911
911

World’s oldest 911 brought out to play

Riley Riley
After three years of painstaking restoration, the oldest Porsche 911 in the world will go on display at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
The special exhibition, called 911 (901 No. 57) – A legend takes off will run from December 14, 2017 to April 8, 2018.
The red coupé was built in October 1964 and is one of the first series-production models, known back then as the 901.
Almost 50 years later, the Porsche Museum happened to come across this rare item and decided to buy it with a view to restoring it back to its original state.
To put the car in context, Porsche originally developed and presented the successor to the 356 under the type designation 901.
However, just a few weeks after starting production of the car in the autumn of 1964, the coupé had to be renamed due to a trademark dispute – a 1 was added and the car was known from then on as the 911.
All of the customer vehicles produced up to that point were manufactured as 901 vehicles, but sold as 911 vehicles.
Until it stumbled across this car not even Porsche itself had one.
 The car was discovered in 2014.
While valuing a collection of items long forgotten in a barn, a German TV crew working on an antiques and memorabilia show stumbled across two 911s that dated back to the 1960s.
After making enquiries with the Porsche Museum, it emerged that one of the two sports cars, with the chassis number 300.057, was one of the rare models built before the model line was renamed.
The Porsche Museum decided to buy both 911s for which it paid an undisclosed figure, determined by an independent expert.

One of the key reasons for buying this particular car was that it had not been restored in any way.

It gave specialists at the museum the opportunity to restore the sports car as authentically as possible.

The job took a total of three years using genuine body parts from the time taken from a different vehicle.

The engine, transmission, electrics and interior were all repaired following the same principle.

The general rule was to retain parts and fragments where possible rather than replacing them.

That’s why it took the Porsche Museum so long to bring the car back to life.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Riley