28 years with 9113601282

[mobius911]

In 1984 I was lucky enough to buy an RS, and I've been sufficiently lazy over the last 28 years that I never sold it. I’ve been on this forum now for 6 years, mostly lurking, seeking advice, and very rarely actually contributing something potentially useful. Recently I’ve really enjoyed the restoration and “story” threads like Out of Africa, Sepia 911S, 1059, 100L gas tank, and many others. Those threads have inspired me to do a few posts on my long-term ownership of my 911, a little bit of history on the car, a few (obligatory?) restoration photos, and some of the (mostly) Porsche-related adventures it led me. I hope some of you find it interesting.

[mobius911]

Two unique events coincided in the early 80s to make the acquisition of my car possible. The first was the economy. In 1983 I was in upstate New York, a recent college graduate at my first job as an engineer, living on the cheap and just enjoying my freedom. That I was working was no small feat; unemployment peaked at 10.8% in late 1982, so from that perspective the economy looked about as crappy as it does today.

However, one big difference back then was that the unemployment was coupled with high inflation, which was in the high teens in the summer of 1982. To combat inflation the Fed jacked up interest rates, and the prime rate stood at 21.5% in June 1982 (I pulled all these numbers off of Wikipedia). The high interest rates in the U.S. resulted in a very strong currency, and in the early 80s the dollar was worth a helluva lot relative to the currency of our favorite car country, Germany. So the first nice thing from a car buying perspective was that cars in Germany were really inexpensive, exactly the opposite of what we've seen the last 10 years or so.

The second significant event was the passage of a law allowing U.S citizens to import non-U.S. versions of cars and "federalize" them. I don't recall the exact reasons for this regulation. Perhaps there was some congressman who was a car collector, or maybe they were throwing military personnel a bone and letting them bring home the cars they had purchased overseas. I did a bit of searching but couldn't find anything definitive on this. I know some of the other forum members were active in these so-called "grey market" imports and I hope they chime in here.

The features of the import law were this (and this is from memory):

-The cars had to be converted to NHTSA safety standards (side impact, lights, etc.) as well as the various buzzers and blinking lights that Jeremy Clarkson calls "things to remind Americans that they are in a car"
-If the car was at least 5 years old the purchaser could get a one-time (as in once in a lifetime) exemption from the EPA emissions requirements for that model year.

Needless to say, we live in the land of opportunity, and it didn't take long for a whole cottage industry of professionals and "weekend warriors" to jump on this and create a thriving industry. In 1985 the grey market peaked at 66,000 cars imported to the U.S. The American dealers of the big 3 coming over (Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche) were none too happy and finally scared Congress into changing the laws and effectively killed off the grey market. By 1995 the number of grey market cars had trickled to just 300.

[mobius911]

A friend at work happened to be one of the "weekend warriors" who was moonlighting as a car importer. He made a few trips to Germany to develop a network and started bringing a few cars over. I saw all the fun these guys were having and decided to go for it. So what car should I buy? Remember, this is before the internet. There is no Early 911S registry, no web searching, no email. The availability of information is scant; my "bible" was the 1983 edition of the "Illustrated Porsche Buyer's Guide" (I've attached a pdf of the suggested car values from the book.)

I read this thing cover to cover multiple times, but at the end of the day there really weren't that many choices. First, it had to be a 911. And if you are getting one from Germany it should be something special that isn't available in the U.S. That really only left two options; the 76/77 Carrera 3.0's, or the 1973 Carrera RS.

[mobius911]

So now I know what I want and we start looking. My preference is definitely the RS, but I probably would have taken a nice 76/77 3.0 if one turned up. Luckily my friend's network turned up an RS through Hans Obermaier. He owned Obermaier Racing, which ran the Hugo Boss 956's and 962's in European sportscar racing during the eighties and early nineties.



Obermaier Racing is still active and racing 911s today: http://www.halsbach.de/index.php?opt...d=112&catid=40

Their lines of business include repairing tractors and trucks, and owning a racing team. My first thought was wow, a very eclectic business mix. Then I thought it sounded an awful lot like the early days at Porsche...

[mobius911]

So the scary part is that I am now going to buy a very expensive car sight unseen. Thinking about it now, it would have been the smart and fun thing to try to line up a few cars and then make a trip over there. Not sure why I didn't do that, but it didn't happen. So I tried to do my best investigation through questionnaires, discussions, and photos. Here are the first two photos I received.





Even with photos it can be hard to pick things up. I had no idea what the unique bits on an RS were. The ducktail, yes. Beyond that my knowledge was extremely limited. I knew the engine number but did not check to confirm that it was the right one for the serial number (luckily it is).

Even color was tricky with the photos. I knew the car was blutorange (blood orange) from our correspondence, but the pictures made it look a lot more "blood" and a lot less "orange". I quickly grew to love the color but others weren't so lucky. A friend brought over what he thought was a blue Pantera and it turned out to be purple with metal flake sparkles in it.

[1st]

Cool story, do keep it coming.......

[beh911]

The makings of a great thread. Thanks for starting it.

I have a similar dog-eared copy of that buyer's guide from the early 80s as well...

[Mike_Moore]

looking forward to following this one!

[Chuck Miller]

GREAT start Jeff......... Looking forward to much more ...

[72targa]

Gotta love lurkers!