Ken's 1972 Porsche 911T Targa, Sportomatic

I am sitting down to write a brief history of this car that I have owned for so long it almost seems like a member of the family. Actually a "brief history" sounds rather formal; perhaps I should rather say that I intend to reminisce a little bit about "me and my Porsche". That I own this car at all is really an accident… I was looking for something quite different when I came across it.

I am, of course, a "car person". I have been in love with sports cars, particularly roadsters, ever since I had the opportunity to drive an Austin Healey Sprite in the 60's in Germany. Since then, I have owned two Austin Healey 3000's, an MG TD, a Studebaker Avanti (I know that doesn't count, but it was an exciting car), four different Nissan "Z" cars, starting with the 1973 240Z, and for the past almost 20 years, my beloved 911 T Targa.

In May of 1983, I was in the market for another sports car. In particular, I was looking for a nice Jaguar XKE or XK 120 or XK 140. I had been enamored of the XKE ever since I was almost blown off the autobahn by one in Germany, and of course the sound of the car is to die for. The Cole European dealership in Burlingame had one for sale, and so I drove down to take a look at it. I walked into the showroom, and there, on the showroom floor was this 1972 Porsche 911T Targa. Of course on the shiny granite and under the spotlights, it looked like a star. Imagine, an 11-year old Porsche in the middle of their showroom floor!

I was aware of Porsches, of course, but I had always considered them to be out of my price range. Buying a used one had never really occurred to me, for some reason…. probably for the same reason, actually.

Anyway, the story on this Porsche was that it had been given to the fellow who wrote the automotive review columns for the San Francisco Examiner, to drive and to write a review on the car. I used to know his name, but time has taken that away from me. I have written to the Examiner asking them about it, but no response. I will try again. Well, he liked the car so well that he bought it, drove it for several years (among all the other cars that he drove), and then put it in storage for five years. When he finally decided to sell it, his friend (who owned Cole European) agreed to sell it for him. It had 47, 000 miles on the odometer.

The car was in nice shape, inside and out, and so I asked to take it for a test drive. Well, that's when I found out that the car is a Sportomatic, or "automatic stick shift". I had seen this phrase on the back of VW Beetles, but never really knew what it was. I certainly did not know that they were used in Porsches. Driving a Sportomatic takes a little getting used to, mostly learning not to touch the gearshift unless you want to actually shift the car. The reason, of course, is the microswitch that is attached to the base of the gearshift. Every time you touch the gearshift, it disengages the clutch. When you take your hand off the gearshift, the clutch engages again. This pause before the clutch engages can be a little disconcerting, but you can hurry it up a little by goosing the gas a bit. Anyway, I fell in love with the car and ended up buying it. It is such an easy car to drive, and once you have the Sportomatic down, it makes driving in Bay Area traffic a breeze (no clutch pedal). One of a Sportomatic's personality traits that I learned about early on, was that if the oil gets too low, the car won't drive. I coasted to a stop beside the freeway, mystified by what was going on. The engine was running and sounded fine, but when I put the car in gear, the clutch would not engage. So I had the car towed to the repair shop, envisioning towering repair bills. The mechanic looked at it, put in a couple of quarts of oil, and explained to me one of the facts of life regarding a Sportomatic, i.e. keep the oil topped off.

The car was manufactured in November of 1971, but was not sold new until 00/00/1973. I'm not sure what exactly that means, but that's what is on the Registration. It was my only transportation for the next 8 years, and it served me well during that period of time, with one caveat. It ALWAYS had an oil leak somewhere, the result I was told of the car being in storage for five years. In 1988, I was at a crossroads with this car. Either I needed to put some money into it and deal with its problems, or I needed to sell it and find another car. Since I liked the car so much, I decided to do a complete rebuild on it. It had 112,000 miles on the odometer.

By that time I was fortunate to have connected with a really good Porsche mechanic by the name of Tom Martenot, of Deutche Motor Sport in Concord. If there is anything that Tom doesn't know about Porsches, it's probably not worth knowing. He stripped the engine down, and rebuilt it from scratch using only Porsche parts. He also rebuilt the Sportomatic pump in the process. Perhaps the best part, of course, was all new oil seals. It has been running like a champ ever since.

In 1991, I purchased a Jeep to do my everyday running around, which I am sure has contributed to the longevity of the car. Since then, I average 5,000 miles per year on this car; the odometer now reads 190,000. It gets a major tuneup every 2-3 years, and is still incredibly reliable. In fact, it has only quit on me one time in all these years, and that was (of course) in the middle of a busy intersection in Walnut Creek a few years ago. The problem turned out to be a broken wire to the microswitch at the bottom of the gearshift, which prevented me from shifting.

In 1997, I decided to again invest some money in this car, not in the mechanics this time, but rather in the cosmetics of the car. The clear coat was beginning to wear off, there were a couple of minor rust bubbles beginning to appear (even though this is a California car), one under one of the headlights, and the other at the side rear, underneath the rear window trim. Both were apparently caused by clogged drain holes. After researching quality body shops in the area, I decided on Uptown Body and Fender in downtown Oakland, owned by a woman by the name of Giovanna Tanzillo. She is as fastidious as you would expect a woman to be in a body and fender shop, and just the kind of person you want working on your Porsche.

Giovanna kept the car for three months, which was fine with me. I said…"I'm not in any hurry; I just want it to be nice when you are finished." She understood. They stripped the car down to bare metal, dropped the bumpers, and removed the glass including the rear window, which is tricky. They ordered the original paint from the Porsche factory (silver), and after the paint (three coats, hand rubbed) and clear coat were finished, replaced most of the trim on the car (headlight rims, door sills, a couple of bumper horns), repainted the inside edge of the engine compartment and replaced the engine stickers. They warranty the paint job for as long as I own the car, which kind of amazes me. After five years, it is still as new.

There is always something to do on a 30-year old car, I guess, but the only other thing I would like to do to this car (if the stock market is a little nicer to me than it has been) is to redo the interior. I mean, the interior is not bad at all. The seats have been rebuilt, but the skins are still the original. Some of the knobs look a little worn and the paper windshield washer sticker is torn a bit. I would also like to find an original Blaupunkt radio for this car. When I bought the car, the radio did not work, so I took it out and replaced it and gave the original away. That's before I knew what I was doing, and I have regretted it ever since.

Bottom line…I still get a thrill when I climb in this car and start it up. I think that thrill is enhanced a bit by the Sport Muffler that Tom (my mechanic) put on the car. I was in his shop chatting one day, and he was working on a car that was being set up for racing. It had a dual exhaust system with a very nice sound, and when I mentioned it he said that he could put one on my car. He explained that all 911 engines have exhaust headers; it's just that they are routed through a single exhaust pipe. And so it goes. Fortunately, I have a very understanding wife.

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