911 (Long-hood (incl. 2.7 RS))

From 356 to 901

Porsche's replacement for the 356 was shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show on 12 September 1963 as the Type 901, with a body by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, Ferry Porsche's son, and his team. Peugeot held a trademark on three-digit names with a zero in the middle, so the car went on sale as the 911, although the engine type and parts prefixes stayed 901. Production began on 14 September 1964, the car listing at $6,500 in the United States and DM 21,900 in Germany. The Porsche Club of America records about 80 cars badged 901 before the change and roughly 150 more built before the end of 1964; Stuttcars' chassis table gives 235 cars for that first year. The engine was a 1,991 cc air-cooled flat-six with a single overhead camshaft per bank, twin Solex carburetors and 128 hp, good for 130 mph and 0-62 mph in 9.1 seconds by Porsche's own figures. The four-cylinder 912 followed in 1965.

S, Targa and the Short-Wheelbase Years

The 911S arrived for 1967 with 158 hp at 6,600 rpm on Weber carburetors and the forged five-spoke Fuchs wheel, which appeared here for the first time. A period road test recorded 139 mph and 0-60 mph in 7.6 seconds from 2,271 lb. The Targa, previewed at Frankfurt in 1965, entered production in December 1966 with a stainless-steel roll hoop and a zip-out plastic rear window, replaced by fixed glass for 1969. The A-series 1968 cars introduced the 911T with 108 hp and cast-iron cylinders, the 911L, and the Sportomatic clutchless semi-automatic. Stuttcars' chassis table lists 22 911R competition cars for 1968.

The Long-Wheelbase Chassis and Fuel Injection

For the 1969 B-series Porsche moved the rear wheels 2.2 in (57 mm) aft, taking the wheelbase from 87.0 in (2,211 mm) to 89.3 in (2,268 mm) without lengthening the body, the single largest change to the car's behavior in the run. The same year the E and S received Bosch mechanical fuel injection, and the E gained Boge hydropneumatic self-leveling front struts, which it kept until 1971. The 1970 C-series took the engine to 2,195 cc, giving 125, 155 and 178 hp for T, E and S, and the transaxle was updated with a 8.9 in (225 mm) clutch. The E-series of 1972 brought 2,341 cc and 130, 165 and 187 hp, and the new Type 915 gearbox with a conventional H-pattern for the first four gears; Classic & Sports Car calls it the stronger of the two boxes. Elferspot's comparison gives the 2.4 S 0-62 mph in 6.6 seconds, and it was this car, not a lighter one, that Porsche started from when the RS was needed.

Germany's Fastest Sports Car

The Carrera RS 2.7 was conceived in May 1972 to homologate the 911 for Group 4, which needed 500 cars. Porsche's own account credits about fifteen engineers, with Hermann Burst and Tilman Brodbeck on the engineering side and Rolf Wiener and Harm Lagaaij on the styling. The engine went to 2,687 cc with Nikasil-lined cylinders and mechanical injection for 207 hp at 6,300 rpm and 188 lb-ft at 5,100 rpm; the rear arches were widened 1.65 in (42 mm) to take wider tires than the fronts, a first for Porsche, and the ducktail spoiler, patented on 5 August 1972, made it the first series production car with spoilers at both ends. The car was shown at Paris on 5 October 1972 at DM 34,000, with M471 Sport at DM 700 extra and M472 Touring at DM 2,500, and was not sold new in the US. The 500 were sold by the end of November, homologation moved to Group 3 after the thousandth car, and production ended at 1,580 in July 1973: 200 Sport, 1,308 Touring, 17 base cars and 55 racing RSRs. Porsche quoted 2,116 lb for the Sport and 0-62 mph in 5.8 seconds, claiming the first production car under six seconds, and advertised it as Germany's fastest sports car.

The Line Closes

The 1973 model year was the last with the short bumpers and the long hood that gave the cars their later name. American bumper rules for 1974 produced the impact-bumper G-series. By then Porsche's press material puts 81,100 911s built, a figure the Early 911 Registry, Sports Car Market and Classic & Sports Car each contradict in a different direction, which is why no single total appears on this page.

