2mAn

Hey everyone, long time lurker, hoping to be promoted from "user" to "member" soon but that remains to be seen when it will actually happen. Priority is buying a 911 first, obviously...

So with that said, my budget looks to be in the 25-30 range. I could stretch it more, but I would rather have extra money for the maintenance work that will inevitably come in the future as I will be daily driving the car and adding miles.

I have two different animals in mind, at the moment, and wanted to get your opinions.

#1 Is a 75 911s found on a different forum. Its fairly local (Northern California) Its stock but with a full brand new elephant racing suspension setup (seller claims he spent ~9k on it) and recent engine maintenance to get it running solid. Ive spoken with the shop that did the work and have a copy of the invoice. It refutes his claim that he spent $3k as the receipt shows a total bill of ~$1800. They basically went through and got the CIS system running fairly solid. Other than that, its a stock 911s with suspension.

#2 Is from a rennlist member and is a 1980 targa. I love this car and it has most of the mods I would probably to do if I bought one. Problem is that its on the other side of the country and its a targa. I never considered a targa, but this thing is sexy and I live in Southern California, so that could actually be a plus instead of a minus. Ive read about the extra flex, but wold I really notice it??

They are both roughly the same price, but its obvious the 75 is a buy and flip car, while the 80 is a loved car looking for another good home. The downside is that being a 1980 it needs to have a smog inspection every two years while the 75 is exempt. And I love that because I love to tinker. The 80 already has a 964 motor, MAF conversion, cams, 993 exhaust etc and may not pass smog, which would create a nightmare I dont want to deal with. However, I have to believe that most smog shops wouldnt know the difference between the 80 & 90 motors.

So what do you guys think?

theiceman

I think someone from California will have to comment on the SMOG piece as I think that will be your biggest hurdle.

the 75 .. you really need documentation that this weak motor was rectified with case inserts for head stud pulling issues, If you have done research you will know that this work is a must to make this a solid running engine. if that cant be shown then I would be very wary of such a car.

the Targa with the 3.6 sounds interesting, I would hope it has upgraded shocks and brakes. Sounds like a fun car if the smog issue is sorted , and no you wont notice any flex unless you are running at 9/10ths at the track , even then , there is a lot more built robustness in the shell than the coupe.

race911

Neither. I think someone asked my opinion on that '75 a few weeks ago. If it was: 1. good, and 2. priced right, it would have been gone.

The 3.6-in-an-SC won't be a nightmare to smog, just that having the car in your possession would merely be the staring point. Back to stock for the intake and exhaust, and dealing with BAR to get their blessing.

There are plenty of cars out there. How many have you driven?

GTgears

figured another $2-3K on top of purchase price to get the SC with a BAR sticker and passing smog going forward.

I would buy the 75 every time over the SC these days. Is the power of a 3.6 swap yummy? Yes it is. But having to smog it is a PITA. The smog free status of the 75 is worth thousands to me. I bought a 74 a few months ago based on this premise because Colorado mirrors CA's smog laws.

Amber Gramps

Looks like you are correct on the '75. I thought it was '74.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1...smogfaq#BM2535

race911

Which I always found odd, as the introduction of catalytic converters was for MY75. (Of course not for 911s, rotaries, and BMWs.........where they just loooooved those thermal reactors.)

2mAn

I would rather not have to deal with the BAR. I've done it with both my old mk2 GTI VR6 years ago and again recently with my E30. This is the main reason why I was looking at the 75. Is there visually that many differences from the 1980 motor (3.0 or 3.2??) compared with the 3.2 that came in the 964?

I think the MAF would be obvious compared to the AFM, but Im not sure when Porsche started using those VS CIS. (Can you tell Im a newb??)

@race911 that was me who sent you a message about the car.

race911

1980 is a 3.0 CIS engine. '80-3 dispensed with the air pump/EGR/oxydizing cat of the '78-9 for a 3-way cat + oxy sensor. (Then there's the ROW engine.)

3.2 for the '84-89 cars were flapper door intakes. 3.6 came in the '90-98 cars (+ '89 C4, the initial 964). The 3.2 appears wholly different in the engine bay, as does the 3.6, from the 2.4/2.7/3.0 CIS cars.

Techno Duck

The Targa with 3.6L can be made smog legal, however you will have to retrofit the entire emissions system from intake to exhaust onto the car. This includes all the evap stuff aswell. The car will then need to be inspected and approved by a BAR referee, and from what ive read these guys are actually pretty sharp so everything has to be in order. It will then have to pass smog levels for the model of car the engine came out of.

Ive researched engine swaps fairly indepth as i put a V8 into my 944T track car while i was still living in NY. All that's worth while to say on the matter is i decided to just start trailering it to the track! Not worth the hassle of trying to get it to pass.

tcsracing1

With that budget i would be a stock 1978-1983SC

However, with smog etc you might want to look at the 74-77