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March 2010 www.911porscheworld.com
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No.204 www.911porscheworld.com
MOTOR SHOW 901
EARLS COURT PORSCHE FOUND
JOURNEY TO THE PAST
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EAST TO WEST IN GREEN PORSCHE
RARE BREED BOXSTER
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SHOW
STOPPER
When Sorjo Ranta saw the original 901 at the 1964
Earls Court Show he was so smitten he bought the car
off the stand. Remarkably, he still owns it, 47 years on
and, what’s more, it’s just been restored by Ruf
Words: Johnny Tipler
Photography: Antony Fraser
40 911 & PORSCHE WORLD

THE EARLS COURT 901
Far sighted? Sorjo Ranta was positively
visionary – he bought the very first 911 in the
UK, direct from the Porsche stand at the 1964
Earls Court Show. It wasn’t even called the 911
yet – it was known as the 901. Let’s put that in
some sort of risk context: you go to the Motor Show,
you see a new model from an emerging sportscar
maker – because don’t forget that in ’64 Porsche was
so far a class winner but still six years away from its
first Le Mans victory – and you splash your cash there
and then. Hey presto, you’ve backed a winner! Almost
50 years on, the car you purchased is still available as a
new model in the shape of the 997. That’s some
achievement. Thing is, Sorjo still owns that ’64 show
car, 901 chassis 24, and he’s just had it restored by
none other than Alois Ruf at Pfaffenhausen. Now in
their 80s, Sorjo and his wife Aira were visiting Ruf’s
workshops to check out their 901’s progress, and it
was there that Sorjo talked us through the car’s
history; Finnish, but resident in Canada for most of his
life, the accent is North American rather than
Scandinavian.
Sorjo came to England in 1964 to do an aeronautical
engineering course at Cranfield College, and was on the
point of ordering a 356C when he went to the ’64 Earls
Court Show. ‘My idea was to buy a new Porsche, own it
for six months in England and then take it back to
Canada, duty-free. Then the 901 showed up, and this
new design and all its new technology really hit me,’ he
said. So besotted was he that he decided there and then
to have one. ‘I told them that if I they could supply a 901
for a maximum of $6,000, I would buy it.’ Porsche GB said
they’d see what they could do, and meanwhile he and
Aira flew to Finland. On their return they were greeted by
a message from concessionaire John Aldington saying
the show car could be theirs, but with a twist – the 901
had been brought into the UK expressly as a show car,
and in order for Sorjo to be able to buy it, it had to be
taken out of the country and re-imported. Simple: ‘the
car was loaded into a Bristol Freighter at Southend-on-
Sea and air freighted to Le Touquet on the French coast
where it was offloaded onto the tarmac. We had lunch in
the airport restaurant, the car was reloaded and we flew
back to England. There was a slight tussle between the
customs guys saying, “what are you trying to pull?” and
the Porsche sales guy says, “I’ve done this many times
before, let’s just do the paperwork,” but a week later I
came down from Preston to pick the car up.’ For the first
year of Sorjo’s ownership the 901 was in England, since
he’d landed a job with BAE Systems at Wharton,
Lancashire, and he clocked up 14,000 miles, including a
trip to Monaco. ‘It was our honeymoon,’ he revealed, ‘and
there also happened to be an F1 race there... but I didn’t
tell her that!’
911 & PORSCHE WORLD 41

