Antonio Silva
It is not easy for me to write about a car that in itself served to cement and increase even more if possible the dimension of myth of the model par excellence of the Stuttgart brand.
Locate the unit tested to continue with our 911 trilogy It has not been easy either, and it is that in these times of crisis many of our pre-73s -the most coveted for aesthetics and fidelity to the original concept of the 911- have returned to Germany at very attractive prices for sellers and even more for the buyers.
The first thing we located was a 2.4 from 1972 that we finally could not test due to mechanical failure in the gearbox. This disappointed me, and I immediately called Javier Romagosa to try to find another one for me. He put his great Indian chieftains in motion, but they weren't particularly good dates… late November, early December, holidays and vacations.
We finally decided to postpone the search to the beginning of January. As a gift from kings, I was given the phone number of Pablo, owner of the beautiful 2.0 T that stars in these lines.
The creation of the legend
As we said in the first part of our 911 trilogy, the myth of Porsche was not created by Ferdinand Porsche, but by his grandson Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, whom they nicknamed "Butzi".
At first, he wanted to create a car to replace the 356 and that was powered by the new engine that began to develop in 1959. The initial requirements spoke of a coupe capable of four people with six-cylinder mechanics. Finally, the 911 was born as 901, but various legal problems with Peugeot lead those responsible to opt for the name that we all know.
The first design of the 901 was of questionable beauty. Personally I have been lucky to see it in the museum in Stuttgart and, in my opinion, it is simply ugly. However, the design team of Butzi he knew how to straighten the situation, finding a fair balance between modernity and relationship with the preceding history.
Thus, in 1963 the 911 was finally illuminated.
The original 901 presented for the Frankfort Salon in 1963 was an incredible advance over the 356 C. It was not a simple redesign, but of a really new vehicle, with a two-liter six-cylinder engine that maintained the essence of the brand through its boxer layout and air cooling.
With this new model, instead of breaking with the past for the sake of modernity, Porsche took advantage of those initial concepts that had given such good results. They reinterpreted and designed them from scratch, in addition to the aforementioned engine, the chassis-structure, the suspensions and the interior, among others, until practically the entire car, except for the brakes and some other minor detail, gained an almost independence. total.
The approach of the original 356 was thus improved and amplified. The final definition of the product spoke of a 2 + 2-seater multipurpose vehicle, clearly sporty in size and character; but it also maintained the simplicity and ease of maintenance that were other hallmarks of the brand.
The new Type 745 boxer engine gave 130 hp, enough to catapult the light 901 -1080 kg in weight- up to 210 km / h and to lower 9-0 km / h from 100 seconds. -8,7 sec., To be exact. The behavior of the model, with most of the weight off the hook behind the rear axle, was not something that surprised the regular Porsche customers who already enjoyed the 356.
With the new frames, the damping scheme with a -for Porsche- unprecedented McPherson front suspension and an inherited but improved rear from the 356 C, as well as the four-wheel disc brakes, it was possible to create a magnificent sports car, with dynamic performance far above the previous and certainly unique for the 60s.
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A long way to go
In addition, Butzi knew how to create an excellent set as a development base, and so in 1966 the first sports version arrived. It was the "S" variant, in which squeezed the mechanics up to 160 CV of power. Later evolutions of the same powertrain for competition came to throwing 210 hp, specifically in the cases of the 904 and 906.
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In 1967 the range is clearly defined with three variants. In the first place, the access and most basic one called 2.0 T, whose engine was slightly decaffeinated up to 110 hp. Above was the 2.0 Coupe or Targa, with the original 130 hp, and the range was closed with the sports version "S" of 160 hp just mentioned.
For 1970 the 911 clearly needed a new twist. In Stuttgart they decided not to touch on aesthetics, but to focus on the dynamic section and, above all, on the engine; with a simple recipe, by which they increased the displacement to 2.195 cc. and they achieved an effective immediate result through more power and elasticity.
The range continued to be made up of three versions, although there were some changes: the 2.0 T as an access vehicle with 125 hp, the E variant with 155 and the sports S that already walked by 180. The engines were identical in displacement, although modifications in the exhausts and internal components motivated the difference in performance.
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In 1972 the displacement was increased again, raising it to 2.341 cc. The resulting model is renamed 2.4 and the powers of the triad of variants go up to 130, 165 and 190 hp, respectively. For the first time, Porsche mounts an exclusive mechanical injection system for the E and S models.
This subidón motivates that the media and users complain about the strong oversteer character of the first 2.4 units delivered; It is in these moments when the brand tries to modify the position of certain elements, in order to promote a better distribution of weights.
The unit we are testing today is a 2.0 1969 T, therefore with 110 hp. Personally, I don't expect great feelings from him, but I do expect him to show some of his well-known understeer and intoxicating sound. It's a pity that the day turned out to be rainy, which will undoubtedly limit the dynamic test quite a bit ...
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HD video. You can adjust the resolution once you press play using the right hand
