1970 Porsche 911 T Targa Sportomatic

1970 Porsche 911T Targa Sportomatic

Vin # 9110110663 / Engine # 61081222 /C Program Build

FLICKR photo album over 80 phtotos: flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157657654737549

On offer is a spectacular example of an early long hood, hrome-bumper 911 in the vibrant 70's hue, ignal Orange. This car is remarkable for a couple of reasons; one is that it is a rare variant (Targa/Sportomatic) with approximately 600 produced, nd far fewer remaining in their original configuration; the second reason is that the car has benefitted from 4 very careful and fastidious owners from new, ho have left an extremely well-documented paper trail.

Particularly the 2nd owner who had the car from 1973 to 1997 and drove it for 84,000miles (9,500miles to 93,500 miles) and who restored the car, nd who kept excellent notes - It was even worth the trouble for me to key in some of his letters as part of this auction description, s they describe a technically adept, nd fastidious owner who had a deep appreciation and fond memories of a car he obviously cherished. Sometimes the maintenance file on a car tells a great story, nd the contents of this 3"thick binder doesn't disappoint.

Post 1997, he car was sold to a Calgary Accountant (in fact my Accountant!) who had the car for 5 years and then sold the car to a friend of his, ho is the co-owner of a highly acclaimed Art Gallery in Calgary. I have known both guys for 25 years. A new chapter of the car's life then started, nd we have a complete record of all the work done to the car since — over $32,000 in receipts transcribed below— that was spent at Alpine Automotive and Riegal Tuning in Calgary. Both companies are still in business, ocated a few blocks from Porsche Centre Calgary, nd both of whom I use for my own classics. Marc Boulanger from Alpine is a Master Porsche Mechanic, nd has done the work on the car since 2011 (Marc has also worked on our Metallic Green 1973 911S Coupe for the last 30 years). Major items include new SSI heat exchangers, ebuild of the Sportomatic gearbox and torque converter, lutch, arb rebuild, onversion to electronic ignition, redestein tires, ew brakes, ear torsion bars etc. etc.

Condition of the vehicle is exceptional, nd it gets better the closer you look at it (it is not always this way). It is not easy to take one of these cars apart, nd put it back together and have it look new and correct, ut this is such a car. It has been driven — there is evidence of 40,000 miles of careful use since the restoration: There are some very small stone chips, he windscreen has some fine pitting, nd there are some fine swirls in the paint, he car leaves a small oil spot on our floor after being left for a couple of days, nd that is about it. I am not prone to ‘Puffery' when it comes to describing cars (have a look at our Ferrari 348 auction) but given the mileage, he car can not be reasonably faulted, ven by Porsche fanatics. Extra keys, he owners manual, set of shop manuals, nd a large box of spare and original parts come with the car, ncluding the original Becker Mexico Radio with NOS face plate.

Here is a link to the R&T Magazine road test of the 1970 Porsche 911, ith the witty by-line: "Performance in the order of an American Supercar, ithout the stigma of low cost", n this case the 'S' was tested but it describes the current line up, nd ends with this description of the 911T:

"The 911S, xciting though it is, s not the right car for use in America - unless one lives in a state without open-road speed limits. The S just frustrates the poor driver most of the time in everyday driving, rying to be run up to its reline through the gears (do that in 2nd gear and you're at the speed limit in California) or cruised at 130-plus mph, nd gives away a lot in low-speed performance to get its brilliant upper range, ot to mention the extra cost. Since the 911T is also a bit stronger this year, nd just as tractable as before, e recommend it as the best Porsche for all-around use- and a great car it is."

vintageandsportscar.com/rvsc/DIR3/DIR4/PORSCHE/911S_2.2L_RT_03-1970.html

Here is the contents of a letter sent to the 4th owner of the car, y the 2nd, ated February 25, 010, nd giving his account of his time with the car. There are service invoices to collaborate this information, eatly filed chronologically.

"These are the reminisces about the Orange 1970 Porsche 911T Targa, ith a 2.2L engine rated at 125hp, nd the automatically operated clutch, portomatic.

