John Shingleton, Sydney Australia -- Proud Owner and Racer of a 1977 Sportomatic

History: Hi , I read the story on your car in Excellence as my plane flew out of San Francisco on my way home to Sydney yesterday.  It's really great to see something positive being written about the sporto.   I yearned for a Porsche for 46 years but when I came to buy my first car I went straight past a very original 1977 911 Sportomatic.  It stayed on the dealer's lot for 3 months and I drove past it every day and then some Porsche enthusiast friends persuaded me that the Sporto was actually quite a good device. I tried the car and I was sold. I've had it 16 months and I've tidied it up and I love it. The traffic in Sydney is pretty horrid and as we live right near the heart of the city the Sportomatic is really appreciated.  I've even run it in a few circuit events and a hillclimb. I've just had the original factory aircon fixed although now the car is running too hot in the very high temperatures we are suffering down here at the moment so I have purchased an 11 blade fan but I fear a substantial and expensive oil cooler is required.

 

In the Porsche Club of New South Wales there are only a few sportos (it was quite popular in Australia although most have been converted  to 5 speeds) although there is one real Sportomatic enthusiast, Eric Connolly who also drives his on circuit days..  Attached is a photo of my Sporto  on a circuit day (yellow car) and also a shot of Eric Connolly with his.

 
On Racing:  As far as circuit work is concerned I have taken been on the track on 4 events.  One was a British Car Clubs Supersprint at Easten Creek Raceway here in Sydney last August. The photos were taken there.  Eric and I were not particularly quick but I put that down to the drivers rather than the Sporto because I have also done 3 drive days at a delightful track called Wakefield Park near Goulburn about 250kms SW of Sydney.  Experienced drivers have taken my car round there very quickly and they rated it surprisingly good --particularly as they are able to left foot brake. My car is a 3 speed --they switched to the 3 speed with the change to the 2.7 engine in 1975 because they needed bigger gears to handle the higher power of the 2.7so they had to delete one set of gears as there was not room in the box for 4 gear clusters of the meatier gears.. The 3 speed suffers on a track because first is too low and second is too high on some sections.  Indeed I disabled(destroyed)  my Park function by accidentally hitting Park as I tried a swift change from second to first and hit Park.  We found the pawl tooth in the oil when we did a major service a few weeks ago. 

 

My car suffers from too much body roll on the track.  It does not have a sway bar at the rear -- they deleted it on the  base 911Sporto as perhaps they didn't expect it to be driven so spiritedly.  Anyway the result is that on hard corners I lift the front inside wheel (there are a few pictures of Porsches doing that).  I am just having a sway bar fitted.  My Porsche specialist found me a second hand sway bar and the bushes and attachment bits cost  a fair bit but hopefully I will corner flatter without the road manners being compromised. 

 

My experience at a hillclimb was less encouraging as basically I was too gentle on the start to get a decent time.  I am nervous about blowing the clutch doing a high rev standing start.  As you know the clutch is a modest device and I don't reckon it would stand much abuse.  The alternative is to try and hold it on the brakes but I found it creeping over the timing device as the brakes would not hold it.  I will put my head down with Eric and see if we can come up with a means of getting off the line quicker. Attached are a couple of photos from the Hillclimb which is a wonderful event run once a year in a Park right beside the beach at Newcastle a city about 250kms n of Sydney. It has been going for 52 years but its future is under threat because of insurance /safety concerns --the usual story. 

 

They apparently fitted only a 5 blade fan to the Sporto from 1977 with the 11 blade as an option.  Anyway my car was the personal car of the Sydney Porsche dealer's wife and quite why he did not order the 11 blade fan option for Australian driving I do not know although one could speculate that he didn't appreciate that they had made the specification change and just didn't order it.   One should be on my car by the end of next week. 

 

I have done about 6000kms in 14 months in my car including quite a few race track laps and a few long runs.  

Law of Unintended Consequences: It was totally reliable until recently when I splashed out and had a lot of things fixed including the aircon --at considerable expense.  Since then it has been really unreliable.  They steam cleaned the motor gearbox and moisture got into the starter motor and that was a load of drama --the starter motor is not exactly accessible.  Now I have this overheating problem and I have a hot start problem which seems fuel system related.

 

I really want the car to be as good as possible but I am concerned that I may be spending so much on it that I could have bought myself a much younger car for the outlay. I am very keen on originality and I have the tools , hand books and  the original compressor.  I changed the tyres back to as close to original size as I can get and fitted Pirelli P6000 which are not apparently the best for a race track as they wear rapidly but at the end of the day it is not a race car.  I had the steering wheel expertly recovered for a very modest sum --would you believe US$95 ?. The rubber was coming away from the inner rim on the top half due to UV. 
 The paint is original and came up well after a buff --although it has a few chips particularly around the door margins.  The yellow contains a lot of lead which goes white with age. 

 

You mention the oil temperature gauge.  It does have numbers.  For some totally inexplicable reason they are right on the edge of the dial under the rim and only visible if you use a torch and put your head at an odd angle.  The start of the red box zone is 190 C. 
 

About John:  As for me I am the ultimate car enthusiast.  I worked in the auto industry here and in Europe for 33 years.  I was 10 years CEO of Jaguar Australia and then 10 years CEO of Land Rover Australia.  I retired from there in 2001 but Harley-Davidson tempted me back so I am now in charge of their business down here.   Before I bought this car I had a sensational 1968 Mini Cooper S for 5 years which was a load of fun --but I always wanted a Porsche and long journeys in a Mini are impossible. 

 

2002 Christmas Run:  My son and I took the Porsche for a short run over the Harbour Bridge on Christmas Day morning --some photos are attached -- you can tell it's Christmas no traffic and no parking restrictions! Yes that's me in my Porsche yellow coordinated polo shirt.  It was wonderful blasting across the Bridge with so few cars about and the Porsche exhaust note reverberating off the bridge.  Living right in the heart of the city is odd for a couple of days as so many people leave to visit family and friends or to take their summer holidays and there are no people around. 

 

Advice on getting into autocrossing:  I would encourage you to do some events in your car.  It is a load of fun -- even if you are the slowest car on the track. Go to enjoy yourself and to learn to drive on the track I would not do anything to your car when you start.  They are designed to be driven hard and fast and you are likely to be the major performance inhibitor not the car ! This was bought home to me on a very wet trackday last year when a friend of mine who is a very experienced historic racing driver took my car round really quickly and was fast catching a brand new GT2 Porsche (A$400,000---US$200,000)being driven by an absolute novice. 

 

What you should do before you take it on a track or to an autocross is to make sure that your brake pads are OK and check the wheel bearings.  They usually do this at scrutineering in any case but it's better that you make sure before you arrive at the event.  To check the wheel bearings jack up the car. Make sure you put a chock under the rear wheels. The early 911 jack is a potentially dangerous device (mine was bent when I bought the car testimony to the car coming off the jack when it was raised at some time !) and an Australian or American Product liability lawyer would take one look at the jack today and see lots of dollar signs.  Move the wheels from side to side -- if there is any play at all either the wheel bearings need tightening up (most likely)  or they need replacing.  If they are very loose the wheel can come off.

 

You then need a complying crash helmet or you can often borrow one.  Remove all loose items from the car and wear a long sleeve shirt and you are in business.  I would not spend a cent on doing anything to modify the car until you feel that you are exploiting its full potential.  You know the old saying "how do you make a little money out of motor racing ?Answer "Start with a lot !"

(excerpted from email conversations with John)

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