This 1968 Porsche 911L Was Just A Dream

I enjoy these Petrolicious videos so much that I am never negative about any of the content. And this video really is lushly filmed with beautiful footage of an iconic 911 in the hills near Malibu. However, the narrative on this video I find, well, simply odd. This is an almost stock ‘luxury’ model 911, with a roll bar, and some very light modifications for stock racing, like the open exhaust. The car is not a 911 T/R. It is not even a 911S. So of course you can drive it to get groceries. It is almost a dead-stock car. It was designed and built to take the kids to school. An “L” weighs, with the roll bar, somewhere in excess of 2,350 pounds. With the “L” drtird smog legal engine it produces about 130 horse power. (The S engine does 160). The wheels are rather narrow. People do race almost completely stock cars. But racing a car in almost ‘stock’ trim does not make a mass production car that is almost ‘stock’, a ‘race’ car. The power to weight on this 911L is not particularly exciting. A base model US Spec ND Miata is significantly higher. The torsion bar suspension cannot easily be changed, so that would be in ‘Luxus’ trim. Spike is puzzling over the fact that a rather ordinary 1968 US specification 911, save for the advertising history and the open exhaust, can be used in a ordinary way. What’s to puzzle about? The handling is not going to be particularly exciting. A street legal NA or NB Miata tuned by one of Southern California’s exceedingly competent speed shops, would have more far more grip. I thought this series was bout cars, not about how many entertainment industry names you can mention in 8 minutes. In terms of the driving, at minute 4:58 Spike rounds a tight corner, not particularly quickly, and he over steers. At 4:59 he over-corrects. And at 5:00 he corrects from his correction. All this in a rather simple hair pin turn. The man is on camera. You would think he would be paying attention. In the Petrolicious series, we have heard some wonderful narratives about cars, their design, engineering, and the community of people who maintain mid-century performance cars. We have heard people who in every fiber of the being ‘know’ cars. And we have also seen some superb driving. And I look forward to videos that return to a focus on cars and the people who truly know them.