fasteddie99

Excuse my stupidity, but I just got an 87 Carrera with 16" Fuchs and a whaletail and front spoiler. Is this considered a "widebody" bodystyle?

Dan Cobb

Only if the front and rear fenders are considerably wider than the sides of the doors. On a narrow-body car, the front fender lips are nearly flush with the doors, that is to say if you were to measure the width of the car across the hood, it would not be much wider than if you measured through the doors (paint to paint).
Widebody cars will have nearly 3 or 4" flares built into the front fenders, thus they stick out on each side.
Hope that helps.
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fasteddie99

Thanks, DC. It looks like I have a "narrow-body"...

JackOlsen

It's a relative term. Up until 1973, the cars were less flared in the back. Then the body style stayed (mostly) the same until 1994. Early RSR's and Turbos (and Turbo-looks) had an extra couple of inches of flare width, front and rear. But later RSR's and some race cars were wider still.

1965-1973 owners call 1974-1994 cars wide, but 1974-1994 owners call Turbos wide.

Here's the RSR widebody:

911Dave

Widebody generally means turbo/RSR flares, like Jack's car above. Everything else is narrow, although there are also references to "SC/Carrera flares" which were introduced in 1978 for the 911SC and continued up through 1994. They are wider than the 74 through 77 cars, but not as wide as turbo/RSR flares. You and I have what I guess we could call "mediumbody" cars.

JackOlsen

Whoops. That's right. The long hoods stopped in 1974, but the skinny hips continued through 1977.

I had it wrong.

JCP911S

For Carraras, "widebody" generally means a full turbo body and chassis with a stock 3.2 engine. This means 9" and 11" flairs, turbo brakes, turbo rear arms, etc, etc. Check the VIN. i would guess a true "widebody" wouldhave a unique code.... there are alot of replicas.

Jay H

A factory, normally aspirated widebody 911 will have an option code of M491 listed on the options sticker (usually on the underside of the front hood and in the owner's manual).

If the stickers are no longer present on the car, Porsche Cars North America should be able to tell you the options (via the option codes) that came on the car when first delivered. You would need to provide your VIN.

Bill Verburg

Actually they were introduced in 1973 on the 2.7 Carrera and used on all Carrera models from '73 - '77 when the SC and later '84 on Carrera models picked them up, later folowed by the 964's.

1973 Carrera RS


1973 CArrera RSR(widebody)


1974 Carrera


1973 Carrera Rs and RSR(widebody)


1973 Carrera RSR(widebody)


The bumpers change a bit but the flares stay pretty much the same.

M491

Depends on the context.

For ebay ad purposes, a tail and front spoiler is generally enough to call it a "Widebody!"

David Ray

Jack - we've traded responses before, but I have to say you have the most bad As_ 911 I've ever seen -ooops I mean '72 RSR. I keep looking, but I'm not buying my 911 until I find one that looks like yours. No wonder my trials have been unfounded, I can't find one good enough. Plus I never new there were so many targas and cabriols out there in SoCal. Where are the Coupes???

JackOlsen

Thanks!

fasteddie99

Thanks for all the replies and (awesome pics). Looked under my hood this morning. No M491 code. I guess my 87 is narrow-hipped...

epbrown01

Jack's had so much custom work done that you'd have to build a 911 to get it just like his, but there's a car most people would consider close up for sale on eBay. No connection with the seller, just picked up on it from browsing the Pelican boards.

Emanuel

JBO

...to bad you don't have a widebody...they are more desirable and worth more money, unless you have an aftermarket hack-job like Jack (with all due respect to you M491 folks, and I know many people want "factory original only" and I love those cars, I'd rather have Jack's). Speaking of aftermarket, I saw a 77 widebody conversion with a 1995 993 3.6 in it on Cars.com for only $17k. Looks very well done and had to cost way more than that to make. Looks like a deal. Seller is having trouble moving it, probably because many who are not "in the know" get very nervous about engine conversions. If I was buying now I'd jump on it. If anyones looking you might want to check it out.