The Driver
Our 1982 Porsche 911 SC followed 75bhp Porsche 356s and my 100bhp Alfa Giulia, so its 204bhp felt off the charts… In the early 1980s Golf GTIs were fast cars, pushing out 110bhp, and the heavy and square family BMW 525 was knocking out around 145bhp on Solex carbs, so the 911’s monster power seemed otherworldly. Both my father and I were a little scared of it… with good reason.
With one previous owner and just 20,000 klicks on the clock, the 911 was totally immaculate. As this was in Cape Town in the mid-1980s it was somewhat curious that the SC was painted in solid black, which was a special order, but it had clear, untinted glass all round. It was a Comfort model not a Sports, so was sans wings and spoilers and sat on 15x7in cookie-cutter alloys with higher-profile tyres. The interior featured tombstone seats in cream leather and there was no air-conditioning: a Plain Jane spec and a terrible colour for hot Cape Town. The upshot was that we rarely drove the SC in summer because it got too warm, and never in the winter rains because, as mentioned, we were nervous of its handling reputation. So mileage remained low and it proved to be the perfect spring and autumn sports car around the twisting roads beneath Table Mountain.
The 911 SC was on a different level to the previous classic cars my father and I had owned up until then. First it wasn’t a wreck, as most of the others were, and second it was beautifully built and finished. The black paint was deep and thick, the doors really did shut with that hard metallic clack, the leather trim was immaculate, while the air-cooled flat-six was absolutely glorious.
Unlike a wheezy old pushrod 356, the 911 mill was creamily smooth and just wanted to rev and rev. It was fuel-injected so the throttle response was immediate and totally fuss-free. The long gearshift action took some getting used to, as did the heavy and over-centred clutch pedal. The steering was unassisted but light and oh-so responsive, feeding info back to your fingertips via that fat, attractive three-spoke steering wheel.
The 911 was actually an understeerer and we never got brave enough to get the tail out on the tarmac, although I did have a lot of fun on deserted dirt roads. And with tyre technology improving all the time, the s
