crashmy911

Make sure a porsche mechanic looks at the cars!!! I've made the mistake of buying a porsche with broken headstuds and accident damage so be warned these are old cars and they can have way more miles on them than is showing on the odometer! Don't trust anything they say to you and have the porsche guy tell you which car to buy!!!!

Typical Fish

"On the other hand, my late Euro SC is just as fast as a Carrera, and a lot lighter"...

Tom, out of curiousity, how is your SC that much lighter? Is there that much weight difference in the SC vs. Carrera engine? Other than that, I thought they were fundamentally the same car.

NOT trying to flame; I am just curious. I have an '84 and I do not see where all the "extra" weight is compared to a late SC.

Thanks in advance. (Other replies welcome.)

Tom F

Structure of the two cars is virtually the same, the difference in weight comes from many details, e.g., the Carrera brakes are heavier (thicker front discs, wider calipers to match). My RoW '83, which is minimally optioned, weighs 2550 lbs. according to the Porsche spec book. An '84 US market Carrera weighs 2760, according to Car & Driver. (I don't have the spec book. However, the US market '83 SC weighs 2750 lbs. according to the spec book, so the official numbers and the C&D "real world" numbers seem to match up.) A lot of the difference lies in standard equipment, like A/C. The US market door beams, bumper shocks, catalytic converter, etc. must factor into the mix, too. Anyway, the books seem to give my car about an 8% advantage on weight.

The engines have very similar performance. SAE net hp and torque figures are 195/190 for the RoW SC, and 200/185 for the early US Carrera. However, I think that the peak torque figure is a little deceptive, and that one of the key advantages of the Carrera with the Motronic is that the torque curve on the Carrera is broader. Also, those heavier brakes on the Carrera do give better control in braking.

The deeper truth is that all of these 911s are getting old, and most are suffering from lack of maintenance and from poor quality repairs. Good air cooled, torsion bar equipped 911s are getting hard to find, so if you find a nice SC, it could be worth more than a beat up Carrera. Me, I'd like to save up enough to get one of those new twin turbos. That's a nice car!

Just my $0.02 worth.

Typical Fish

Tom, thanks for the well thought out reply. I definitely see your points.

Usually I just get an "SC's Rule, you don't know what you are talking about."

Thanks again.

Christian K

Tom is comparing a ROW-model to an US-model. If you do it the other way around, comparing an 83 US SC to an 84 ROW Carrera, actually the Carrera is lighter, according to Peter Morgans Original 911, 1090 kg vs 1060. This are the weights for the various standard models:

78-83 ROW SC: 1060 kg
78-83 US SC: 1090 kg

84-85 ROW Carrera: 1060 kg
84-85 US Carrera: 1250
1986 US Carrera: 1300 kg
87-89 US Carrera: 1250 kg

cheers

Christian

84 Carrera (ROW)

Christian K

forgot this:

86-89 ROW Carrera 1210 kg

As Tom Points out, it depends a lot on the equipment in the car. If you have an SC with electric everything and AC, it's probably heavier than a Carrera with no extras. However I think US standard models normally had more luxury equpment in them. Also when the G 50 came, the car put on extra weight.

cheers

christian

84 Carrera

Christian K

Ooops!

Actually I'll have to correct myself here. The weights for the ROW SC as well as the ROW 84-85 Carrera should be 1160 and 1190 for the US SC. The ROW 84-85 Standard Carrera is however lighter than the US SC.

/c