2/27/16
I made the decision to purchase a project car, a 1977 911S Targa. The 1977 911 is considered a narrow body Porsche. It is also considered the 911 with poor performance and reliability. In the mid 70’s Porsche was not investing in the 911, in fact they wanted to discontinue it. The future of the company was supposed to be with the 928 and the 924 models, both more traditional front engine cars than the rear engine 911. It was also the time of increased government regulations that attempted to inhibit emissions. The 1977 911 suffers from both of these trends. The US smog control system used a thermal reactor, read secondary burner, to reduce emissions. The thermal reactor was not well insulated and the excess heat generated by the unit caused serious reliability issues with the engines. In addition, the stock 5 blade fan was notoriously weak as a cooling fan. The issue manifested itself with head studs pulling out of the crank case, causing the engine to fail.
Despite these short comings, I really like this car. The body, despite the big bumpers, has nice lines and is much smaller than today’s 911. The car is at the bottom of the Porsche 911 price curve, with pre-1974 models and post 1977 models commanding much higher prices. As this is my first attempt at anything related to restoring a car, minimizing my entry cost was a necessity. The car is technologically challenged. By that I mean it is pretty much an analog device, not too far removed from the hot rod garage mechanic era. The benefit of this is that I, hopefully, will be able to do lots of the work myself with a minimal set of tools. Lastly, the car runs. It does not require a total rebuild, but it needs lots of help.