1969 Porsche 912

We enjoy the 912 here at GCFSB. These cars capture the contours and beauty of the original 901 design and marry it to a fairly basic drivetrain. During their production the 912 was Porsche’s entry-level car. It appeared nearly identical to the higher-priced 911 but utilized a 1.6 flat-4 rather than the 911’s flat-6 and initially saw excellent sales. Today, prices on these cars remain relatively low, though we’ve noticed that they’ve slowly crept up, in part from the rapid appreciation of the long-hood 911. Still, for a ’60s Porsche the entry cost is typically reasonable. The example featured here is a 1-owner Ossi Blue 1969 Porsche 912 located in California. It predominantly retains its originality and comes along with just more than 82K miles.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1969 Porsche 912 on eBay

Year: 1969
Model: 912
Engine: 1.6 liter flat-4
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Mileage: 82,225 mi
Price: Reserve Auction

This is a structurally excellent matching numbers 912 Coupe that was sold new in March of 1969 to its first and only owner, who fastidiously kept the car for 44 years. The car is an original Ossi Blue example, which had the engine rebuilt in 1982, as well as a repaint at the same time. The car has been recently serviced and freshened.

This car is in Monterey, CA

The car is in nice shape cosmetically. The paintwork has a few areas of minor cracks but is presentable and attractive overall, and appears to have been redone much more recently than 1982. The chrome and trim are very good and the car is equipped with Cibie headlamps. The panels are generally straight with very good gaps. The doors have some waviness. From a structural standpoint, the car has an exceptional undercarriage, with excellent original floors, battery boxes, and front suspension pan. The body has minimal rust, with a small spot on the underside of the engine lid, an area by the front bumper support (inside the trunk by the washer fluid tank), on the underside of the right door, and in the cowl adjacent to the fresh air intake on the left side only.

The interior is predominantly original and excellent considering this. The bottom of the driver’s seat was carefully retrimmed and is consistent in appearance with the passenger’s seat. The dashboard has been fitted with a cover. The door panels are original and very nice, as is the headliner. The car has exceptionally nice door pockets. The carpets are original and show some staining on the driver’s mat but are otherwise quite nice. The switches and controls are original and very nice as well, and the entire interior has a wonderfully correct and intact feel beyond the addition of a cassette player.

The engine and trunk are similarly original and unmolested in appearance. For example, even the factory band clamp on the fuel line to the carburetors is still in place, a rarely seen feature that speaks to the truly unmolested character of the car. The car retains its factory Knecht air cleaners and split shaft Solex carburetors. The spare is the correctly date coded November of 1968.

It’s rare that we come across a 40-year-old one-owner car and this car shows the care and appreciation that tends to come from such an environment. It’s far from perfect as it isn’t a restoration, but there is ample detail in the description and the pictures for any buyer to gather an excellent sense of the car’s life. Unsurprisingly, the auction has attracted a lot of interest with current bidding at $18,300 and reserve still on. I would suspect the reserve here to lie somewhere in the mid- to upper-$20,000s. Not bad for such an iconic design.

-Rob