I purchased the car from Southgate Volkswagen Ltd in Edmonton in 1972 for $7,500. It was just over one year since it had been sold new by Southgate, Porsche dealer at that time, ith the mileage at around 9,800 miles.

The reason the original owner traded in the Porsche for an Audi 100 was, hat his wife had triplets and the 911 was just not a very practical vehicle for himself, is wife and three babies. I believe the new price of the car had been around $9,500.

At the time of purchase the car had sealed beam headlights with the quite ugly chrome enclosures and it had fog lights which projected from the lower part of the bumper skirt.

The fog lights stayed on the car less than one year. I removed them when I tired of buying $75 Hella glass lenses, hich seemed to break almost as soon as they were installed. Whomever installed the Hella fog lights, robably someone at Southgate, ad left the metal cover plates for the fog light holes in the car, o it was a simple matter to put them back to cover the holes in the bumper skirt.

The sealed beams I replaced with the proper Porsche Bosch H4 headlights in the second year of ownership. The change in looks was dramatic plus the fact that the H4 headlights provide about four times better visibility at night.

The appearance of the car today, xcept for the headlights, og lights and the now non-existent front license plate, s identical to that when the car was new, ncluding the lovely orange colour.

From 1972 until 1979, he Porsche was my primary business vehicle and I used it in summer and winter, ravelling all over the four Western Provinces and a number of trips to Sunnyvale and Long Beach, A.

The car was extremely trouble free during these 7 years. Oil and filters were changed as needed, alve adjustments when required and the only repair, nd it was not a repair to rectify a failure, as that I replaced the electro-vacuum valve in the engine compartment.

This valve is the link between the micro switches in the gear shift lever and the servo operating the clutch. It had bothered me to hear a thump sometimes, ndicating a not proper functioning servo engaging the clutch, hen putting the car into first gear a short time after having started the engine. Replacing the electro-vacuum valve did not make any difference. Now I know that the sudden engagement of the clutch at standstill is due to a lack of vacuum in the vacuum reservoir, his is a large flat reservoir in the engine compartment underneath the ‘rear window shelf'. The muffler was also replaced sometime during this period, ecause the carbon steel outer shell developed a number of holes.

In 1979 I purchased a Mercedes 300D and the Porsche, ow with 89,000miles, as parked, irst in my back yard, overed with the proverbial blue plastic tarp, hen in 1980 when my rented warehouse space increased from 1,500 to 3,500 sq. ft. I moved the Porsche there.

The car still ran fine, t smoked a bit when pushed hard and it looked well used. With of course plenty of rock chips on the front and rockers which had seen better days. The Aluminum body strips on the sides, ront and back looked crummy due to corrosion of the aluminum, he dashboard cover had a large crack in the center and much of the body rubber was showing its age, articularly the rubber on the roll bar where the Targa Roof meets the roll bar and the windshield had a sandblasted appearance after 8 years of travel.

I then started slowly buying parts for a complete restoration. The list of new parts purchased during the next four years is as about follows, rom memory.

Left and Right front fenders, ocker panels, ront and rear shock absorbers, omplete half-shafts — for some strange reason, orsche would not sell just the CV joints, ou had to buy the complete half shafts. The aluminum and plastic insert body bumper strips for the parking/turn signal /stoplight lenses. The interior dashboard cover. The chrome bumperettes in the front, he Porsche hood ornament, he driver side outside mirror, he inside mirror, he hood rubber, ll the door rubber and the massive rubber which fastens to the Targa roof and down the sides where the door window meet the Targa roll bar, nd the rubber which attached to the windshield top. A great amount of many small fastening things for inside the car and for the body.

All these parts were purchased from Norden Volkswagen Ltd., hich at the time was operating from 97 Street and 128 Avenue. The parts manager there was Ali Roshan, fourth generation Indian from Uganda and the most incredible Porsche parts person ever to walk around in Western Canada.

The total amount spent for these parts was just less than $8,500. I once looked at the parts totals and remember that they were less than the $8,700 cost of the engine rebuild, hich was done in 1983.

