We’ve all experienced it: There’s a nice classic car in town, but you only ever see it when your phone/camera is in your other trousers. In my case, this 1977 Porsche 911S–owned by a local school teacher, I believe–has been in town for about 18 years, but it’s only now that I’ve managed to catch it curbside while my phone was with me! To celebrate finally ending those 18 years of not managing to photograph it, I thought it only fair to share the long-awaited pristine Porsche pics with the wider CC audience.
As far as I can tell, we’ve only had two previous CC posts on the Porsche 911 – here and here – both featuring examples found by Paul. A variety of other Porsches have been featured, but only the two 911s. That hasn’t worried me, as now that I’m among friends, I can admit that I don’t ‘get’ the 911. The idea of an air-cooled engine hanging out back of a car seems, well, foreign to me. Phoning in the various facelifted 911s doesn’t help either – for goodness sake, Porsche, the 944 and 928 looked un-911 and looked great, can’t you do something un-911 again? Please? And I don’t mean the squashed-911-look of the Panamera or the bloated-911-look of the Cayenne…
That isn’t to say I can’t appreciate a nice classic 911 parked curbside, though – and this one’s certainly one of the nicest I’ve seen. The Porsche’s pearlescent paint is positively pristine! This, and the lack of the more common whale-tail rear spoiler and wide-body rear arches, reveals very clean styling – it’s almost sensual in a way. A registration check reveals the personalised number plate to be correct – it is indeed a 1977 Porsche 911S, specifically a 2700cc version. Intriguingly, it only arrived in New Zealand in 1995, having formerly resided in the United States.
Given that it’s right-hand-drive, I think we can safely assume that it’s received a left-to-right conversion – which is presumably very easy when there isn’t an engine in the way! Someone cared for it enough to spend the money importing and converting it; that it now has 116,812 miles on the odometer, yet looks as immaculate as this, shows that someone still cares for it a lot. And even though it isn’t my cup of tea, I totally respect the owner for keeping this classic in beautiful order, and not being afraid to park it curbside, where it finally received the attention I’d been waiting 18 years to give it!
Still my beating heart…and in white too! That really works well on a classic 911. What a timeless beauty.
I’m a bit surprised to think someone converted it to RHD after 1995. I guess they knew what they wanted for the long haul.
FWIW, I understand that the 2.7 engine in these was relatively more problematic than both its 2.4 predecessor and its 3.0 successor.
Yes at least in the states. “Mid-year” cars like this ’77 911S had a thermal reactor which really caused problems, more than on the BMWs, because air-cooled engines tend to run hot as it is.
Some of the earlier small engines had issues with the magnesium case (it was soft) but were generally more reliable. The mechanical fuel injection in some years can be a pain to dial in because so few people know how to work on it.
The 3.0L cars are largely bulletproof though the later 3.2Ls were the best because of the Motronic fuel injection. Better performance and mileage than the 2.7 and 3.0 with CIS.
The laws keep changing but LHD wasnt legal sometimes here and you had to convert, I think it has to do with the age of the car when it lands as there are two LHD Lincolns circulating locally.
I appreciate the pure, chaste appearance of the early 911s (and the 912) too. Bloat, geegaws, jimcracks, spoilers, fender flares make the newer ones look like caricatures.
One more CC post on the 911: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/curbside-capsule-1974-porsche-neunelfer-the-vanilla-porsche-in-chocolate/
This is a neat 911. Correct, the 2.7 is fragile compared to others. A lot has been changed on this car to take away the US look – headlight bezels, front blinkers, rear over riders to name a few. The wipers remain. These are not an easy conversion, lots of sheet metal to change to convert to rhd, shame it was done. Very clean looking car, GP white is cool.
KJ
Beautiful. I’m increasingly appreciative of the G model and this is a nice one. For one thing, it doesnt have a whale tail which is still attached to half the model i see around Melbourne. Great Scott!
Very nice find, gorgeous 911. To my mind the narrow bodies are the purest no matter what generation you’re looking at. Simple, functional, pretty, and nothing extra hanging off it.
As Bryce said above, our Kiwi laws regarding importing LHD vehicles have changed several times over the last 20 years. Usually all cars over a certain age (which changed several times) had to be converted; sometimes they could just get a permit; sometimes they could remain LHD only if the importer had owned and driven them for a minimum of three months in their country of origin and then retained ownership for either a defined number of years or until they reached a certain age – if they changed hands in the interim conversion was compulsory for on-road use. It really got quite confusing.
Following lobbying from motoring special-interest groups, the law has been simplified (kind of):
* Any LHD vehicle over 20 years of age and with a GVM of less than 3.5 tonnes may be imported and remain LHD.
* A maximum of 500 ‘Category A’ permits are available each year for LHD vehicles under 20 years of age and with a GVM of less than 3.5 tonnes, which may be imported and remain LHD.
To be eligible to be considered for a Category A permit, the vehicle must first be deemed by our Transport Agency to have historic value OR be not manufactured in right-hand drive form.
If one of those two requirements is met, the permit will be issued allowing the vehicle to remain LHD if it meets three of the following four criteria:
* the vehicle (or its make, model and submodel) is identified as being a collector’s item in a commercially produced motoring publication
* the vehicle’s make, model and submodel has been (or was) manufactured in annual volumes of 20,000 units or less
* the vehicle is, and was manufactured as, a two-door coupe or a convertible
* the vehicle is, and was manufactured as, a high-performance vehicle.
A lareg and successful JDM used import dealer near me also has a successful sideline importing and selling new/near-new LHD cars from the States; specifically the Camaro, Mustang, Charger and Challenger. None of these are available in RHD here, so are eligible for Category A criteria, which they meet, and are allowed to remain LHD.
As a comparison, the Charger/Challenger aren’t available in RHD so are able to be imported and permitted. Despite being on the same platform, the Chrysler 300C is available in RHD so any LHD 300C imported would not be allowed to remain LHD. A Dodge Magnum would be an interesting case, as although the Magnum wasn’t made in RHD, we did get the 300C wagon in RHD, and the Transport Agency might deem them to be too similar.
Beautiful car. This generation of 911 is one that I grew up lusting for.
Strictly from an aesthetic standpoint, I much prefer the chrome-bumper cars. Practically speaking, I’m sure the later cars make sense in some respects, but the purity of the original shape was lost. (I’ve never been overly fond of the 911, which I think is probably one of those things you either get or you don’t, but the original has the most charm for me.)
Glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t get them…
I used to have that opinion, but the 964 changed that. Then the 993 came along and the (originally unintentional) progression of the body put things in a different light. I think the G works quite well, but as Jim and others mentioned – best without all the attachments. That said, the 930 also works very, very well as does the 959 to a lesser extent. I don’t think the 964 is a styling-update success, but all other gens demonstrate what a paradigm-busting shape the 901 actually was. I also think the chrome-bumpers are the prettiest. But I can’t think of another body that was so proficiently updated.
I was just getting into cars when these were being made, the car buff mags featured the occasional review and it always seemed to do well in them. I’d rather have this than the new Boxster.
If you park one of these next to the latest Beetle, how similar would they be?
Nice personalized custom license plate too!
Gorgeous neunelfer!
He really deserves a proper Blaupunkt stereo though, like a Bamberg or Frankfurt etc .
These are real porches. None of this water cooled traction controlled b.s. Buy it if you love to drive. If you don’t respect one of these it will bite your a$$. Personally I would want the glass (targa?) top. Or a CRT yellow bird (ya right!). But this would do (five days of the year, on one tenth of our roads) just fine. Total respect. One day…..