1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Sport Targa

“ This lovely 911 had a comprehensive body rebuild with new front wings and partial respray in 2007. ”
There was a new gearbox in 2014 (strengthened and built by Tuthills) and a new new alternator in 2015.

Background
The Porsche 911 first broke cover in 1963, morphing over the years from the svelte, elfin Audrey Hepburn of the sportscar world into the ballistic bruiser beloved of city traders, nouveau riche entrepreneurs, and mid-life crisis divorcees.

While the early cars were slow and fragile – and the later cars very fast and almost indestructible – many enthusiasts think the 3.0-litre and 3.2-litre 911 SC (for ‘Super Carrera’) from the late seventies and eighties is the purest evocation and the one that best balances classic looks with decent performance and better-than-average reliability – and a well fettled 911 is a very quick and reliable car indeed.

And you can forget the car’s notoriety for spitting drivers off the road backwards because while the flat-six, air-cooled (actually oil-cooled, but who’s quibbling?) aluminium engine might hang ponderously behind the rear axle line, the handling is surprisingly benign - as long as you don’t do anything really silly, obviously…

The 3.2-litre Carrera, which was only offered between 1984 and 1989, is still a relative lightweight compared to the later cars and gets away with delicate front tyres for better balanced handling and sublime steering feedback, plus vented disc brakes all round for serious stopping power. It sounds amazing too; the lack of a water jacket means that the raw, almost unsilenced engine blares directly behind you, accompanied, of course, by one of the world’s great exhaust notes.

The interior is practically bombproof, which means you can forgive its sometimes-wayward ergonomics, and delivers one of the best driving positions in the business. It even offers four-up motoring, although the rear seat is best occupied by pre-teen children rather than fully fledged adults.

Overview
The seller bought ‘FIL 9055’ from us in June 2022, and while he’s thoroughly enjoyed his time with his 911 Targa, he’s spending more time abroad than he expected, so hasn’t been able to use it as much as he would have liked to – and being a mechanically sympathetic chap, he’s reluctantly concluded it would be better served in someone else’s garage.

Dry-stored and only used sparingly in the summer, that same understanding attitude means he hasn’t been afraid to invest significant time and money to bring it up to a standard he’s happy with.

This work included investing almost £9,000 with Pie Performance in December 2022 for a major service, a new fuel tank, and lots and lots of minor fettling. The same firm then made repairs to the rear inner wheelarches and fitted two rear Pirelli tyres for another £3,320 in February 2023.

May 2023 saw him spend another £2,000 with Pie for more fettling including new front brake discs and pads. He also spent almost £1,500 with Porsche Cambridge in April 2025, and had the driver’s seat upholstery repaired, the seats re-Connolised, the Targa roof checked, and the paintwork corrected and ceramic coated by Cambridge Concours in August 2023 at a cost of £2,800.

He also fitted a Blaupunkt Bremen headunit, thus brilliantly blending retro looks with hi-fidelity sound.

He is not a man to skimp.

But then nor was the previous owner who estimates she spent around £26,000 in her 20-year tenure including a body overhaul comprising new front wings and repairs to the rear wings followed by a respray in its original colour of Prussian Blue. Carried out by the Body Boys at Old Piggeries in 2007, this work alone cost her more than £5,000.

Tuthill Porsche also built and strengthened the gearbox and clutch in 2014 for her, and fitted new heat exchangers and a stainless-steel exhaust along with a few other bits and bobs at a cost of almost £4,500.

The result is a good ‘un: It looks fabulous and the 3.2-litre Carrera’s 234bhp means you can tick 60mph off in a whisker over six seconds and it won’t run out of steam until you see a little over 150mph on the speedometer.

Estimate: £30,000 - £40,000

View The Current Bid Price HERE