The engine rebuild was done by Norden Volkswagen Ltd. by their long time Porsche mechanic, heo Hellmann, uring the winter of 1982/1983. The car was there for about 2 months, hile Theo worked on the rebuild of the engine whenever time was available to him.

The major engine components replaced were: Pistons and Cylinders, alve guides and valves, amshaft chain tensioners and the chain ‘slide blocks', ll bearing shells and the hi-tech studs which hold the magnesium alloy engine components together into a functioning engine, nd of course gaskets and seals.

The Crankshaft bearing surfaces were all in very good condition and did not require any refinishing, he same being true for the camshaft bearing surfaces.

It was amazing to see a Porsche engine in a disassembled state. The most noticeable thing of course is that there is not really an ‘engine block' as such, ust a bunch of components which, hen assembled and fastened together with the hi-tech studs make an engine. One can have nothing but respect for Ferdinand Porsche and the technical geniuses working with him when they designed the flat four cylinder opposed air cooled VW engine in the 1930's.

After the engine rebuild, drove the car sparingly, ostly because it looked a bit rough and it spent most of its time in the corner of my warehouse.

In 1984, sold the Porsche for $6,000 to Carl Wetzlaughk, wner of Modern Autobody Ltd. in Edmonton. Carl was a Porsche collector of sorts, e had already two much newer Porsches, nd added this to his collection, nbsp;and I think over his wife's objections.

Then in 1987, bought the car back from Carl for $6,000, nd we made an agreement that for another $6,000, odern Autobody Ltd. would restore the body using all the parts which were with the car.

During the following four years the car remained in the shed at the back of the Modern Autobody Ltd. Yard. They just did not seem to get around to start on the rebuild, ven though I had paid Modern the agreed $6,000 for the rebuild.

Finally, n 1992, suggested to Carl that I help with the restoration to get things moving, o which he agreed. The Porsche was put in a corner of the shop, nd there, n most Saturdays and many Sundays, stripped the body of all the parts which were removable.

Moderns' crew then installed the new rocker panels and did minor repairs to the rest of the body and finally painted the body shell. Then they painted the fenders, he doors, he hood and the engine compartment lid, he front bumper and the rear bumpers. These items were all separate from the car. All this took place in the late summer and fall of 1992.

Then, uring the winter of 1992/1993, put the whole car back together. This was a huge task and although I am a technically adept person, etting all these pieces in place and fitted properly, as some challenge. Modern Autobody had repaired many Porsches, ut hey had never stripped one as completely as this one, articularly one with a Targa body. In the end it all come together and all the pieces fell into place.

I had ordered a new set of four Michelin X tires which arrived after 5 weeks wait from France, nd Ali Roshan managed to find two original Porsche Batteries from Germany.

One Sunday in the spring of 1993, had changed the oil and filter a couple of weeks earlier, e pushed the car outside and attempted to start it. With the help of some gas sprayed into the carburetor throats, t started quite easily but would not idle.

The car was moved to Norden Volkswagen where Theo Hellmann suggested a carburetor rebuild. Theo thought that because the car has sat for so long, hat probably many of the leather and rubber plungers in the carburetors had dried out that they were now non-functional. The rebuild kit was ordered and arrived a few days later, nd one week later the rebuild was completed.

There were over 230 individual pieces that went into the rebuild. No average mechanic's workbench would do here. He set up a 4x8 sheet of plywood on saw horses, overed with white paper and marked into 24, 2 inch squares, per throat along the top and in the lower part very defined areas for the two bodies.

I remember asking him how he would get it all back together, nd he said that the instructions were very good, o it should go all right. At one point, hen he had the carburetors back together an in place, hile changing the distributor timing, e made the engine idle at about 300rpm. This was just before he adjusted them for normal use. The carburetor rebuild cost was just under $2,200.

Shortly afterwards I replaced the original radio, hich was not much of a radio from any viewpoint, ith a Sony cassette unit and I also found a new speaker to fit in the dash, lus I ran a bigger wire feed to the rear speaker. These efforts did not really do much to make listening the radio any better. The engine noise combined with the road and wind noise always seemed to be pre-dominant and I quit attempting to ‘get better sound'.

