RARE BREED BOXSTER - JZ Machtech

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
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