My son (and I) is considering a 912 to replace his 944. This will be mainly used on weekends and at an occasional DE. We have seen several good looking cars listed on the internet at around $10K. There are none listed locally at this point.

In general how much would you recommend that we budget to sort everything out if we find a clean, rust free car with good paint and interior? I'm thinking along the lines of $3K.

Are parts readily available or is that going to be an issue? What are common issues with these cars?

We will have a PPI when we find the car.

 

Hello,
After having a 944, a 964, a 912, and a ton of other cars - I wouldnt recommend a 912 for a DE car. The 944 will be much more capable and forgiving if learning how to drive quick.

That said - if you find a 912 for $10k, I'd expect less than $3k to get it in awesome shape - I picked mine up for $6k and have put $1k into it for a top runner with 77k original miles.. maybe a steal to begin with, but $13k total investment seems high for a DE car!

Cheers,

Mike

 

Well, an interesting upgrade? I love my 912, we've had it since 1968, restored it in the mid 90's. Through the years have made constant improvements and it is currently performing very well. The crank, case, heads and trans are original with close to 500k miles on them. Trans has never been touched!! I have auto-x and DE the car since 1996, 11 years on, she is absolutely reliable and it's fun to be the underdog. Be careful, parts are abuntant and available (with the exception of the small diameter generators) and also expensive. Remember nearly eveything (except the engine) is interchangeable with the 911, soooooo prices are accordingly high. I invested alot into this car because it was my dad's since new. Sentimental value aside, dollars-to-power ratio is not good. Lots of dollars = not very high performance. The 912 gains all its advantage by power to weight, out-braking and superior cornering are the result. Good 912 performance can best be described as "spunky" but it will never be overwhelmingly fast.

Things you need to consider:
Engine:
crank - $1000
p&c set - $1200
exhaust - $250 - 500
Cam - $250
Rods - $800
Webers - $750 - 900 +$100 for the proper jets, tubes and venturies you'll need out of the box.
Clutch/flywheel etc - $500+
Machine work - $ varies
050 distributer (if you can find one) $100 - $200
pertronix / msd/crane cams ignition - $350 +

Suspension:
bushings - $200
shocks, tie rods, ball joints - $750

Interior: if you are going to DE the car change the seats and add proper seat belts. I have Corbeau and 5 pt harness. Invaluable while auto-xing and DE. $750+

And I haven't even mention the biggest ticket item of all BODYWORK and paint. These things RUST period. Everything from back then did. Check the rockers, front suspension pan, lock posts, fender joining panels, floors, around the pedal cluster, lower corners of the front and rear window, turnsignal boxes, basically everywhere. You can drop 10 - 15 - 20k + on this alone easily.

Don't let this discourage you. Just be prepared, do your home work and pay more for a good example rather than trying to resurrect somebody else's abortion otherwise you will be upside down instantly.

Believe me, it is PRICELESS to see the owners of 911s checking their mirrors for a 912.

Brgds, Peter

 

Dunno about your/your son's driving history - but my 912 costs $103 to insure on a collectors policy of 2500 miles a year. DE's not included, obviously. I think adding that to the cost of my 964 and Jeep, I'm still under $1k a year.

Just a factor in the decision process.. I loved my 944, and would have another DE/track car if I had the time for that.

Cheers,

 

James,

This link to a 912 in Phoenix was posted on another site...

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/car/409276470.html

Could be a nice day trip for you and your son to go ckeck out.

 

James:

912's have jumped considerably in value since 2002. Pricing for a good example will run in the $12K to $16K for a good to excellent example. No rust will be a challange, even in AZ. They're great cars, and a real collector. try to find a '69. They're rare, and worth it.

Driving a 912 hard is a bit of a risk unless the engine has been purpose built. The crank is the weakest link on these cars when racing and high-revving, and often snap at #2 rod. As previously mentioned, they aren't known for power, so some owners tend to drive them (and rev them) hard to squeeze power out of them ... power that really doesn't exist. As a friendly mechanic told me, the 911 body is really quite heavy for a 356C engine to be pushing around. He recommended swapping out the 1750cc engine (saving it for re-entering in the car when we sell it) and plopping a 2.0L-6 cyl. for tracking it.

We've opted to retire the car to "garage Queen" status, since the re-build of engine and trans ran well over $11K a couple of years ago. We now race my 911SC exclusively, saving the 912 for the shows. 912's are great cruisers, but unless purpose-built, not the best track car for the money.

Just my two-cents about the beautiful, if fragile, 912.

 

(Just my unrequested opinion) 912s are kind of funky cars to own. On the pluse side they have high cool old car factor and the motors are a little bit easer to work on by a home based mechanic.
On the down side they do not present much of a cost savings over a little bit newer 911 and have all the bad points of the early 911s. 912s have much less crash protection than a 944. A good hit wreck might be a walk away in a stock 88 944 but a hospital bed in a 912. There are many more non rust bucket 944s to pick from. 944 motors are cheap to replace. You can purchase an entire running 944 motor for 1/4 or less the cost of a 912 motor rebulid.

I have been pounding the snot out of a 912 on track for years and given a do over would jump on an SC. There are far more short hood 911s to pick from too. OTOH It is fun to hand it to a 911 from time to time. you get passed by a 912 in a 911 you need to think about Golf lessons.

Good advice on not taxing a stock 912 motor. They will do fine for street driving but need $ome improvment$ for track drivng, even just DE. 944 for the DE dayz 912 for tinkering on with the son on the weekends.

 

993james, I understand the appeal of the 912, especially the early cars... but for the same $ (12-14k investment) you can buy a really nice 911 SC. It may not be the classic that the 912 is, but it would be more practical as a street car, and much more robust on the track.