Almost all early flat-sixes leak oil, and the question is from where and how much; chain-box covers and the crankcase seams are the usual sources. Blue smoke on start-up points to worn valve guides. The camshaft chain tensioners are the mechanical weak point: the original spring-loaded units fail with age, the chain can jump the sprockets and the pistons meet the valves, and Pelican Parts quotes a $6,000-10,000 rebuild when that happens. Porsche's 1984 hydraulically fed Carrera tensioner can be retrofitted to 1969-1983 cars and its presence is now expected on a car that is used. From 1968 the crankcase was magnesium rather than aluminum, which Classic & Sports Car describes as easily weakened, and worn crankcase studs are a recognized consequence; the RM Sotheby's Paris 2026 RS Touring had been running on replacement aluminum case halves since 1987, which shows how long the problem has been addressed that way. Mechanical fuel injection on E and S cars needs proper setting up, and MFI Werks in Oregon lists a pump rebuild from $2,900 in labor as of September 2026. Gearboxes whine when synchros and bearings are worn, a US restoration-cost guide published in April 2025 brackets a transmission overhaul at $3,000-8,000, and a vague shift is often cured by rebushing the linkage. The Boge hydropneumatic front struts fitted to the 911E from 1969 to 1971 are a specialized item and a car that has been converted to conventional struts should say so. None of this is unusual for the period; what separates a good car is whether the work has been done by someone who knows the model.

The steel decides everything on a long-hood. Classic & Sports Car's guide says rust protection was limited and body condition is paramount, and Renndriver names the longitudinal chassis rails beneath the doors and the battery box area as the places to check first. A car with replaced floors and longitudinals can be sound, but the standard of the repair determines whether the suspension mounts are where Porsche put them and whether the car will pass a specialist's inspection, and the range of outcomes is wide: a US cost guide from April 2025 puts a basic refresh at $20,000-40,000 and a concours rebuild at $100,000-250,000 and above. Documentation comes next. A Porsche Certificate of Authenticity or the Kardex build record confirms the original engine and gearbox numbers, color and options, and the auction catalogs for the top results in 2025 and 2026 all lead with it. Matching numbers matter more here than on later 911s because so many early engines were replaced or upgraded in period; the RM Sotheby's Paris 2026 RS Touring carried replacement aluminum crankcase halves from 1987 with restamped numbers, and it sold for less than half the Monterey car. For the Carrera RS, Classic Driver warned as long ago as 2014 that rising values had put non-original cars on the market as the genuine article; the thin-gauge steel and glass of the M471 cars, the M-code on the build record and the engine and gearbox numbers against the Certificate are what a specialist checks, and the RM Sotheby's Monterey 2026 catalog's note that the last hundred or so cars carry an aluminum rather than magnesium crankcase shows how specific the questions get. Establish which gearbox is fitted, since the dogleg 901 and H-pattern 915 are different in feel and value, whether a Sportomatic car is still one, and whether a 1969-1971 E still has its hydropneumatic struts. A long file of invoices from a marque specialist is worth more than a fresh restoration of unknown scope.

As of September 2026, classic.com's 1964-1973 911 submarket shows an average recorded sale of $115,342 across the F-body, with the 1964-1965 cars benchmarked at $197,375 and the model's ceiling set by a Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight at $2,425,000 in August 2022. The RS is a separate market. The Touring benchmark is $565,671 and the Lightweight benchmark $1,117,857, the latter trending downward against a Lightweight average sale of $1,229,455; classic.com's most recent Lightweight results are $1,200,000 on 7 July 2026, $805,000 on 20 August 2026 and a Broad Arrow private sale at 950,000 euros on 22 August 2026. RM Sotheby's sold a Tangerine Touring, chassis 9113601556, for $896,000 at Monterey in August 2026 and a Grand Prix White Touring, chassis 9113601272, for 353,750 euros at Paris in January 2026; both are quoted as the house published them and the lot pages do not state whether buyer's premium is included. For the 2.0 S, classic.com's short-wheelbase 911S page gives an average sale of $178,162, a 1967 coupe benchmark of $169,320 and a 1967 Targa benchmark of $211,330, with August 2026 results of $257,600 for a 1967 soft-window Targa at Gooding Christie's, $231,000 for a 1967 S at Mecum Monterey and $112,000 for a 1968 S at Gooding. Renndriver's 911T guide, dated June 2026, puts driver-quality cars at $80,000-120,000, matching-numbers cars at $120,000-175,000 and concours cars at $175,000 and above, and claims a 10-20 percent premium for Targas; Classic & Sports Car's 2018 guide said the opposite, valuing Targas 10 percent below coupes and Sportomatics 20 percent below manuals. That reversal on Targas is unexplained by either source.