Some months following, fter getting the car on the road, he right front torsion bar broke. When Norden tried to order a new one from Porsche in Germany, hey replied that these were only sold in pairs. So, oth were replaced. The cost was quite reasonable, bout $125 each, n installation only amounted to two hours per side. The car ‘sat better', little higher at the front and it seemed to ‘handle nicer' with the front torsion bars.

At this point the only items needing ‘attention' were the exhaust headers and possibly the muffler. If I remember, he new Porsche stainless steel exhaust headers were around $3,800 and a new muffler $1,200.

I sold the car to Kevin Vertefeuille and his very attractive lady friend for $15,000 in the summer of 1995. I think it was 1995, ut am not sure.

Following are more items of interest about his neat car.

Seat Belts: Originally there were no take-up reels on the seat belts, lthough there were shoulder belts. The belts never seemed to be where you could grab them to put them on and sometimes they fell outside the car when getting in and out. So quite early on, bought two Audi seat belts on reels and started looking at installing them.

I found in the rear wheel cavities of the body, ounting plates with welded nuts for seat anchors, ll covered up with a thick layer of undercoating. After removing the undercoating from the nuts I was able to thread in a 6mm bolt, hich soon bottomed out against metal. This meant that the mounting anchor plates were not accessible from inside the car. When I removed the upholstery panel, found no holes in the body steel. Next, drilled 1/8"holes from the ousted nuts into the car and then from the inside I enlarged the holes to accommodate 6mm bolts. There are 'standoffs' around the bolts, etween the back plate of the reels and the body metal to position the reels away from the body metal so as not to crush the upholstery.

The original belt material was then wound on the reels and the original buckles attached because the buckles on the Audi belts did not match the anchor receptacles of the seatbelt between the seats. The whole was a massive improvement over the original belt installation.

Gasoline Heater: This worked quite well for the first two winters. When it worked, t worked well and gave almost instant heat. Then, hen lead was removed from gasoline, he efforts to keep it functioning became very troublesome.

The heater has a vane pump, ith the vane sliding in and out of a rotor in an elliptical cavity. When this pump runs, he vane ‘scoops' air in and in the final stage of teach rotation of the vane with the air slightly compressed, asoline is sprayed into the somewhat compressed air and then forced into the combustion chamber, here it ignites, nitially with the help of a glow plug, ut once running, rom the latent heat in the combustion chamber.

When lead was present in gasoline, ead acted as an excellent lubricant for the inside cavity of the vane pump, nd enabled the vane sliding in and out of the rotor as this turned in the elliptical cavity. Without lead in gasoline, he missing lubricant needed by the vane in the rotor and in the vane sliding along the cavity wall, aused the heater to not function reliably.

From then on, did not try to use the heater any longer. And, emembering having seen a number of partial burned Beetle VW's, hich had inexpensive variants of this type of heater, felt it best to forget about it.

Headlights: The superfine H4 headlights on the car do get some moisture inside them when yhou travel any distance during a heavy rain. This evaporates again, nd the drying out is of course helped by getting sun heat pointing at the front of the car. This moisture gets in behind the front lens and the reflector because the seal between these parts I marginal.

The lens can be separated from the reflector body, ut this is a complicated operation. I have done it a few times to clean the reflector because with some moisture settling on the reflector, ome dirt tends to stick to it. Ditto for the inside of the lens. If you ever do this, se a digital camera and record the disassembly, o that putting it back together will be easier to do.

You will need a very long Philips screwdriver, bout 16"long, o deal properly with the screw in the bottom of the headlight rim, ecause of the angle involved and the car body below the headlight.

This screw is a long sheet metal screw which treads into a ‘spring clip' which clips onto a metal tab in the bottom of the headlight well. Originally there was some sort of machine screw there, ut the nut for the machine screw just sort of corroded away.

