Opportunity
On October 21st, 2022 I saw an Instagram post from Adam @ Sodo Moto, a friend and Japanese import specialist. He posted some photos of 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 on April 9th, 1975. Originally Ice Green Metallic with a black interior, a non-sunroof, no-AC car. It was delivered in Germany (LHD) 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. We were both approaching our 50th anniversary. That was all I needed to jump headfirst down the rabbit hole. I was clearly meant to buy this car!
This is never going to be a “fully documented one owner” car. I have no idea who purchased 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, and that’s pretty cool too.
Thanks to a well connected friend in the Porsche world, I was able to secure a photo of the original Kardex. These build sheets are impossible to come by and stashed away securely in the Porsche archives. You can see the original options on the car, the exact manufacturer date, the engine and chassis numbers, etc. I’m so thankful to have a copy of this important part of the car’s history.
Below is the only documentation that I have been able to recover from the time this car lived in Japan. Unfortunately, these documents offer very little insight into the car’s history.
Here are the first photos that I saw of the car, as it sat at the auction storage facility in Japan. 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 the 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 garage for safe keeping:
On January 6th, 2023, I was finally able to see the car in person. It was 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 next 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!