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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.
I mentioned last week in my feature of a beautiful Baltic Blue Porsche 911 Speedster that one of the joys of writing about cars is coming across a car that I’m familiar with, but in a build that I have not seen. The other version of that joy comes through something akin to the car we see here, a Yellow over Black 1977 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 Targa, where I am somewhat unfamiliar with the car itself. The Carrera 3.0 built from 1976-1977 (which was not available for the US market) is a car I have passing familiarity with as we come across them now and then. They are pretty rare and with values not quite as white-hot as their predecessor, the Carrera 2.7 MFI, I have a sense that collectors may be holding them for now until more notice is taken of them. The Carrera 2.7 MFI has garnered tremendous appeal of late due to its use of the 2.7 liter flat-six found in the ’73 Carrera RS. The Carrera 3.0 also utilizes the engine from a hallowed Porsche name, this time a naturally-aspirated version of the 3.0 liter from the Porsche 930, but even with 930 values accelerating rapidly upward they remain far from Carrera RS territory. As such the upward rise in Carrera 3.0 values has been slower than with the Carrera 2.7 MFI. However, it is very rare to come across a Targa from either the Carrera 2.7 MFI or 3.0 and the ad here suggests there are a few special details to further enhance this Carrera’s rarity.
Porsche has produced quite a few special 911 variants that never made it to US shores (at least without being imported later) and perhaps no group of them should be as missed as the 911 Carrera produced from 1974-1977. The Carrera finally would return to the US in 1984 when Porsche revived the name after a five-year hiatus and gave the world the 3.2 Carrera, but the Carreras produced in the mid-70s were a distinct animal from the emissions-restricted cars the North American market received and it’s always a treat to see one come up for sale. These Carreras began as a 2.7 liter model that was mechanically quite similar to the ’73 Carrera RS Touring. Then in 1976 Porsche released the Carrera 3.0, utilizing the 3.0 liter flat-six engine from the 930, but without the turbocharger. Performance remained on par with its earlier Carrera counterparts and while it shared the same displacement as the 911SC that would be its successor the Carrera combines more power and lighter weight to be a much better performer. As they were never for sale in the US, we do not come across these very often, but here we have one: a Blue Minerva 1977 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0. located in New Jersey. The seller has not stated the mileage on the car, but the overall condition looks quite good inside and out.
In the car world ‘Carrera’ has become synonymous with the 911 and the excellent sporting prowess of these cars. While for modern 911s it also has become a somewhat standard moniker attached to them, in the early days it represented something special; it represented a 911 for which racers would clamor. Perhaps the last of those ‘special’ Carreras was the Carrera 3.0, which enjoyed a brief two year run from 1976-1977. Using a naturally aspirated version of the 3.0 flat-six found in the 930, the Carrera 3.0 followed in the footsteps of the Carreras that preceded it, though with time these had shifted gradually towards the luxury end of the scale. As with previous 911s of this vintage the Carrera 3.0 never was offered in the US market due to our emissions requirements so an imported Euro model was the only way these special 911s could be enjoyed on our shores. The particular example we have here is a 1977 Signal Orange Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0, located in Miami, with a stated 28,500 miles on it.
