1967 911 S - real world impressions anyone?
02-05-2008, 06:31 PM
#16
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I had a '67S in my family for over 40 years, until about 3 months ago, when I sold it. I first drove it when I was 18 years old, in late 1966, when my father traded in his '65 356SC on one at one of the local dealerships. It was the first new car he had ever bought, although he had owned 3 different used 356 models since I was about 10. When he read about the 160HP 6-cylinder, he had to try one, and after a test drive, he said "finally they have enough power" and bought one on the spot--paid $6995 for a plain vanilla, low-optioned, light ivory example off the showroom floor.
It was his daily driver for almost 20 years, when he finally opted for a 928 with automatic transmission, after he felt he was getting too old to shift gears constantly. He put over 180,000 miles on it, and I borrowed it whenever I could talk him out of the keys, as a teenager, while I was still living at home, and even when I came back on visits from college. Compared to the 95HP 356SC, it was a rocketship, and quite a car for its day. All I could afford at the time was a $500 beater '57 MGA roadster, and it made that car look sick, in both handling and power. The light flywheel and instant throttle response of the Webers, along with the unique flat six howl, made it scream like a banshee when revved, and it would run up to the 7300RPM redline willingly, time after time, and each shift would drop you back about 1500 RPMs into the sweet spot of the cams to do it again.
I did not know anything about trailing throttle oversteer at the time, but I did know who Dan Gurney was, and tried to emulate him at every opportunity. I got it up to 140mph indicated on a straight section of I-5 one time, and late one foggy night while carving the canyons down to Sorrento Valley from Miramar Rd., I misjudged a corner, went in too fast, and lifted in the middle of it, sending the car spinning backwards off the wet road into a ditch. Luckily, there was no damage done, other than my accelerated heart rate, and I never told my father about it.
My brother bought the car from my father, when he went to the 928, and I bought it from my brother in the late 90s, when his wife needed a new horse trailer. By then, it had 200,000+ miles on it, with one rebuild of the engine and transaxle at about 180K. I had already bought a '66 911 by then, which had been converted to '67S specs in the 70s sometime, and actually learned how to drive it by taking a PCA performance driving school and learning to autox, then time trialing on the big tracks.
The car has always been dead-nuts reliable, and I finally had the original mechanical chain tensioners start to fail after 230,000 miles, so I upgraded to the 930 tensioners. I don't think the 2-liter engines make the kind of heat that started stressing the later, larger displacement motors, and when this one was taken apart at 180K, the cams, pistons and cylinders were still all within spec, and were re-used, with new rings and bearings, and new valves. The original Webers have never been rebuilt, and though the throttle shafts were a little worn, we just set the idle a little higher to hide the false air, and although fuel quality started going downhill, and leaded premium gas went away long ago, we just reamed the idle jets from 55 to 57 and have run 91 octane unleaded in it ever since, with no problems. They have never needed adjustment once synch'ed and set up properly, driven frequently (with regular "Italian tuneups"), and supplied with clean fuel at the correct pressure.
No, the 2-liter won't make the power of the 2.4S or the 2.7RS motor, especially on the low end, but it is still very driveable around town, and if you keep it in the 5,000-7300 range, the performance is still pretty surprising. The shifter can be "vague", but when you are used to it, finding every gear precisely is never a problem. While I have missed a shift with my 915 tranny in my '73 that cost me an engine, I have never missed a shift with the 901.
Although I had another race car, after a few years I began wondering how the '67S would do, so I began autocrossing it in street stock class on Falken Azenis tires. It won its class that year, and often beat the newer models running in SS in the higher classes on raw time on the short courses. If there were longer straights, the higher-powered cars would gain an advantage. The next year, I put V710s on it and won both the region and the Zone 8 autox championships, often by such wide margins that the rules were changed the next year to move it up in class. On indexed time, it dominated all the other Porsches the entire year.
Over the last 3-5 years, the values on these cars have skyrocketed. If you can find a good example for less than $50K, you would be doing well. Some excellent examples have sold for north of $100K lately. The collectors have recognized their excellence, and mine is now residing in Europe, being prepared for historic rallies under new ownership. Even though it was like selling a piece of my heart, when faced with what else I might be able to do with the funds, I let mine go late last year to someone who would be a good custodian and use it as it was intended.
TT
It was his daily driver for almost 20 years, when he finally opted for a 928 with automatic transmission, after he felt he was getting too old to shift gears constantly. He put over 180,000 miles on it, and I borrowed it whenever I could talk him out of the keys, as a teenager, while I was still living at home, and even when I came back on visits from college. Compared to the 95HP 356SC, it was a rocketship, and quite a car for its day. All I could afford at the time was a $500 beater '57 MGA roadster, and it made that car look sick, in both handling and power. The light flywheel and instant throttle response of the Webers, along with the unique flat six howl, made it scream like a banshee when revved, and it would run up to the 7300RPM redline willingly, time after time, and each shift would drop you back about 1500 RPMs into the sweet spot of the cams to do it again.
I did not know anything about trailing throttle oversteer at the time, but I did know who Dan Gurney was, and tried to emulate him at every opportunity. I got it up to 140mph indicated on a straight section of I-5 one time, and late one foggy night while carving the canyons down to Sorrento Valley from Miramar Rd., I misjudged a corner, went in too fast, and lifted in the middle of it, sending the car spinning backwards off the wet road into a ditch. Luckily, there was no damage done, other than my accelerated heart rate, and I never told my father about it.
My brother bought the car from my father, when he went to the 928, and I bought it from my brother in the late 90s, when his wife needed a new horse trailer. By then, it had 200,000+ miles on it, with one rebuild of the engine and transaxle at about 180K. I had already bought a '66 911 by then, which had been converted to '67S specs in the 70s sometime, and actually learned how to drive it by taking a PCA performance driving school and learning to autox, then time trialing on the big tracks.
