ph2426

I recently acquired a 1978 911 Targa from the original owner. In 2007 the owner decided to paint the car white but it was originally cockney brown/ bitter chocolate. I loved the whole story that came with the car and I would like to put it back to its original color. Does anyone have thoughts on this color? It has a factory aluminum Targa bar as well. I am also curious if this color with the aluminum bar would have been very rare in '78 as well? Any thoughts or perhaps picture's to help would be greatly appreciated (I cannot find any pictures of a bitter chocolate Targa). Thanks in advance!

Mark Salvetti

Interesting color. Here is a good photo of a Targa with the aluminum bar: https://www.rennbow.org/porsche-colors/BitterChocolate

Mark

ph2426

thank you for sharing! I know that an original colored car is always more desirable but I wonder if the white looks better?

Mark Salvetti

I guess it's really a personal choice. I think the bitter chocolate is a cool color, but I think I would prefer white even though it's more common.

Mark

Ironman88

There are some good browns.

Cockney brown is not one of them...

ph2426

Thanks for both of your opinions. I tend to agree. From a value perspective though, in the future, would the original color car be worth significantly more?

Speedster911

If your looking at repainting, original color is the way to go- my .02. Brown is not for everyone. Personally I love it as there are very few years the Bitter Chocolate Color was used. people often confuse it with Sepia Brown which ended in 73 but Chocolate brown is a red tinted / richer color.

I own what is believed to be the first Bitter Chocolate car produced with a July 73 build date

Ironman88

Actually not a bad color. (It's really hard to make a 911 look bad!)

The gold accents help I think.

Silver (aluminum) targa bar with "Targa" in gold lettering would look interesting tied in with other silver / gold accents.

I agree that going back to the original color would contribute to improving value.

ph2426

Wow I do like the look of the brown with the gold. This car came factory with cookie cutter wheels which are in amazing original condition. I did think about having the middle done in gold and the targa on the side would look quite neat. Thanks!

what a nice car to have if it the first or one of the first of the color!

I wonder if there is a relatively simple way to know how many of each spec were made on a given year? It would be very interesting.

Ironman88

I'm certain that information is available, although I don't have access to it. I would imagine that there were very few 911's produced in either Cockney Brown (Targa) or Bitter Chocolate (Coupe).

Speedster911

My car came from the factory with the gold wheels and script. For 74 carreras, there were 11 painted Bitter Chocolate/ Cockney Brown.

I think the bright trim / silver targa bar makes the color. What color is your interior? mine is Cinnamon with gold jublie fabric set inserts.

Ironman88

https://rennbow.org/porsche-colors/BitterChocolate

ph2426

Thank you both. The interior is the tan color and has some black. I am surprised the brown only gets two cans on that rarity scale, makes it one of the common colors! thanks!

Ironman88

One currently active on BAT (912E), and another recently completed sale on a 911 - both in that color...

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1976-porsche-912e-39/

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1975-porsche-911s-45/

ph2426

wow. I just looked and it sold for $76k! now and in 2019 $57k. My gosh. I assume a Targa is much less valuable and perhaps a '78 is less desirable.