What's all this then?
This lovely slice of bright-red sixties sports car is the oldest 911 in Porsche's own care. It's the fresh product of a three-year restoration to turn it from barn-find into museum star.
How old is it, then?
Old enough to not actually be 911.
Eh? It looks a lot like a 911 to me!
Because this is a 901. Porsche originally launched its replacement for the long-lived 356 coupe with the 901 badge, and the first batch of cars was built with that name. Then Peugeot objected (because it felt it had domain over cars featuring a zero in the middle of their name/number) and Porsche had to change it. So a one was added in the middle, and the rest is history.
This particular example was built in October 1964, about the time that Peugeot's protest was coming through, and so is technically a 901, although it would have been badged as a 911 for sale, to placate Peugeot. It's chassis number 300057, so the 57th car built and currently the oldest 911 in Porsche's museum collection.
Where was it found?
In an actual barn in 2014, so it's a genuine barn-find. The car, along with another classic 911, was found mouldering by a TV crew filming an antiques and collectibles show (Crash In The Attic?) and it didn't take long for word to get back to Porsche itself that one of the oldest 911s had been found. The company snapped up both cars, and so began a three-year restoration process.
It sure looks shiny now.
Indeed. One of the benefits of it being a barn-find is that 057 was original and unrestored, which meant that Porsche's experts were able to restore the majority of its running gear to original condition without having to undo any dodgy modifications made in the 50-odd years since it was built.
*Books tickets to Stuttgart*
Book one for me too, will you?
Neil Briscoe - 13 Dec 2017