This is a 1970 Porsche 911 that still has its matching-numbers engine and transmission in place. It’s also the cheapest 911 we’ve ever featured, with an asking price of just $14,000 USD.
The bad news is that, as you can see from the images above and below, this is a car that is going to need a whole lot of work before it’s ready to get back on the road.
Fast Facts – A Porsche 911 Project Car
- This 1970 Porsche 911 is currently listed for sale at $14,000, which makes it the cheapest 911 ever featured on the site. However, it requires a full restoration due to extensive rust. The sale includes the original matching-numbers engine and transmission.
- The Porsche 911 was originally intended to be named the Porsche 901, but Peugeot objected, citing their exclusive rights to using a “0” in the middle of three-digit car model numbers in France. Porsche quickly changed the name to 911, and it debuted under that name at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show.
- Early air-cooled Porsche 911 models are highly valued among collectors due to their simple design, elegant styling, and classic engineering. The pre-1974, pre-impact bumper models are especially prized because they retain the original styling before the U.S. safety regulations required larger bumpers, making them more desirable on the market.
- The 1970 Porsche 911 listed here is largely complete but will need a full restoration. Its rusted body will require many replacement panels, a process that involves complex and specialized work. This type of project is not recommended for first-time restorers due to the high level of expertise and equipment required.
The Porsche 911: Almost The “901”
The Porsche 911 was famously supposed to be named the Porsche 901. Before the car’s release the brochures had all been printed with the 901 name in place, but when it made its first public debut in 1963 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the French automaker Peugeot wasted no time in lodging a protest of the model name.
The original name of the Porsche 911 was to be the Porsche 901, until French automaker stepped in and protested. This is a page from an early brochure that still carried the original 901 branding. Image courtesy of the Porsche Archives.
The reason Peugeot wasn’t so keen on the name 901 is that they held exclusive rights to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle in France. This meant that Porsche could theoretically have sold the car as the 901 everywhere except France, but the Germans are a famously logical people, and so it was decided to change the “0” to the next number up, “1,” and then get on with things.
Early air-cooled 911s are among the most beloved sports cars in the world, as is clearly reflected in their values which seem to climb ever higher with no peak in sight. The cars are relatively simple in design, with a steel unibody shell, a rear-mounted flat-six mated to a transaxle sending power to the rear wheels, and independent suspension on all four corners.
The most prized of the early 911s are the pre-impact bumper models, from before the US DOT-mandated rubber bumpers were fitted front and back to the 911 for the 1974 model year. While these cars have built their own following in the decades that followed, the earlier examples still tend to fetch higher prices.
The days where you could buy a decent air-cooled 911 for under $20,000 disappeared long ago. This has led to many seeking out project cars that need restoration, then rebuilding them over a period of years to spread out the cost. It’s not the simplest method of buying a 911, but it does provide an entry point into classic Porsche ownership for those who don’t want anything else.
The 1970 Porsche 911 Project Car Shown Here
The car you see here is both the least expensive Porsche 911 we have ever featured, and the most in need of a full restoration.
This 911 is going to need a great deal of work, and that’s putting it lightly, but for an experienced restoration team it doesn’t appear to present anything too far out of the ordinary.
The steel unibody of this 911 is heavily rusted and may very well be beyond economic restoration, but it is possible to buy essentially all new steel panels for these, including the chassis and inner panels, as well as the outer panels.
Many restorations incorporate a number of these newly manufactured panels to replace rusted sections, and this car will likely need more of them than most. The good news is that it comes with a VIN and a matching-numbers engine and transmission.
There can tend to be a Ship of Theseus debate surrounding cars with many replacement panels, or even full re-shells with all new bodies – but restorations happen for a reason, and that reason is often rust. As a result even if no new panels are used, some sections of original panels end up with new sections welded into place anyway.
The eBay listing for this car is light on the details, simply containing a few pictures and the written description:
1970 Porsche 911 Coupe with matching 2.2L engine and Gearbox, car is mostly complete great project to restore, clean and clear title ready for the new owner.
While the interior is largely all there, it will clearly need to be mostly replaced. The good news is that aftermarket support for early Porsches is excellent.
It’s clear that this is not a project that should be attempted by a first-time restorer, it’s going to be a mammoth project requiring plenty of specialist skills and equipment, but cars in far worse shape than this have been restored in the past.
The 911 is located in Orlando, Florida and it has a Buy It Now price of $14,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or make the seller an offer you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Porsche Man + eBay Motors
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
