LIFTING THE LID
The first chassis-numbered 911 Targa.
Sales of the 356 Cabriolet in North America had been vitally important to Porsche’s bottom line, helping to increase the brand’s visibility in a hugely lucrative overseas territory. Indeed, thanks largely to the efforts of Max Hoffman (the famous the USA post-war and the man importer instrumental of European in the sports development cars to of the 356 Speedster, Mercedes-benz W198 300 SL and the V8-equipped BMW 507), the land of Uncle Sam quickly became Porsche’s biggest sales market. Despite Ferdinand ‘Butzi’ Porsche’s preference to stick with a coupe body for his then new 911 design, it was clear the Stuttgart brand needed something suitable to replace the open-topped to deal with: the 356, period’s but there motoring was an scribes unexpected were challenge circulating rumours regarding the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s apparent desire to outlaw sales of traditional drop-tops due to the high probability of occupant death when an ill-fated convertible flipped. Consequently, needing a model suitable for both European and North American dealer showrooms, Porsche deemed a regular cabriolet out of the question, a decision which gave rise to a different route to realising a fresh-air 911. The Targa concept was born. The star of Porsche’s exhibition stand at the 1965 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Targa — named after the Targa Florio, the world’s oldest sports car racing event
and a Sicilian celebration of speed won by Porsche eleven times when the competition became a round of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 and 1973 — was a 911 equipped with a lift-out roof panel, a fixed rollover safety bar and a collapsible plastic rear window. While it wasn’t a full open-top, this was the most exposed the 911 would be until the introduction of a full cabriolet variant of the model some seventeen years later.
UNITED FRONT
911 Targa production started in 1966 in readiness for the 1967 model year. A total of 718 Targas were produced in the first twelve months of assembly. Build numbers were then increased from seven cars each day (compared to fifty-five 911 coupes) to ten. A sales boom was underway, though issues concerning supply and demand meant British buyers had to wait until February 1973 for the right-hand drive 911 Targa to arrive on UK soil. Porsche pitched its 911 Targa design as “the world’s first safety cabriolet”. The aforementioned roll bar afforded protection the in host recognition vehicle of structural what the rigidity manufacturer and extra thought US legislators were poised to bring into law, yet the Zuffenhausen design team managed to make the Targa’s defining feature — a practical solution to a concern about driver and passenger security — a thing of beauty by affording it a brushed metal finish. A design element that would go on to become an important part of the 911’s heritage, this stainless ‘hoop’ ensured the first open-to-the-elements 911 was instantly identifiable, even to the most casual of car fans. The 911 on the pages before you is the very first chassis-numbered Targa built, 500 001, and is currently in the custody of Bedfordshire-based Porsche sales and restoration specialist, Export 56. “One of the things I love about my job,” grins the company’s founder, Mick Pacey, “is being asked by clients to put together collections of historically significant air-cooled Porsches to own and enjoy.” Requests tend to come from three different types of enthusiast. The first is someone who isn’t au
fait air-cooled with Porsches, classics but with recognises provenance, the leaving value in Mick owning to determine which cars they should buy. The second is a collector with significant interest in the Porsche marque and wants to get hold of a specific vehicle. The third is a rather more discerning buyer, as Mick explains. “It’s the client who wants to explore Porsche history by obtaining special cars important to the development of the manufacturer’s product line — the kind of Export 56 customer who is less interested in a car’s specification and more concerned with the importance of that car in terms of its date of manufacture and how it shaped what came thereafter.”
As if to prove the point, Targa number one occupies space in a sensational private collection boasting the first right-hand drive 356 Carrera, an early 914/6 GT test car supplied with the first 914/6 engine, the first (and one of the world’s most original) 911 2.5 ST M491 factory motorsport machine and a 901 (the original designator for the 911 before Peugeot’s lawyers got involved and asked Porsche to observe the French brand’s ownership of three-digit model names with a zero in the middle) previously owned by Alois Ruf Jr and believed to be the latest surviving example of its kind.
“Out of the blue, I got wind of the Targa’s availability,” Mick explains. “Considering my client’s enthusiasm for owning Porsches representing milestones in the manufacturer’s production timeline, this amazing 911 struck me as the perfect addition to this portfolio.” Ordinarily, after registering interest in a unique or rare Porsche, Mick would be involved in a drawn-out process to identify the object of his desire as the real deal. Fortunately, much of the legwork had been taken care of by Jochen Bader, Workshop Manager at Porsche Classic, who had already carried out a detailed inspection of the car, including analysis of metalwork to confirm none of it had been tampered with. He’d also delved through official Porsche records to confirm chassis number 500 001 confirmed really was Targa the chassis first 911 500 Targa 002 built. was driven Additionally, during he testing in September 1965 by star works driver (and later Porsche’s chief of research and development), Helmuth Bott, meaning 500 001 was built prior to this date. So far, so straightforward, though the exact date of construction is currently unknown due to Porsche previously only documenting the date of its customer deliveries, not each car’s date of manufacture.