Driving Fast: During the early years, n several occasions, was able to find the proper piece of road and conditions to ‘wind it up' and keep the pedal to the floor. It would take a bit of time, nd if cool air was present, t would get up to 125mph, t least on the speedometer.

I always considered that quite an accomplishment and a very complimentary to the Porsche company. With only 2.2 Litre displacement and an official BHP of 125 at not too high a rpm, nd with only the cooling fan and alternator taking a few HP, robably close to 100HP available to propel the car.

In the 1970's I had many dealings with Alberta Highways and one engineer wo had a Mini Cooper. He had owned this since new, nd had just then completed a total rebuild of the engine and drive train. One day, hen we were talking about ‘small cars and going fast' he asked what the top speed of my 911 was, nd I told him that it was close to 125mph. he said he thought his Mini Cooper could do better than that.

So, eal early on a Sunday morning we drove out to a not yet opened section of newly built highway 16 East of Edmonton and make two runs, ne East bound and one West bound.

We started side by side, nd with windows down, e counted down from turn and took off. I stayed ahead of him both runs, ut his Mini Cooper had a little longer breath because on both runs, he Mini ‘Cooper passed my when I was showing 125mph on the speedometer. All great fun and lots of good memories.

Sportomatic: A great number of Porsche friends, hen they hear about a 911 with Sportomatic, ake disparaging comments about ‘how can you own a Porsche without a clutch pedal'. They just do not know what they are talking about.

The combination of the torque-converter and the servo-operated clutch via the micro switches in the gear shift lever, roved a very practical and extremely reliable. Control is identical as if the car had a clutch pedal. An additional benefit is that the torque-converter provides 2 to 1 multiplier factor of torque, hen starting from 0, nd it gives an effective torque range in each gear of twice that of a car without a torque converter.

This torque-multiplier factor is probably the reason why I have never been able in any other car, ncluding a 1984 Porsche Carrera, o beat the overall travel time of a long trip, dmonton to Vancouver or Edmonton to Winnipeg, f which I made many in the 1970 911T Targa. Those made in the 911T Targa were always one hour less than any other car I have driven for these long 11 to 12 hour trips.

Michelin X tires: They were the tires originally installed on the car. They have to be the pinnacle of automobile tires ever. They provide a super smooth ride, xceptional road-holding capability and are very long lasting. I had a set of Pirelli tiers on the car for about three years and switched back to the Michelin X's because the Pirellis seemed to get stiffer and more hard riding every winter, ithout getting softer when the summer came.

They are not normally sold any longer, ut they can be ordered and Michelin will supply them on their terms, hich mean that you pay when you order and then wait for delivery, hich can be from few weeks to many months.

I will stop here. Owning the car and travelling with it around Western Canada and the USA was always a true pleasure, s were the processes and work involved with the restoration.

Of course, ne regrets parting with such a ‘fine machine', ecause that is what this car really was. At the same time, am glad that it is now part of someone else's enthusiastic and appreciative ownership.

Best Regards, o>

HR

Aug 23, 998

Another letter from owner #2 to owner #3.

Dear KF, nbsp;

While rummaging through some boxes the other day I found some more small spare pieces for the 911T Targa, hich are enclosed, lus the following comment/recommendation regarding the Sportomatic shifting maintenance.

You may want to specifically give this to whoever does your maintenance on the 911T Targa, nd then have him do this once as year. This is not maintenance prescribed by Porsche, ut common sense maintenance.

In the bottom of the shifting handle inside the car is a micro switch, hich the moment you move the lover to switch gears, loses a contact which then via a so called ‘shifting valve' (I believe that I gave you a good working spare one), utomatically operates the clutch via a vacuum servo.

On the transaxle — this is the transmission /rear end — on the drivers side is a switch which is screwed into the transaxle and this switch is connected to the wiring harness of the shifting valve and the wires form the gear shift lever inside the car.

The wiring harness connector for the switch is of the type which just pushes on to the switch and then kind of snaps in place. Now because there is generally oil fumes floating around under the car near the transaxle which some from the transaxle vent, hese oil fumes tend to get into the connector and after some time begin to act as insulators between the harness connectors and the brass pins sticking out of the switch.

