911E driven
The 911E introduced mechanical fuel injection to production 911s. What are these early MFI cars like to drive today?
Porsche replaced its Lux model in 1968 with its first ‘injection’ 911. We drive it to see how it stacks up today
Tangerine. One of the very best colours for an early Porsche 911 in my view. Add in the generous chrome finishings of these early cars with that lovely gold badge lettering and it all comes together very nicely – especially in the light mid-week traffic of the North Yorkshire Moors. It’s time for a drive.
I always feel a slight quickening of the pulse when I drop into the seat of any early 911. In today’s bloated cars, surrounded by safety and electronic aids to make progress across the ground ever faster and more efficient, it’s always refreshing to go back to the very essence of the Porsche 911 and be reminded of the true spirit of the original cars.
This one is particularly authentic. An essentially unrestored Porsche 911 2.0 E from 1969; one of the final models of the original 2.0-litre-engined cars before the company began the Darwin-like progress of capacity increases and the 911’s continual development into the cars we see today.
That black interior with houndstooth pattern on the seats added to the simple embossed black trim of the dashboard all show design cues that you will find in a modern Porsche showroom. If you’ve never opened the door of an early 911 and only have experience of the modern generations of 911, you should take the time to enjoy the moment. It will be educational, as you see design elements that will have you instantly making the connection between the cars you see regularly today, and these ancestors.
Sliding down onto the patterned seat, I have the usual fiddle with the position before my unfeasibly long legs accept the fact that I have to make a compromise between leg room and distance from the steering wheel. As ever I fold my legs up and prefer to enjoy the perfect distance from the wheel. Reaching over my shoulder for the seat belt reveals an original non-intertia reel strap with a remarkably heavy buckle.
This is an original Irvin seat belt. The development history of this manufacturer is apparent as, almost like an early aviator’s flying harness, this heavy ‘D Ring’ takes a few moments to figure out. I’ve seen them before, though never had to use one, but I figure that if Irvin kept so many aviators safe, I should be just fine for a drive in Yorkshire today.
Once in place and adjusted it’s actually a very secure belt, with none of the momentary slack you experience from inertia reels. It does mean that my equally unfeasibly long arms finally come in useful for reaching out across the scattered switchgear without straining…
This 911 is an ‘E’. The E designation, quite simply, stands for Einspritz, German for Injection. This is the first mass-produced Porsche 911 that moved away from Solex or Weber as the fuelling method and moved towards the actual injection of fuel into a road-going 911. Having driven several carburettor 911s recently, it’s going to be interesting to feel the difference that Mechanical Fuel Injection makes to the 2.0-litre engine.
Twisting the key, the engine snaps into life with the same instant response. A slight tweak of the fast idle lever between the seats has us sitting there with the engine gently warming through with no additional assistance needed from my right foot. Rolling gently through the Yorkshire town of Malton, the narrow-section tyres and soft suspension give a ride that is remarkably compliant. The 911E ran with Boge hydropneumatic gas/oil struts, and even after a British winter’s full-on attack on our roads leaving them in dire need for attention, they give a very supple ride. As the engine oil warms through, I gently slide down the idle lever.
We’re moving out onto the open moorland now, and as the gauges show adequate temperatures we start to indulge in more rapid progress. There’s a short period of driver calibration as the familiar road opens ahead and I slice through one of my favourite sections of open bends. Playing with the white dashed centre lines moving from right to left across the upright windscreen, the open view through the bends soon finds me settling into that happy Porsche 911 rhythm, a rhythm that still comes so easy in these early cars. The mid-week traffic all seems to appear at a remarkably opportune moment to be dispensed with easily, and Chris in the camera car falls slightly behind in the tiny, single circular door mirror. This 2.0 MFI engine certainly has plenty of mid-range, and the gearshift is a particularly welladjusted one.
Turning off the main road to our photo location, I rumble across the cattle grid and then crunch to a halt on the gravel ground as I reflect on my initial impressions of a 2.0 MFI 911. Without doubt it is
“If I were a 911E owner, I certainly wouldn’t feel short changed at not owning an S”
a different drive to a carb car. The linearity of the mechanical injection system removes any flat spots that Solex cars have, and there’s something I simply love about the combination of the MFI system I’ve experienced in the larger 2.7 cars feeding the free revving oversquare pistons of the small-capacity car.
