Opportunity
On October 21st, 2022 I saw an Instagram post from Adam @ Sodo Moto, a friend and Japanese import specialist. He posted a white Porsche 930 that looked like it needed some love. I’ve always wanted to own a 930 and I reached out to learn more. The car turned out to be a first production year 1975 930, chassis 930 570 0106. I’ve always viewed these first year turbos as unobtainium. Rarified air that I would never get to breathe.
On a lark, I asked for more details. The car was a legit, numbers matching 1975 930, manufactured in April of 1975. Originally Ice Green Metallic with a black interior, a non-sunroof car. It was delivered in Germany but spent most of its life in Japan. From the records, it looks to have been imported into Japan in August of 1978,
Wait…what? The car was born in Germany in April of 1975. I was born in Germany in April of 1975. The car lived in Japan. I lived in Japan for 4 years early on in my childhood. That was all I needed to jump head first into the rabbit hole. I was clearly meant to buy this car!
This is never going to be a “fully documented one owner” car. I don’t know who bought it new in Germany or why they imported it to Japan in 78. I don’t know who owned it in Japan. Maybe it was driven by a famous celebrity. Maybe it was raced down the Wangan highway by a member of the Mid Night Club. Maybe it was driven to church by a little old lady on Sunday. I will never know. What I do know is that I get to bring it back to life and start a new story for this special car. That’s pretty cool too.
Here are some photos of the car as it sat in Japan at auction that Adam shared with me. The car showed no signs of rust or body damage and presented as a good restoration candidate. Adam encouraged me to consider a light restoration, but I knew from the beginning that I was getting into a full nut and bolt, bare metal restoration. This car would be brought back to life with the help of the best Porsche craftsman in the Pacific Northwest! Adam won the auction and we closed a deal.
Delivery
Adam loaded the car into a container in Japan, and it made the journey across the Pacific Ocean. It arrived in Seattle on December 29th, 2022 and Adam shared some photos as he rolled it into his shop for safe keeping:
On January 6th, 2023, I was finally able to see the car in person. It was pretty overwhelming. I had no experience buying an expensive project car and hadn’t taken the time to form a complete plan…okay, any plan. I’m happy to say it was love at first sight and I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The car needed a lot of work and deserved a full restoration. Upon closer inspection, there were still no signs of past trauma or rust and the car was mostly original. Major exceptions being the paint, and some things that might have been done to import it into Japan like side mirrors, speedometer markings and the ugly rubber whale tail. The interior looked better in person than in the photos and the door cards were in good shape. Lots of originality throughout the car to restore. The engine fired up on the first turn of the key, although we didn’t leave it running for long. I pulled out my camera, with shaky hands, and started to document the moment:
The first stop for this restoration project was to deliver the car to Scott McCauley, a local independent Porsche guru that was going to do the intake and initial assessment for me. The discovery was done…it was time to get started on the restoration!