It's a left hand drive 911T, 2.2l built in April 1970, chassis number 9110101442, with matching original engine, number 6108923 and delivered new to Porsche Cars, Reno, Nevada in June 1970. The original build colour was Burgundy (Code 2424). It spent most of it's life in California, although I don't have any supporting documentation or history past 1990. At some stage in it's history it was repainted in a metallic bronze non-Porsche colour. This must have been done quite early on as the paint was crazed and cracked on the engine cover and had a lot of micro-bubbling ...where. i assume, it had spent a lot of time in the californian climate, Also most of the rubbers and seals were 'baked' dry.
It was imported into the UK in 1997 by a local dealer who specialises in E-Type Jaguars, but who, if he has space will include some good examples of early 911s.I bought it from him and immediately registered it in the UK in July 1998. I had it checked thoroughly and was told that it was structurally sound, the engine had been well maintained (hydraulic tensioners had been fitted) and it showed 96,000 on the odometer, which looks genuine based on the documentation and past service bills I have.
I used it as it for the summer and autumn of 1998 ... but as it got wetter here, it was clear that the baked seals were leaking water into the interior, so I put it away for the winter and early in 1999 had some restoration work done including a respray and a re-trim of the interior. The respray was done in a 1969 US only Porsche colour called Slate Grey (Code 6801), although perhaps not exactly to spec, I was told that a 1970 car could have been ordered with the colour as a factory build, so I don't feel too bad about that, but it is such an unusual colour ...compared with the number of silver, red, blacks etc around I wanted something a little different.
There are a few non-original parts ..... as part of the restoration, it was clear that the original 901 gearbox had a very limited life, it was shedding teeth on every oil change .... so I sourced a refurbished 915 tranny and had that fitted with it's uprated clutch. It's a much more precise gearbox and the usual h-gate configuration means my wife is more confident of driving it ! There's a Porsche sports steering wheel on it and I've had inertia reel seatbelts fitted. The next tasks on the list are to recover or replace the interior door panels and repair or replace the cracked dashboard, it has a cover on it currently.
Would anyone have any ideas how I could track down additional history for the car ? I have the name, address of the last US owner. I did send a letter to the final address, but had no reply.
Thanks