Sorjo Ranta at the wheel of
his 901, a car that he’s had
from new in 1964 and
bought straight from
Porsche’s London Motor
Show stand at Earls Court.
It was in fact the first
901/911 in the UK
Travelling on backroads, the route north from Monte
Carlo took them to Stuttgart where, coincidentally, staff
from Porsche GB were visiting the factory. ‘We got there
just as the reception started. The men were all in suits
and the ladies were in long gowns and we were in grungy
clothes, having been driving the scenic route. Who should
come along but Huschke von Hanstein and his wife. We
told him, “we can’t go in there,” but he said, “oh no, leave it
to me.” He went ahead with Aira on his arm and I went in
with his wife, and he very loudly announced, “Mr and Mrs
Ranta are here!” That man had style.’
The Porsche Competitions Manager knew who they
were because of the car. ‘It was an “open sesame” to all
kinds of interesting people in England through the
Porsche Club,’ recalled Sorjo. ‘Jim Parker in Westmoreland
started doing the servicing because he was only about an
hour away, but before that I used to have to drive to
London from Preston. Actually that wasn’t a big problem
because there weren’t any speed limits so I could cover
100 miles in an hour, no sweat, and not much traffic. I
could drive by a police Jaguar saloon going hell for leather
and they didn’t pay any attention to me, which was nice!’
Not everyone was so impressed, though. They arrived
back in Southampton docks after their
Monaco/Stuttgart adventure to be greeted by a
customs officer nursing a hangover who refused them
entry. ‘He told us, “you can’t bring the car into the
country, your time is up with it.” We’d heard that you
could get a six-month extension so we made our case on
that basis. Then a guy came in with a yacht who’d been
to a regatta in France and they discovered 30 cases of
wine hidden in his hull, so they were now dealing with
two difficult cases. Eventually they said, “right, we will
give you six months but no more.’’ ’
Temporary repatriation for the 901 was on the cards.
Aira landed a job in Bremen, north Germany, so the car
would leave the UK in any case. En route to Dover they
planned to attend a race meeting at Brands Hatch.
‘Before we got to the circuit I started having trouble
getting the car out of gear. Ok, I thought, the clutch
cable is stretching. We pulled into a lay-by and I jacked
the car up and got underneath. I had the original toolkit,
of course, so I adjusted the clutch cable and we were
back on the road, but at the first gearchange the same
Better than new? Possibly!
Sorjo’s 901 has undergone a
painstaking restoration by
Ruf. This is chassis no 24
and is one of 82 cars to
feature a 901 chassis tag
before Peugeot intervened
42 911 & PORSCHE WORLD

THE EARLS COURT 901
thing happened all over again.’ Brands Hatch was
abandoned – they needed to get to the ferry terminal
because they already had tickets and there was no
refund. ‘We got to a pub, had a meal and then just kipped
in the car until it was dark,’ he remembered. ‘I’d parked
the car on a slope so I bump-started it and we drove 30
miles to the port in first gear at about 30mph, and just
waved by anyone that came up behind us.’ The car was
pushed on and off the ferry, then towed to the local
dealer in Bremen where the diagnosis was that the
clutch withdrawal lever was too thin and it had started to
bend. It turned out to be an early design fault, remedied
by the factory fitting all 911s with a part twice as thick.
days in the city it would get coked up,’ he recalled, ‘so I
would have to take it out and really thrash it, get it hot
and burn all the carbon off and then it would run smooth
again. But that was always fun to do, and for the next
5,000 miles the car never missed a beat.’ After a trip to
Finland in 1967, Sorjo drove to Stuttgart for some
upgrades. ‘By this time the 911S had come out, and they
had a rear stabiliser bar and I wanted to get one of those
fitted, plus a set of Koni shocks.’ It wasn’t that simple.
The factory identified an engine problem with a failing
woodruff key on the intermediate shaft that drives the
chain. Sorjo argued in vain that the metal was too soft so
it was a part failure and, with less than 30,000 miles on
“
Then the 901 showed up, and this new design
and all its new technology really hit me
”
The Bremen mechanic revealed another issue: on early
exhaust manifolds all three pipes in each set came into
the head at a sharp angle which was inevitably prone to
crack, with consequent power loss, noise and smell.
Chassis 901-24 was no exception, so the garage fitted
the latest individual tuned lengths. Sorjo frowned, ‘I don’t
think they were profiting much from the early cars,
because they were making little changes like this as they
went along.’ Another on-the-hoof modification was made
by AFN when Sorjo took the car in for a routine service.
‘They told me they’d be fitting a reinforcing kit which the
factory had sent for the top of the front shock turrets.
They found that on severe bumps several 911s’ shocks
had torn right through, so they had to weld those
plates in.’
Teething troubles were one thing, everyday running
traits another. When the car ran rough he took it to the
Porsche agent in Bremen for new sparkplugs and to have
the idle on the carburettors reset. ‘If I drove it for a few
the clock, he shouldn’t have to pay for a replacement.
‘They fixed it, but I said to them, “while you’ve got the
engine apart you might as well put in new bearings and
piston rings,” so those things were on the bill too.’
After that the 901 found its way to Toronto, Canada,
where the Rantas made their home. Having collected it
from Bayonne, New Jersey, the port he was obliged to
use because of anomalies in the Canadian importation
programme, Sorjo elected to have an oil change in view
of the car’s recent engine rebuild. ‘The guy put the car on
a hoist and told me the factory had had a recall on the
original heater boxes because they’d finally realised they
were dangerous. He said, “I will get you some new ones,”
and these were the tuned header ones for the 911S,
which were much better performance-wise. I waited
another four months for those, but when they came they
were free, and he fitted them for $15 labour.’ Sorjo has an
interesting take on the effect the new heater boxes had
on acceleration: ‘once you got the revs up to about
Short wheelbase, narrow
body, chrome and pre-
Fuchs, this is the 911 at its
most pure and the white
paintwork sets it off
perfectly
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
43