For anyone unaccustomed to the early 911 range, there would initially appear to be a rather haphazard period of rapid model changes and letters given to cars that may all seem outwardly quite similar. The letter designations A and B for body styles, then T, L, S and, of course, the E for the models, all conspire to sap the confidence of anyone hoping to understand this period of Porsche history.
In fact, it was quite simply a period of rapid advancement for Porsche. The 911’s introduction was a huge step forward for the company – a potentially risky investment that quite simply had to work.
And as a small, agile concern, Porsche engineers responded rapidly to feedback. Combine this flexibility with the desires of a marketing department needing to add options and price points to appeal to different drivers, and the range we look back on today is the result.
The biggest shift, of course, is that famous 57mm increase in wheelbase that moved us from A-series to B-series cars. That is simple to understand. Then it gets a little more opaque with the models within those body styles. It needs reference books for it to become a little more obvious. The T model was the ‘entry-level’ car with 110 bhp, cheaper trim and that rather felt-like ‘Perlon’ carpeting. The 911T, for Touring, was a useful introduction to 911 ownership and one that was carried over from A to B series.
The engine was significantly lower in power and manufactured from steel rather than magnesium.
The 911S was, of course, the performance model. In A-series specification it ran with carburettors, giving a zippy 160 bhp before joining the 911E in the B series with mechanical injection to give another 10 bhp, bringing it up to 170.
So where does that leave the E and the L model cars? The L ran for just a single model year. The designation stood for Lux, or Luxury, and sat between the Touring and the performance S in terms of power. I admit to never having driven one and indeed, several Porsche experts whose opinions I value have very limited experience too. The L seems to have slipped between the cracks in the Porsche pavement.
Indeed, the E model introduced in 1969 may seem to be similarly adrift in the model range. It takes a drive like today to fully understand where exactly the car sits in the range. The obvious question is: ‘Is it closer to the 911S or the 911T?’ In fact, it’s a model in its own right. Compared with a carburettor 911, the response from the engine feels stronger and more linear. Compared with a 911S, it doesn’t seem ultimately to have the top-end punch, though such is the crispness of the throttle response from those small pistons and MFI system that you really don’t miss it.
Climbing aboard for the return journey, I reflect on where the car sits in the family tree. In these early years of Porsche 911 production, the stage was set for what has become the model range we see today and also the ethos of continual development that is still the Porsche philosophy going forwards. The element of motorsport being brought into the road cars is there with the MFI system, and that model range begins to make sense after a little study. As I’m driving across the open moorland of North Yorkshire, it kind of clicks home in my head.
The soft, compliant ride of this car, with its linear delivery, is typical of a middle-of-the-range Porsche across the decades. Think G-series 3.2, 997 Carrera S or 991 Carrera S.
In today’s market a good 911E appears to be selling for a similar amount to a 911S. Just a few years ago, the S model would sell for significantly more money. This would mean that if you’re an owner undertaking a restoration project, you would have been better off putting the outlay into the S-model car. Today there’s little to choose, and the individual car, its history and provenance seem to trump the letter of the model.
If I were a 911E owner, I certainly wouldn’t feel short-changed at not owning an S. The delightful, crisp throttle response, added to the torque coming in at lower RPM, actually makes the car feel equal to the S in normal driving. On the drive back I am once again blessed with open bends, traffic that can be easily dispensed with and the sun shining through the screen, warming my face. As the tail dips slightly and the road’s white centre line rolls across the edge of the bonnet, I indulge in my relaxation therapy as the wheel straightens on the exit of another open bend. It’s pretty remarkable that even all these decades later, these early, small-capacity Porsche always make that smile appear.
In these days of driving 1,500kg of electronic assistance, I find it truly therapeutic to slide into the driver’s seat of an early 911, relax the grip on that slim steering wheel, check the analogue gauges and simply enjoy the feeling of being connected to the genesis of the modern cars we have today. If you have the means, I suggest you get out there and meet the current 911’s ancestors.