I have a strange fascination with the Sportomatic and find myself drawn to them as I keep coming across them in interesting colors and options. Not that I don’t see the same with the much more standard manual-transmission equipped 911s of the day, but the Sportomatic almost strikes me as a rare option that I should give attention to and I find myself featuring them. I suppose what confounds me is that I’d likely never consider purchasing one unless I was in a position of having a thorough collection and wanted one for its engineering and place in Porsche’s history. The transmission itself seems like the answer to a question no one was asking at the time, yet was quite prescient in its desirability. It was just way before its time. They are rare. They are also interesting. But are they desirable? Well, they’re definitely less expensive than comparable manual 911s and that probably shouldn’t surprise us. The one we see here, a Gold Metallic 1973 Porsche 911E Targa located in Atlanta, makes for an interesting case as it presents with quite a few cosmetic flaws, but comes in a unique period-correct color and has that aforementioned marvel the Sportomatic.