TRAVEL BAN
Difficulties in Export 56 getting hold of the pretty Porsche came from two different directions. First, the seller had made clear to his consignor, vintage sports car sales specialist, Bastian Voigt, his desire for the semi-open-top 911 to remain in Germany. “It took four months of negotiating for the guy to agree sale to a UK buyer,” Mick recalls. The next challenge came in the form of a brush with online fraudsters. “Cybercrime targeting specialist dealers has rocketed in recent years,” he continues. “As an industry, we don’t make highvolume transactions, but each payment tends to be of
significant value. Scammers can shadow email inboxes, monitor conversations between dealers and intercept key messages, including those outlining a payee’s bank details.” This is exactly what had happened when Mick was a click away from sending funds to conclude the sale. “Something didn’t feel right. I called Bastian and asked him to confirm his bank account information. At that point, we realised I’d very nearly been conned out of a large sum of cash.” Proof, if proof be needed, that when dealing in the acquisition and sale of classic cars, especially when COVID prevents you from heading out to see vehicles and sellers in person, it’s never been more crucial to keep your wits about you.
Down to the detail. As confirmed by Jochen, the car was built in mid-1965 and was kept by Porsche as an experimental test mule until the summer of 1967. The installed engine, Type 901/01 with serial number 900 059, though not original to the car, is one of the first hundred flat-six test units produced (“engines in this range were development units not made available to the public,” confirms Mick) and, though it’s widely recognised early Targa’s featured a foldable plastic rear window (as opposed to the fixed glass dome available from 1968 and becoming standard Targa equipment thereafter), Targa number one’s soft rear screen is entirely removable and is attached to a unique base with a wooden bow.
Interestingly, the first recorded owner is listed as Volkswagen, Wolfsburg. “Now the car is at Export 56, we’re working with Chris Pruden at Porsche Club GB, as well as former works engineer, racing driver and current factory historian, Jürgen Barth, to piece together the significance,” car’s history Mick in an reveals. effort “For to fully example, understand the supply its of this 911 to Volkswagen may have been agreed as part of Porsche’s technical partnership with the brand, when the Targa-topped 914 was being produced.” Adding weight to his theory, unlike the traditional 911 Targa roof, the white car’s lid is a solid one-piece part, just like that of the 914. “We’re simply trying to get a clearer picture of what this car was used for during the two-year period it remained with Porsche and why it was passed to VW.”
Unsurprisingly, many early coupe components and unique features that didn’t make 911 Targa series production can be found on the Porsche we’re lucky enough to spend time with on a sunny day at Export 56’s headquarters close to Cranfield University. Non-adjustable strut domes, exposed wooden dash inserts, a simple knee pad, the different front partition wall, the position of the windscreen washer bottle mounted on the inner right-hand wing, hub cap centre emblems fixed where the Targa script would later find itself positioned on the rollover hoop (in Italian, Targa translates as ‘shield’, which Porsche marketing man, Harald Wagner, deemed perfect to emphasise the protective nature of the roll bar, whilst paying tribute to the Targa Florio), the solid roof panel and the fully unzippable soft rear window are the more obvious features, though chassis components correct at the point of manufacture — but superseded by the time of 911 Targa production — also mark this Targa out from those that followed. That said, the keen eyed among you might be rightly recognising incorrect features for
HUB CAP EMBLEMS FIXED WHERE THE TARGA SCRIPT WOULD LATER BE POSITIONED ON THE ROLLOVER HOOP
a Porsche of this age. For example, the houndstooth-trimmed seats would have originally been finished in black leatherette, while the wheels and dash trim are from a later 911.
These discrepancies were introduced when the car was treated to a heavily documented two-year restoration back in the early 2000s following the two decades it spent in storage. Of course, even the rarest of air-cooled Porsche’s weren’t commanding the same premium you’d expect to pay today, parts availability wasn’t great and the standard of restoration work being carried out twenty-odd years ago wasn’t up to the same exacting specification it is in the present. “We’ll be investigative which spending we’ll begin the work next the to fully process four confirm or five of dismantling months the car’s engaged history, and a in fresh after restoration,” Mick tells us. “Despite the engine being a factory test unit, it’s not original to the build, which gives us flexibility regarding what we return to the rear end, though whatever we decide upon will be true to the age of the car. Regardless of the flat-six we end up fitting, we’re reassured by the fact this 911 hasn’t led a particularly hard life, meaning other than corrosion in the usual places we haven’t got any major metalwork repairs to contend with.”
affords The well-preserved the Export 56 team state more of this time air-cooled to spend classic carefully investigating and rectifying errors in the car’s current specification, before hand-stripping the shell, auditing parts and pulling together a detailed project plan. “We’re keen to find dates on the heads and to identify the exact age of the unstamped development gearbox,” Mick says, grinning at the prospect of uncovering further important details adding to the impressive mountain of unique history this one-of-a-kind 911 has already revealed. Oh, and that predicted ban on cabriolets in the USA? It never happened, but that didn’t stop Porsche progressing with what would go on to become a hugely influential and much copied semi-open-top roof design. And in taking care of the very first 911 Targa’s preservation, Export 56 has ensured this important car’s future looks just as compelling as its illustrious past. CP