin to lose that early character that LH cars are known for.
On my 88, I will likely do a twin plug 3.4 build and hopefully get around 280-290hp which is perfect for the car’s weight (now sits at 2300lbs).
So IMO, if the goal is to go hotrod, find a rust free IB car and start there. You will spend a ton more money starting with a solid LH car and just end up in the same place at the end of the day.