1972 Porsche 911E 2146368730 Tweet

Ordered on March 9th 1971 and completed on September 8th, this 1972 Tangerine orange Porsche 911E began its life with Staff Sargent Willie J. Small. Originally intent on ordering a 1971, Small was told that Porsche was no longer taking orders for 71 cars at the time. Changing his original order to a 1972, he optioned the 911E with black leatherette with leather seats, USA-equipment, factory air conditioning, a Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio, tinted glass all around for a total of $9,080.36. He shipped the Porsche from Stuttgart to Houston, Texas on December 17th of 1971 and started his 26+ year ownership of the car. Shortly after the 911 was delivered to Small, records show that he and the Porsche moved to California. An ever-caring owner for his car, the 911 would remain well serviced during Smalls entire ownership with numerous records and maintenance documents to show for it. With the last registration for the car indicating Willie being the owner in 1998, the Porsche would then change hands for the first time and be sold to John Willhoit of Willhoit Auto Restoration. Willhoit purchased the car on behalf of its new owner, Carl Akins, in late 1999. With the 911 now in his possession, Akins would put the Porsche through a meticulous restoration that yielded the perfect result: A built, bespoke and truly world-class R-gruppe outlaw Porsche 911. Beginning in 1999, Akins would start the restoration process for the 911 and take more than two years to carry out this meticulous project. In charge of completing the restoration, Willhoit began by stripping the Tangerine tub down to every last piece of hardware, cleaning and prepping the tub as they went along. Color matched to the original Tangerine orange from the Porsche factory, the now prepped Porsche tub was resprayed to perfection. With the rear seats removed to save weight, the interior was covered with leather and new carpet was installed throughout. The interior causes feelings of withdrawal as soon as you step out of the car. The mechanicals of any 911 restoration are something to spend some time on, but Akins decided that his car should be something unlike anything else underneath. Scotts Independent, Inc. in Anaheim, CA worked closely with Akins and Willhoit throughout the build. The engine from the case up is anything but ordinary, sporting a NOS Porsche 911 magnesium crankcase, along with a NOS crankshaft. Custom Carillo connecting rods, Mahle 2.9-liter lightweight pistons and cylinders, special copper head gaskets, custom Elgin camshafts, racing valve springs and titanium retainers, magnesium throttle bodies ported to the Carrera heads, custom rebuilt mechanical fuel injection pump, twin-plugs with an ANDIAL distributor, and SSI headers with a custom sport exhaust that gives the 911 a spine-tingling wail at full throttle. This in combination with other engine components was good for 275 naturally aspirated horsepower on the dyno, almost doubling the 911Es original output. Scotts also rebuilt the 5-speed transmission from the ground-up, adding a shorter 3rd, 4th and 5th gear to the box, a more modern shifter along with a Quaife limited slip differential. Suspension was a critical component to harness all of the extra power now being created, and Willhoit was keen on which modifications were needed. New bushings were installed everywhere, new torsion bars (22mm and 26mm), new sway bars, new Bilstein sport shocks and struts were added with raised and decambered spindles, new Porsche Turbo