Porsche 911 S

The 1973 911S represented the pinnacle of Porsche’s sportscar programme in the early 1970s, bettered only in performance terms by the 2.7RS; it was the last year of lightweight cars before the advent of impact bumpers. With 0-60mph coming up in 6.6 seconds and a top speed of 144mph, the 2.4S was Porsches answer to the slower 246 Dino from Ferrari. This LHD example was supplied new by Beverly Hills Porsche, to a Dr Harold Luke MD of Los Angeles on the 21st August 1973. Dr Luke purchased this as one of the very last 73 models because he prefered the shape to the 1974 model impact bumper cars that were to follow. He also preferred the colour gulf blue and at the time as this wasnt available, he had this highly specified stock silver car repainted from new in gulf blue. He also had air conditioning retro fitted at the same time. It is not clear how long Dr Luke kept the car, but it did get repainted in its original colour of silver before being presented at the Monteray auction around the turn of the Millennium, where it was purchased by Mr Randy Wells. Seattle lawyer Mark Carlson purchased the car in 2002 from Randy Wells and then set about an obsessive programme to return the car to the exact visual specification it was supplied with in 1973. This included removing the aftermarket A/C system and sourcing many genuine “new old stock” and restored parts as posssible including new Repa seat belts, a restored RS steering wheel and new door pockets. The original Recaro sports seats were restored to their correct specification and a correct tool kit and restored spare wheel were also sourced. Where appropriate, the suspension and brakes were uprated with 2.7RS mechanical components including larger front and rear anti roll bars, torsion bars, stiffer bushes and a aluminium subframe brace. Later spring plates were fittted to facilitate lowering the car, whilst the braking system and pedal box were rebuilt including the genuine S callipers and an RS spec master cylinder. A factory Leistrtz silencer was also fitted. The gearbox was rebuilt by Rennsport systems, while the mechanical fuel injection was restored by Gus Pfister of Pacific Injection. The car was then lowered and geometry re set by Fordahl Motorsports. For reliability, the crankcase was shuffle pinned and boat tailed by the late John “Otto” Williamson, before being rebuilt by WW Autowerks, although as you will see further in the history, unfortunately the rebuild wasn’t to a high standard and had to be rebuilt again. Remarkably aside from a cosmetic repaint, there is no evidence to suggest any major restoration work has ever taken place, with all the original factory paint still in place under the carpets, bonnet area, and engine compartment and detailed bills in excess of $25,000 are present, confirming the work carried out during this time. Due to a change of circumstances, the car was sold to a Porsche collector Charles (Chip) Bell in 2006. Chip continued its mechanical and cosmetic restoration and had the engine completely rebuilt again before taking an opportunity to trade it for a rare 356 he had been looking for in 2010. During its time in America, it had continued recorded maintenance before being purchased by European importer Dirk Libeert, who replaced the American specification lights and bumpers and kept it for two years before selling it to a UK based enthusiast John Whittaker. John was an experienced classic car owner, liked the way this 911 drove and further tweeked the supension / geometey to make this a really sharp and tactile car to drive. John kept the car in a dehumidified garage and used it sparingly on road trips, but became concerned over its increased value, so consigned it with us to be sold in 2016 after failing to sell it with an established auction house at their Porsche sale.The car was soon purchased by Andrew Jones, a very discerning client who had looked at a number of cars before purchasing this example for use in France. Contact with the factory confirmed that this was a fully matching numbers example, in its original colours with the following specification.