What your maintenance mechanic should do, nd if I were you I would stand there and watch him do all this, ecause he will probably think that this procedure is kind of nuts, hen the car ion the hoist to pull the connector off the switch.

Then to clean the brass pins sticking out of the switch with gasoline and then to scrub them with a small steel brush and probably shine them up with some emery paper. Next the brass female connectors inside the rubber harness have to be similarly cleaned. Again wash the inside with gasoline and then with a small stick with emery paper to try to shine up the inside of the connectors. I did this with a very small steel brush mounted in a Dremel tool.

When both the switch and the connector are super clean and the brass contact shiny, nly then put the connector back on the switch.

If this is all done, ou will find what when you switch the car when at a standstill, nto first gear, he clutch will engage very smoothly.

If the subject connector is dirty with oil you will find that this first gear clutch engagement sort of goes with a thump.

Lastly, would make sure that the mechanic does not use any of the so called spray bomb ‘contact cleaner'. All that junk does is to deposit some corrosive agents onto the brass connectors so they will make contact for one week. After that the corrosion usually becomes so bad that you lose contact completely, lus most of these spray bomb ‘contact cleaners' are murder on the rubber that the brass female connectors is moulded in.

Now on to the small parts and what they are for:

The aluminium plate is a spacer for the door hinges.

The two screws are spares for the ones which hold the headlights chrome rings in place.

The flour black plugs are spares for the plugs in the rocker panels, he body part below the doors.

The single rubber dongle with flat part, s a spare drain for the front trunk. If you lift up the spare wheel, r look underneath the car where the spare is you will see two of these hanging from the bottom of the car. Their function is to drain but mostly to keep the front trunk under negative pressure, o that you do not get fumes from the front trunk inside the car. They act as a sort of venture at speed. Only Germans build things like this into a car.

The other two rubber dongles are spare drains for the ‘pot' that the headlight is mounted in, nside the front fenders.

Both the trunk drains and the headlight drains should be checked that they remain open and not become plugged with dirt.

The round flat soft rubber plug. This is used in both doors. They fill access holes which allow tools to reach inside the doors to get at the window winder mechanism etc. Look at the door when open where the latch is and you will see them. This one is one of two which were not installed when I installed the doors after they were painted. They belong at the front at the top of each door, hat part of the door which goes under the front fender when the door is closed.

If you open a door and look sort of sideways you will see the holes. There is one on each door. The problem was and is, hat you need to remove the door to put them in place, nd that I just never did do. I tried someone with very long and nimble fingers buy they managed to push one plug inside the door. And I think it was the passenger door, o that is why there is only one here.

The fact that they are not in placed doesn't not really do any damage, xcept if you were to constantly drive through massive rainstorms, ou may get more water then you liked inside the doors.

This does not really matter because there are holes in the bottom of the doors where this water will run out. If you were to have the installed, would buy a couple of new ones first. I have seen some and they seemed to be a better sort of plug than this one.

Hoping that you enjoy the cars, o>

Yours very truly

HR

Here is a log of the maintenance performed since 1997. We have documentation from 1970 as well, ut the letter above summarizes the work, nd this description is long enough!

Porsche Centre Calgary is a Porsche Dealer operating out of Calgary, lberta Canada. We are approximately 600miles East of Vancouver, nd about the same distance from Spokane, A. We have recently set up an eBay Account, ostly in response to the low Canadian Dollar, hich enables us to sell the cars for a lower $US amount. While the Porsche Centre Calgary ebay account is new, have been active on eBay for 15 years under the username of MercsandRovers. Also I have a Youtube channel under LawrenceR, nd a Google search will reveal a significant amount of automotive related content under Lawrence Romanosky. I am the General Sales Manager of Porsche Centre Calgary, nd write the descriptions of the cars.

Auction price subject to GST for Canadian Residents.

We will be listing a half dozen collectibles in the coming weeks, ostly air cooled Porsches.Thanks for looking.