The seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 911 say it was once flown back to the factory to have its A/C installed. We’ll have to gauge its price, but maybe we can take into account all those frequent flyer miles too.
Yesterday’s 2005 Maserati Coupé Grand Sport looked amazing. It was sleek, it was powerful, and it was surprisingly cheap. That last attribute however could be traced to two factors; a relatively high 90K on the odometer, and a title tainted by the scar of flood damage. The seller says that latter flaw is bogus, blaming a prior owner’s attempt to scam the system, but it still conspired to drop the sexy Maser in a narrow 57% Crack Pipe loss.
Hey, do you think that Porsche prices have plateaued? I don’t mean among the rarest and most desirable models—cars like the Carrera RSR or 964 Leichtbau—those will keep climbing the “can’t afford it” ladder apace wth the rest of the crazy car market. No, I mean has the era of 20K+ 924s and Volkswagen-powered 914s finally, and thankfully, ebbed?
Well, let’s just try and find out if it’s once again safe for your wallet to look at an old Porsche, and let’s start our investigation with this seemingly straight-forward 1979 911SC.
First however, a bit of background. Porsche introduced the 911SC in 1978. This was intended to be the 911’s swan song as Porsche was planing on taking the model out behind the shed and then telling the kids it had run away while they were at school. Sales of the SC (Super Carrera) proved there was still life left in the model however, and well, the rest is history. There’s no record either if anyone ever told the car “that’ll do, pig.”
The SC was offered with a 3-litre edition of the venerable flat six sporting Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and 180-bhp. A five-speed 915 transaxle fronted that mill, and power was applied to the back wheels only, or front wheels if you got too aggressive going around a corner and spun the car.
This one is an RCH away from 100K and sports Turbo-look bodywork but not a blown motor underneath it tea tray tail. What does lurk there is described with a bit of odd hyperbole in the ad. That is that the car’s second owner was apparently a pilot for McDonnell Douglas’ CEO, and that afforded him the opportunity to have the car sent to Germany in a “C” plane (not to be confused with a “Seaplane”) to have “a factory-authorized aftermarket A.C.” installed. Now, I think he actually means A/C and not the venerable British car maker A.C. Cars Ltd, but who am I to judge? Regardless, I’m pretty sure there was likely someone in the U.S. who could have done a competent job of adding a cabin cooler to the car. I don’t know, call me crazy.
The car looks okay in the pics, but it’s pretty obvious by the VIN plate image that the car has seen a respray at some point in its life. The wheels are later units and the rear spoiler wasn’t offered on non-turbo cars until ’81 if memory serves. When it comes to 901-model 911s though, there’s invariably going to be some mix and match of different model years.
Other things to note: it’s not a slicktop, featuring a mail slot sized sunroof up top, and both front fogs look to point in the same direction. That’s not always the case with these, and indicates perhaps someone who’s careful about their parking and hence other aspects of car ownership.
Mechanically, the seller says it’s been serviced by an authorized Porsche wrench for years and that the oil has been changed with regularity to its full 6.8-quart capacity, not a drop less.
We don’t see much of the interior, but there’s enough to tell it’s brown. It’s also missing the driver’s door armrest and bin but those can probably easily be obtained through Pelican or some other source. Finally, and thankfully, it comes with a clean title.
We started this out attempting to suss out the state of the Porsche pricing market and now that we know a little bit about this car, let’s take a look at its price. That’s $22,500, and yes ten years ago this would have been half that, what’s your point? It’s the here and now and what we want to know is: should this 911, in its presented state, go for that $22,500? What do you think, is that a price that might indicate Porsches are finally topped out? Or, does that just show that buying a 911 means you’ll still get tapped out?
You decide!
Portland OR Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to WindAdvisory for the hookup!
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