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Dalmation Blue over a Tan interior. I can’t say I have ever come across this shade of blue on the Porsche 911, but man does it look good and the contast of the interior really sets everything apart to make for a really nice looking and inviting driving environment! I always have been a fan of blue on the long-hood 911, with Gemini Blue perhaps being my favorite. But that is a metallic shade and here we get a really vibrant shade of blue that is non-metallic and it really works well. This car, a 1973 Porsche 911T Coupe, comes from near the very end of long-hood production so you get about as refined and performance-oriented a vintage 911 as you can find, or at least as performance oriented as the entry-level 911T can be found. I say it’s nearly the end because during the 1973MY Porsche switched the 911T produced for the US market from mechanical fuel injection to the Bosch continuous fuel injection that would remain the standard up to the release of the 3.2 Carrera. This 911T appears to be a MFI equipped car from that earlier half of 1973 prior to the change.
Porsche’s various “signal” colors have always been some of my favorites. But there are two that stand apart most notably: Signal Yellow and Signal Orange. While Signal Green and, the very short-lived, Signal Red also possess their own dynamic qualities it is the Yellow and Orange variants that I find most captivating. In part this is due to the subtle variations in the shade that we see with those two colors, whereas Signal Red and Green are, well, really Red and Green. Thus, you can imagine my excitement to come across this Signal Yellow 1973 Porsche 911T Coupe, located in California, with what is believed to be a mere 37,500 documented miles on it. This 911 comes from near the very end of the F-series long-hood model’s existence, making this a 1973.5 model since Porsche transitioned to the Bosch Continuous Injection System in the middle of the model year.
I will finish off my look back at the early Carreras by turning my attention to the original; the first 911 to don the Carrera name: the 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS. Porsche first introduced the Carrera as part of the 356 lineup with a 4-cam engine dubbed the 356 Carrera GT. These served Porsche well and lead to quite a bit of racing success for the 356 in a wide variety of venues ranging from long-dstance road races to rallying. When Porsche sought to produce a homologation model for its 911 racing program they reached back to resurrect the Carrera name. While almost all 911s since 1984 have been dubbed Carrera, in these early years it was only for the truly special editions that the name was used. The first one also happens to be the most significant. The Carrera RS we see here no longer sits in its original form, but remains true to the model. Around twenty years into its life this Carrera RS Touring was sent to Ruf Automobiles for a full restoration and at that time was converted to a RS Lightweight. Since that time it has covered fewer than 5K miles and looks excellent in its contrasting Light Yellow over Green paint.
With an entry-level car comes entry-level performance and appearance, two things that many people might seek to change. On a performance coupe like the 911 such desires become even more understandable and it’s easy to find a wide variety of builds with just such an objective in mind. Many of the high-end builds have used the 964 chassis and running gear as the foundation for designing a car with vintage 911 looks, but modern 911 performance. Yet, we also see builds work in the other direction, taking one of the early 911s as its foundation and then fitting the engine, transmission, and suspension from a later model in order to complete the package. Such builds are somewhat more rare given the very high value attached to an original long-hood 911, but when no longer in original condition perhaps it begins to make more sense. Here is one such build: a Silver Metallic 1973 Porsche 911T, located in Georgia, with a rare 3.1 liter flat-six from an early 911SC mated to a 915 5-speed transmission. The body has been fitted with RS flares to give it a more aggressive look and the interior has received minor revisions in the guise of the early 911 outlaw builds.
I think most of us are pretty familiar with the 911S at this point and understand the demand there is for these excellent machines. Whenever a marque with a pedigree built on performance and a strong racing history puts out a sport version of their top level sports car, then you know that the bar for greatness will be set quite high. As the years have passed since the introduction of the 911S their popularity has continued to rise and the values of the early long-hood models have soared. The bad news of that is that they are now priced beyond what most anyone other than a serious collector can reasonably afford, but such is the case with nearly all vintage automobiles with any pedigree and a serious character. We still enjoy coming across them and at least having the time to take in and linger over restored examples and other well cared for models that can inspire our dreams. Here we have one in a combination I rarely can recall coming across: a Grand Prix White 1973 Porsche 911S Targa, located in Virginia, with a contrasting Houndstooth and Tan leather interior and a reported 80,382 miles on it.