44 911 & PORSCHE WORLD

THE EARLS COURT 901
The 2-litre flat six wasn’t
without its early issues.
Sorjo’s car used to coke up
after a few days of city
driving, but ran well after a
good thrashing!
4000rpm, then the pipes would kick in, the tacho would
go twang and in no time at all we’d be up to about
6500rpm. The early engines had pretty wild cams in
them, and coupled with the tuned exhaust, they would
just go. It was like a turbo kicked in, and you’d have to be
prepared to back off before you bounced the limiter.’
The same heater boxes are still on the car today
because subsequently it languished for a long time in
mothballs when Sorjo and his boys took up karting. ‘The
Porsche took a back seat and it sat in the garage in dry
storage,’ he said, ‘though we took a look at it sometimes.
It was one of the family, really; I was never interested in
any other car. It was laid up for 20 years.’ Aira was equally
faithful: ‘Absolutely. When it left our place to come here I
took so many pictures, and the last time I saw it heading
demanding Porsche delete the zero in the middle of its
model numbers – and hence the subsequent 911
designation. To be crystal clear, the 901 isn’t a prototype,
it is a pukka production car.
Meanwhile, Ruf had acquired 901 chassis 27 in Los
Angeles, and was keen to see the original interior of
Sorjo’s car since it was so close in date to his own. ‘While
Alois was restoring his car he picked our name out of Bob
Fleming’s list of early 911s and asked if he could take
some pictures of the interior, door hinges and the petrol
filler flap, nitty-gritty things like that.’ The first 2- to 300
cars were assembled on a hand-to-mouth basis and
there are plenty of minor detail differences, which
intrigued Alois all the more. Said Sorjo, ‘the following year
Alois came over to look at our car because he wanted to
“
Peugeot demanded Porsche delete the zero in
the middle of its model numbers, hence 911
”
off round the corner I really had tears in my eyes. I had
tears in my eyes again when I saw it in Ruf’s workshop.’
Though his reputation as a top quality restorer of
classic Porsches is growing apace, Alois Ruf is best know
for his steroidal treatment of modern Zuffenhausen
products. But if proof were needed of his commitment to
the 911’s legacy he also owns two 901s, chassis 27 and
37. Nevertheless, it’s a long way from Canada to Bavaria,
so how did Sorjo’s 901 find its way there? Long story
short. Back in the late ’80s Sorjo advertised the car for
sale in the Porsche Club of America magazine, but ‘it ran
for a couple of months and nobody wanted to know,’ he
said. ‘Everybody wanted the newest model, more
performance, wider tyres.’ However, Early 911 registrar
Bob Fleming spotted the ad and asked Sorjo for relevant
details. Wisconsin-based Fleming runs a register listing
232 of the early cars, along with owners’ credentials, and
needed to bone up on 901 chassis 24. It was one of 82
units that left the factory in ’64/’65 with a 901 chassis
tag before Peugeot threw its toys out of the pram,
check up on more things for his own 901, and he said,
“well, we have to get your car to Germany to restore it!”’
Alois was as good as his word. When preparing to ship
another 911 from North America, he offered to share its
container with Sorjo’s 901. There was no timeline on the
restoration of chassis 24, which suited both parties. It
was fitted in around other more pressing jobs and, three
years later, here is the pristine result.
Taking the pragmatic view, Sorjo and Aira plan to leave
their 901 at Pfaffenhausen and simply use it as their
European vacation car. Times change, and it’s
questionable they’ll be doing the kinds of speeds they
clocked in the ’60s: ‘It must have averaged close to
100mph for the first 29,000 miles of its life because there
just weren’t any speed limits, and you could drive it the
way it was meant to be driven, so it was great fun.’
Great fun to drive, and just as appealing to look at in
its gleaming white coachwork; a delight for Porsche
purists and historians alike. A canny trend spotter back in
’64, Sorjo’s still one lucky guy. PW
CONTACT:
RUF Automobile GmbH
Mindelheimer Straße 21
D-87772 Pfaffenhausen
Germany
Tel: 0049 (0)82 65 911 911
Email: info@ruf-automobile.de
911 & PORSCHE WORLD
45