[G450X]

Like some of the previous comments mentioned, I think many of these people want to "customize" their rides to some extent among the more common 911's (in southern California anyway) to give them a bit of an "edgy" look (Mangus comes to mind).

I also think there is a small camp of enthusiasts who love the way early LWB 911's look and they want to mimic an early performance version of a 911 (RS, Carrera, ST, etc..) in the form of a "tribute" car since the originals are silly expensive these days. I kind of fit in this camp. I plan on backdating a nice, but high mile SC, into something along the lines of an early Carrera. One of the beauties of later 911's is that they are fairly easy to convert back into their more simplistic and ornate form.

I think quite a few LWB 911 owners with more common "T" models modified their cars years ago when the values were quite a bit lower than they are now. With nice "T" models bringing very high prices I think some of these owners are having second thoughts on their conversions - especially if they added flares/scoops, etc., and sold or tossed the now hard to source original parts.

I can recall (and not that long ago) many forum comments that 911T's would never be worth much, just like the same talk about mid-years, SC's, and Carreras. That has proved to be a very incorrect assumption.

I feel that a nice, original, low-mile air-cooled 911, no matter what year, is somewhat collectible to someone. The fact that the basic silhouette was the same for so many years practically ensures that.

I feel that if you have a fairly common model with some "issues" (high miles, repaired wreck, etc..), that you want to modify, go ahead. I don't think too many people would really care. I think when someone modifies an especially nice original (or a "special" version), that tends to send some people into fits...