The car has always been dead-nuts reliable, and I finally had the original mechanical chain tensioners start to fail after 230,000 miles, so I upgraded to the 930 tensioners. I don't think the 2-liter engines make the kind of heat that started stressing the later, larger displacement motors, and when this one was taken apart at 180K, the cams, pistons and cylinders were still all within spec, and were re-used, with new rings and bearings, and new valves. The original Webers have never been rebuilt, and though the throttle shafts were a little worn, we just set the idle a little higher to hide the false air, and although fuel quality started going downhill, and leaded premium gas went away long ago, we just reamed the idle jets from 55 to 57 and have run 91 octane unleaded in it ever since, with no problems. They have never needed adjustment once synch'ed and set up properly, driven frequently (with regular "Italian tuneups"), and supplied with clean fuel at the correct pressure.
No, the 2-liter won't make the power of the 2.4S or the 2.7RS motor, especially on the low end, but it is still very driveable around town, and if you keep it in the 5,000-7300 range, the performance is still pretty surprising. The shifter can be "vague", but when you are used to it, finding every gear precisely is never a problem. While I have missed a shift with my 915 tranny in my '73 that cost me an engine, I have never missed a shift with the 901.
Although I had another race car, after a few years I began wondering how the '67S would do, so I began autocrossing it in street stock class on Falken Azenis tires. It won its class that year, and often beat the newer models running in SS in the higher classes on raw time on the short courses. If there were longer straights, the higher-powered cars would gain an advantage. The next year, I put V710s on it and won both the region and the Zone 8 autox championships, often by such wide margins that the rules were changed the next year to move it up in class. On indexed time, it dominated all the other Porsches the entire year.
Over the last 3-5 years, the values on these cars have skyrocketed. If you can find a good example for less than $50K, you would be doing well. Some excellent examples have sold for north of $100K lately. The collectors have recognized their excellence, and mine is now residing in Europe, being prepared for historic rallies under new ownership. Even though it was like selling a piece of my heart, when faced with what else I might be able to do with the funds, I let mine go late last year to someone who would be a good custodian and use it as it was intended.
TT
02-05-2008, 06:41 PM
#17
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i havent the knowledge or experience of everyone above, but i love the swb cars.
but i have an old 2.0 litre SWB 67 (but it's not an S)
i really enjoy it - it has a real 'mechanical/close the car' feel you can really feel everything and roger says above is true - it really is 'fun!' a smile a minute,
and just 2 years later my 2.0 litre from 69 (LWB) feels considerably more 'civilized', and 4 years later my friends 73 feels light years more civilized. they're all fun but theres nothing like a an early car for raw fun in corners IMHO. my mechanics father used to slalom swb 912's and beat later high powered cars easily. but on a straight (maybe even in an S).. forget it you're dust ... instead enjoy the glances, finger pointing and smiles from every pedestrian in the early beauty. its so fun to enjoy the sound of porsches first incarnation of the 911 also.
but i have an old 2.0 litre SWB 67 (but it's not an S)
i really enjoy it - it has a real 'mechanical/close the car' feel you can really feel everything and roger says above is true - it really is 'fun!' a smile a minute,
and just 2 years later my 2.0 litre from 69 (LWB) feels considerably more 'civilized', and 4 years later my friends 73 feels light years more civilized. they're all fun but theres nothing like a an early car for raw fun in corners IMHO. my mechanics father used to slalom swb 912's and beat later high powered cars easily. but on a straight (maybe even in an S).. forget it you're dust ... instead enjoy the glances, finger pointing and smiles from every pedestrian in the early beauty. its so fun to enjoy the sound of porsches first incarnation of the 911 also.
02-05-2008, 06:41 PM
#18
Rennlist Member
Great read, Tom 
02-08-2008, 09:47 AM
#21
Three Wheelin'
The good news is the prices on F355 spiders have come down $10-15K since I was thinking of trading up. The bad news is I'm putting off any possibility of purchase for a while. The mitigating factor is I have a 911 that I love. I would hate selling it to upgrade, but I'd need to- maybe I'm just meant to remain a porsche guy.
02-10-2008, 11:06 AM
#22
I owned a '68 SWB that had the 2.0 liter engine warmed up to "S" specs. I've owned several 911's since then, all years and models up to a '93 964, but always looked back on that car as the benchmark of performace. I owned it five years and the only problem I ever had was fouling plugs. An electonic ignition and hotter plugs cured that. I never had to touch any major mechanical systems, including the Webers. The car inisisted on being driven regularly and hard 
to keep it running smoothly, but never let me down. I also drove it to work (35 miles) at least once a week.
It was very fast. Once up in the power band, the car just pulled harder and harder up to red line. It actually felt like a turbo. At low rpm's, the engine was rather tame, but power came on in a rush that has not been matched by anything I've had since. I personally like the 901 transmission, although I know it's not as strong as the later ones.
I liked my car so much that I tried to buy it back last year when I saw it was for sale. Unfortunately, the asking price had tripled since I sold it, so I ended up with a '70 911T that will be made into a car of similar characteristics.
Go for it!
David Nolen
'70 911T
to keep it running smoothly, but never let me down. I also drove it to work (35 miles) at least once a week.It was very fast. Once up in the power band, the car just pulled harder and harder up to red line. It actually felt like a turbo. At low rpm's, the engine was rather tame, but power came on in a rush that has not been matched by anything I've had since. I personally like the 901 transmission, although I know it's not as strong as the later ones.
I liked my car so much that I tried to buy it back last year when I saw it was for sale. Unfortunately, the asking price had tripled since I sold it, so I ended up with a '70 911T that will be made into a car of similar characteristics.
Go for it!
David Nolen
'70 911T
