Bart Kuykens has already given a lot of his time to Porsche 911s. He puts together multi-volume books about these cars and the people that own them with his own photographs, and he maintains, modifies, drives, and generally loves his own example, a 1970 911T customized to his liking. The car featured in today’s film is Bart’s 911, but it’s also, as he describes it, his ticket.
A ticket to freedom, to a smile on his face after a long day. A ticket to places where he can meet people who are similarly smitten with old air-cooled Porsches, whether those places be high in the Alps or in the corner of his local car meet parking lot.
Bart is the type that likes to be surrounded with people that share his interests, but he says that he grew up in a household that viewed cars as practical objects rather than artistic ones. His dad drove exclusively Saabs and Volvos Bart recalls, and while he has good memories of those cars and the time spent in them, but once he had enough money for a vintage car—an “oldtimer,” as they say in Europe—Bart bought an air-cooled 911 and hasn’t looked back since.
He looks back at the car anywhere he parks it though, for it was the unique Porsche design that initially drew him the marque. That said, he still likes to tweak the aesthetics. On this car for example, he’s opted for a look that slots the car in between a track tool and a honed backroad weapon that still wears its license plates.
He’s been with this 911T for almost a decade now, and in that time he’s redone the interior in a tidy club racer style with sport buckets, shoulder harnesses, and a partial cage, gone through a complete color change to Porsche GT Silver, swapped in a 3.2 Carrera motor, and checked plenty of other smaller right boxes along the way: short shifter, freed up exhaust, Momo steering wheel, mesh engine cover inserts, and more details that add to a car he’s built patiently into his version of an ideal 911 that isn’t relegated to a stationary life in the garage. This car has come a long literal and figurative way since its original delivery to America when it was new, and with Bart actively pursuing his Porsche photography projects around the world, it seems like it’s found an owner with a similar story.
Drive Tastefully®
