AIR COOLED MEMORIES

While passing time wondering the www as is my habit I came upon the 911 SC  section of the air cooled forum and was pleased to find it at least recently active with Tom`s thread on the acqusition of his 79 SC providing him with so much pleasure and subsequent answers to his questions of aspects of  originality being answered by numerous helpful folk. All of which reminded me of my years of air cooled ownership beginning with a well rotted 60`s 912,later moving on to a 77SC and finally ending up owning an 82 SC, thus I spent a fair bit of time in and around my SC`s over 10 years or so, I learned enough to be able to help a couple of Porsche club pals with issues they had with their SC`s and spend a bit of time hands on with the then RO`s 928, a slightly more complex beast..
In the 911sc79 thread I noted Peter Bull seemed to suggest that the non-sport SC as being "desirable," which caused me to wonder in reference to which other 911SC, as it seemed to me that the Sport was likely to have been thought of as the more desirable of the two with it`s Fuch wheels and spoilers as being de-rigueur at the time..?   Both my SC`s were non sport equipped with the smaller 15" Cookie Cutter and thus shod with higher profile tyres to equate to the same rolling radius as the 16" Fuchs with lower aspect ratio tyres, which could make for less of a problem when switching between Fuchs and Cookie Cutters as there would be no change in gearing or speedo accuracy suffered..?
Given the opportunity to drive a Sport equipped SC it seemed obvious that the ride was unsurprisingly less ..err...comfortable given it`s stiffer Bilstine dampers than the Boge ones on the non-sport SC, and the lower profile tyres while making the steering more responsive also conveyed more..err contact with the type of road surface one was travelling over, thus on  today`s pot hole strewn roads I suspect Peter may be correct relative to the non sport`s desirability..?
My 77 SC was an old car perhaps 13 years old when I bought it and while it seemed to run well compared to my 912, the engine sounded a tad thrashy, which I later found out was due to broken outer valve springs, wOn replacing the broken spring , I suspected the cause to have been over revving by a previous owner, as I also found the rev limiter built into the distributor rotor arm to be seized... Might be worth checking yours, if you forget to make religious use of the rev counter while pushing on...?
When I upgraded to my 82 SC it was a non-runner, having a non releasing clutch and unsurprisingly to me, it too had broken outer valve springs and a seized rotor arm rev limiter... As part of the engine works I fitted new timing chains ramps and the later 3.2 oil fed chain tensioner system. I also fitted stainless silencers, along with replacement tinware and powder coating it, the cooling fan and cowling, which was a tad bling and not something I would repeat today, as it seems the older I get the more I seem to value originality..Hmm..?
I greatly enjoyed my SC`s both being quite the best built sports cars I have owned to date, and I have had a few..(-:  If there might be any interest in pics of my SC`s which I took years back... just SHOUT and I will try to post a few.
My newest 911 driving experience was at the UK launch of the 993 at Cameron house on the shores of Loch Lomond in November 93 where the now defunked magazine Car Week editors were looking for a 10 year old Porsche to create an article in which to compare with the then new 993 ... Tony the PCGB RO in my area at the time and was contacted and suggested my old SC could perhaps fit the bill, Car Week editors were happy it seemed, but not as happy as was I to attend the launch and drive the 993 over my favourite stretch of road in the Trossachs...I was also informed that I was the first private individual to drive the 993 by the then MD of Porsche cars GB..!!!    It was also great to see my old SC appearing in the magazine alongside the then brand new 993.  I also wrote a few paragraphs and took a few pics which appeared in Porsche Post.
As some of you may know Cameron house suffered a fire a few years back and apparently it has been refurbished and considerably modernised and due to open this April... I have read in the 993 register section of Porsche post that there was Covid halted round the UK baton relay planned and had been in progress, I thought it would have been great to plan a possible Cameron House change over lunch or whatever...? Perhaps if the pox continues to restrict the baton`s progress perhaps November 2023 could be a significant anniversary..?
Finally I note that there seems to be no 993 register entries in this months Porsche post...?

