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I’ve shown a coupe examples of the Carrera 3.0 over the past months and given the fairly high price tags typically attached to these models, you can imagine my surprise when I came across this 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Targa on auction with no reserve. Suffice it to say a $100K price tag would not be surprising, though we must keep in mind that the Targa of these models always falls into a much different category. Even though the Targa is quite a bit more rare than the Coupe – Targa production in each of the model’s two years was around half that of the Coupe – it remains the less desirable of the two so prices should be lower. Where this one ends up, we’ll just have to see.
While automatic manual transmissions have become extremely popular on modern cars, and especially in racing, their appeal was far more limited in early applications. Porsche, as they are wont to do, was an early pioneer in the development of such systems, debuting their Sportomatic transmission in 1968. Dubbed by Car and Driver as a “nifty answer to a question seemingly no one was asking,” the Sportomatic did away with the clutch pedal in favor of a torque converter, though it still required the driver to do the shifting. As an early prelude to today’s PDK, the Sportomatic seems more like an interesting engineering exercise more than anything else, but nonetheless 911s do still exist showcasing this quirky transmission. We don’t feature very many of these – in part because there aren’t many that come up for sale given their relative lack of popularity – but from time to time and interesting example comes up. While the Sportomatic was available up until 1980 we almost never come across one attached to the impact bumper 911s, which makes this one all the more interesting. Here we have a 1976 Porsche 911 Coupe with only 11,787 miles on it and that 4-speed Sportomatic transmission. The seller doesn’t tell us this 911’s original color, but during restoration it was repainted in Geyser Grey Metallic.
The Carrera 3.0 remains, to me, a somewhat mysterious car. Never offered in the US, these 911s followed in the footsteps of the fabled Carrera RS as a lightened and more powerful variant of an already excellent machine. The US market retained only the standard 911S, which used a 2.7 liter flat-six that remained hampered by restrictive emissions equipment. Now these highly regarded 911 models can be found on our shores, though their relationship – even if somewhat fleeting – to the Carrera RS has made them quite desirable. We’ve featured a few in the past and it has been tough to get a sense of where the market exactly lies as asking prices and auction bids rarely seem to match up. But here we have another, a restored Oak Green Metallic 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 located in Belgium, that has seen plenty of miles during its life and currently shows around 112K miles.
Modified Porsches, especially those which take aim at the look of an iconic model like the Carrera RS, are all about that first impression. While the details ultimately are what is important, we come across enough of these builds that it becomes easy to pass by many of them before those details even become apparent. Since you’re seeing it here, it should be clear that this one attracted enough attention to warrant a closer look. The details here are somewhat straightforward: this was originally a 1976 911S now fitted with the engine from a 3.2 Carrera mated to the 915 5-speed transmission. In typical fashion the exterior is completed with flares, a ducktail spoiler, and a set of Fuchs-style wheels all draped in Talbot Yellow with Black accents. The interior takes its cues from the Carrera RS with most amenities deleted and a set of Recaro seats that while not period-correct still look mighty good inside this 911. Mechanically it’d have been great if this were taken up a few notches, though that does tend to raise the asking price significantly. Perhaps this one may best serve as a canvas for additional performance upgrades should a new owner desire them. Strictly on appearance this one looks quite good.
I’ve been trying to find a greater number of 911s that fall within the reasonable value spectrum – cars that perhaps more of us could aspire to own. This is not one of those cars, but I couldn’t pass it up. Here we have a restored Mint Green 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Coupe located in California. We should not let the ad’s mileage statement fool us: this has not been a garage queen. While it has not traveled much over the past twenty years – only 10K miles since the completion of its restoration – the first two decades of its life were lived quite fully as it traveled nearly 150K miles. Now it has been brought back to its former glory and looks in very good condition with little evidence of all those miles traveled. The Carrera 3.0 is a special model that we don’t see many of. Never available in the US they were an evolution of the Carrera 2.7 MFI, which itself was an evolution of the iconic 1973 911 Carrera RS, and they used a naturally aspirated version of the 3.0 liter flat-six found in the 930. These were a far cry from the 911s we had here in the US during those years, showcasing both more power and less weight. And, of course, their lineage makes them quite desirable.
