I'm turning 40 next year and I was trying to think of an appropriate special vehicle to celebrate. I've been looking at a bunch of options but it had to be a driver's car, not something so precious I'd be afraid to drive it. My main criteria were that I wanted it to be a car that offered a different driving experience from the cars I have now and it had to be manual. My intention was to find something over the winter but I stumbled across a deal I couldn't pass up over a week ago and so today I flew down to South Carolina to seal the deal. Say hello to the latest addition to the Steguis Motorsports fleet, a 1983 Guards Red 911 SC (Super Carrera) I am calling "Scarlett".
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1983 Guards Red 911 SC - Scarlett - 12/7/2019
Photo By: Tomomi Uetani |
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| 1983 Guards Red 911 SC - Scarlett - 12/7/2019 |
I've been leaning towards an older classic car and the air-cooled Porsches simply have that special something that really kept me looking back at them. I saw a Guards Red 1980 911SC listed for sale at CCS Motors this summer and I kept going back to looking at it online. It was a bit too clean and pricey for what I wanted but it gave me an idea of what to look for. The 911SC itself isn't a particularly special or rare car but having a G-series Porsche of the generation around the year of my birth felt like a very appropriate choice. Sure it's not fast, it has no frills, no power steering, no ABS, and the 915 transmission is less loved than the G50 that proceeded but overall the SC is a raw and truly engaging vehicle.
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| 1983 Guards Red 911 SC - Scarlett - 12/7/2019 |
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| Made in West Germany - 12/7/2019 |
My search eventually led to this 1983 911SC being sold by a private seller in South Carolina. 1983 was the final year of the SC. The car has 160K miles on the odometer and the clear coat front of the A-pillar is starting to fade badly and most people would simply pass on it. However, as the "Buster" once said "Pop the Hood!", and under that exterior is a freshly rebuilt (by Porsche, and with warranty) 3.0L flat-6 engine. The engine is still being broken in with just around 20 miles on it since the rebuild earlier this year and I have all the paperwork to prove it. The most recent previous owner had it for almost a decade sitting around clocking only 1000 miles in 10 years since buying it off his friend. He recently decided to start it up again and didn't like the little oil leaks and smoking at startup so he brought it into a dealership where the engine was completely overhauled. Other things were fixed as well including the AC switch and a new OEM windshield was installed. It also just got a new battery and a new leather dash cover. The AC blows very cold, heat works, all gauges work including the clock.
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| Freshly rebuilt 3.0L flat six - 12/7/19 |
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| Freshly rebuilt 3.0L flat six - 12/7/19 |
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| Brown interior |
Everything works on the car except for the headlight switch which is intermittent, a common air-cooled Porsche fault and the driver seat has a rip in it but otherwise, the car is in good mechanical shape. It also spent all of its life until recently on the west coast so it's a rust-free chassis. This is the perfect driver's car baseline I wanted for my air-cooled Porsche project. It's clean enough to build on but old and used enough that I don't have to be too precious with it so it won't make any Porsche purists cry too much.
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| Front wheels with fresh Michelin tire |
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| Front wheels with fresh Michelin tire |
Since this was a bit of an unexpected and sudden move on my part, my build sheet for it is still evolving but you can rest assured knowing that Scarlett will be built up to a standard that befits her membership to the Steguis Motorsports fleet. I think the direction I'm going is a light restomod. I'm really excited about what's to come and hopefully we'll get her done before my actual birthday next Summer so I can enjoy driving her once the weather gets better again. For now, she needs to get transported up to the northeast where we're going to breath new life into this old but loved car.
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| High miles but everything works |