Many thanks for taking the time to respond to my post. Hats off to you for trying to keep this forum alive, though I suspect you may be up against it with the other slightly more "open" Porsche forums available on the www, and on which I have posted, my thinking being to share experiences in the hope someone somewhere might benefit from them, and perhaps some of the many pics I have taken over the years, as opposed to keeping them in a shoe box to be thrown out as rubbish at some future time..shrug.
I would have liked to post my ramble at the beginning of the air cooled section as opposed to within the SC section as it had some 993 relevance, however that seemed not to be an option, seems contributions are divided on a more partizan basis.. (-:
I suspect Porsche owners may well visit all the Porsche forums from time to time be they PCGB members or not thus nothing much seems to be kept "in-house" as it once was, thus with the potential to create all sorts of friction.
I am more than happy to share my pics, some of which I have posted in the R1 section of the forum.
This is my favourite pic of my first 911, the 77 SC taken after I re-sprayed it, having thrown it off at the bottom of Duffus dip on Knockhill and bashing the rear wing... Duh..!
I have many more pics if there is any interest.

Thanks for your interest Maurice. I have indeed created JPEGS of both the article I wrote for PP, and the article which appeared in Car Week  in November 93,( I bought a few copies of the mag which I still have)  I also have pics I took at Cameron House which I can post if you like. I suspect the Car Week article and associated pics may have copyright issues relative to posting, however Mark has copies of the aforementioned as JPEGS, that I sent him last year.

Are you still in R1 geedee?

Will have a go at posting some more SC pics, the black SC being my first it had paint runs when I bought it and when I bashed it and repaired the wing and the usual corrosion areas which together justified a total respray, though IB`s are a real pain to re-spray given all the fiddly rubber bits to strip off and rebuild complicating things somewhat..
 

I think we have got the perfect shot for the next SC Register Christmas card here !!!! 👌
 

I too have an '82 SC, purchased by eBay auction in 2012 - what could possibly go wrong!

Oh yes, been there - project no more! (well almost)

geedee
Glad you liked the "Snow way to treat a Porsche" pic Franck, it was taken quite some time back with a film camera..
Another pic from the shoe box, is of a Trio of SC Porsches sorry about the quality, but I thought perhaps worth posting, the black one being mine, the gold one being my pal Cameron`s, he asked me to look it over and accompany him to Snetterton where he intended to take part in a Porsche club race..!   Cameron had a roll cage fitted but other than that it was a standard 911. When I ran a spanner round it, first stop as ever, I checked the distributor rev limiter was free, and in the process found the advance/retard operation to be seized, no doubt due to lengthy periods of time laid up as tends to be the life of the average air cooled, perhaps more so these days..?  At least it is a simple enough task to free off the dizzy problems in an SC, none of the complexities of the later 12 plug 964 or 993`s. 
It was an interesting trip down and back up from Snetterton from R1 for the race, which Cameron enjoyed just being part of it al,l as did I, Cancer took Cameron many years back..sigh!
The Green SC Sport was Ronnie`s,  Ronnie being perhaps the most loyal Porsche enthusiast of us all, having owned many variations of the marque.From a dull memory someone ran into the back of Ronnie`s SC at one time but the damage was light enough that the engine lid was perhaps repaired as opposed to being replaced, and as I typed previously I bashed the rear wing on my black one at Knockhill when I suffered a bit of brain fade and it suffered the usual corrosion issues of a then circa 13 year OLD 911, So you see these cars are likely to all have some sort of..err.. history..?

This looks like the beginnings of a bidding war between Franck and me (I for the pedants) .. .. do you have the copyright ( © ) issues covered ? If not I know of someone with expertise in this area who might help you for a moderate consideration ! ...
 
And not even at director level ..
 
cheers, Maurice
 

geedee
Maurice, I have no intention to get into the mire of politicking or copyright issues and for what..? The photographs I post are my own. 

Yes, let's try not to pollute this really nice thread thank you 😉
Geedee, if OK with you I would like your pictures to be uploaded in our register gallery as well.
 

geedee
If this is too much chat for the forum, just SHOUT and I shall cease and desist. 

 
No please don't stop !!! This is great stuff and I wish more members shared their SC ownership and experiences with us on the forum.