Here’s something a little different for Tuner Tuesday! Last July and September respectively I wrote up two terribly expensive and terribly tuned 911 convertibles. The first was a Strosek 911 Turbo S Speedster back in July, and the second was a 1977 911 Targa that was converted into a 993-bodied turbo cabriolet that was simply marvelous if you believed the interior. In a not particularly surprising development, both are back up for sale having had no takers the first time around. The question I pose to our readers is which is a better (or worse?) deal? I’ve put my original posts below starting with the 1977 and I wasn’t particularly complimentary to either, but let me know in the comments which is really “what not to wear”?
Tag: targa
I’ve shown quite a few Targas recently from all around the 911 range. One that I haven’t shown in a long while is the 930 Targa. The 930 Targa is pretty rare and outnumbered by the 930 Coupe to a fair degree. It’s also a somewhat strange looking example, but that’s a fault I find with any Targa equipped with a whale tail, whether it be a 930 or a standard 911. But for open-topped motoring along with a heavy does of rear-drive power the 930 Targa makes for a captivating experience and the one we see here combines interesting options with very low mileage to yield one of the better examples I can recall. Here we have a Guards Red 1987 Porsche 930 Targa, located in Indiana, with a rare Black leather/Anthracite Flannel interior and just 8,829 miles on the odometer. Prior to being sold this car served as a Porsche company car where it logged an additional 6,100 miles. All told, the mileage is still very low.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1987 Porsche 930 Targa on eBay
1 CommentI don’t feature Porsche’s 993 Targa all that frequently. In part, there simply aren’t a lot of them in total given that we are talking about a single model. But it’s more than that. I’ve always enjoyed the original Targa design and while there are merits to the redesign we saw on the 993 overall I’m less of a fan of them. The most obvious point in the 993 Targa’s favor is that the basic profile of the 911 is less altered relative to what we find with earlier Targas. Viewed from the side, many may not even realize there is any distinguishing characteristic. For some, that point alone is enough to bring them into the 993’s camp. For me, there was always an allure to that brushed roll-hoop and the contrast it created with the rest of the car. Let’s not let these things detract from this particular 911 though because it looks to be an exceptional example in a pretty and rare color. Here we have a Pastel Yellow 1997 Porsche 911 Targa with Black interior and around 33,000 miles on it.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1997 Porsche 911 Targa on Classic Driver
3 CommentsAnother interesting Porsche 911 Targa. That’s certainly ok by me, but there’s been a continual nagging thought running through my head: why so many Targas? Or at least, why so many interesting Targas relative to Coupes? I don’t have a good answer for that. Targas typically show the lowest values, which could help explain why we see them on eBay more frequently than Coupes, but I do wonder if there is something more to it than that. Could owners have ordered Targas in a wider variety of colors and that’s why they are attracting my attention? That would seem strange, but maybe. Or perhaps Coupes were driven much more often thus making the lower mileage examples that tend to attract our notice more rare. I’m really not sure, but I do find it curious. There are certainly excellent air-cooled Carrera Coupes out there, especially for the 993 where this phenomenon does not seem to exist – though we should remember that the Targa was fundamentally changed for the 993 so we are dealing with something else entirely there. For whatever reason, I seem to come across a good Targa much more frequently. The one we see here is just such an example: a Venetian Blue 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, located in California, with Linen leather interior and 64,650 miles on it.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa on eBay
2 CommentsBack to reality. After a slew of very high-dollar Porsches we’ll come back down to earth to return again to a perennial favorite the 911SC, and what has been a consistent feature of late in the reasonable value camp with a 911SC Targa. The great thing about Porsche is that even though we have stepped away from their supercars and vintage racers, it doesn’t mean that we’ve completely dissociated ourselves from the roots of those machines. While we certainly won’t see much shared DNA between a 911SC and the 918 Spyder there is still shared heritage and we certainly would find links between the early 356 and 911s within even a basic 911SC like the one we see here. And compared with many of the previous examples this one even comes in a really nice color. Here we have a Petrol Blue Metallic 1980 Porsche 911SC Targa, located in Maryland, with 81,345 miles on it.