Each week, with every one of our films, our goal is to bring you not only the cars you love, but the kinds of stories that speak to our shared interests from an individual’s perspective. This week we join an old favorite in the form of this 1969 911 T as we follow Kurht Gerhardt through his favorite driving spots during Los Angeles’ early hours.
After a stint owning some classic Italian steel, Kurht decided that he wanted to hang onto the romance of the vintage experience, but in a package that was altogether more reliable and decidedly easier to find parts and service options for. “I wanted something that was efficient, and that ran right, and that I could get into and just drive.”
An early 901 Porsche fit the criteria, and so he bought two. It might sound strange to label this one-to-two car swap as an instance of reduction, but looking past the size of the garage space required that’s just what’s happened here. The 911, and the T, or Touring, model especially so, is a very simple car. It’s not fitted with extra functionality or many amenities to dilute the driving feel and feedback provided in such a lightweight and focused sports car. This holds true for all early 901 chassis, but it’s the T that’s the most stripped-down model in the range, and arguably the most pleasurable experience because of it.
It’s every bit as quick as he needs it to be, and outside of an R, the T can be considered the Porsche that’s been reduced to the maximum degree—not in the sense of loss in the negative though, but rather that its simplicity adds to the driving characteristics and overall temperament by way of not getting in the way; the T channels a level of purity, of unrefined Porsche personality.
So what does Kurht do to take advantage of this? “One of my favorite things to do is to get up at like six, seven o’clock in the morning on a Sunday.” Living in LA, these early morning weekend hours are the most opportune time to have the weave of the city streets all to yourself, and as you can see in the film, Kurht makes good use of the space available in the first hours of light. It’s a time when the city is still quiet, and the urban and mountain roads alike can offer their true potential to the drivers who seek it.
He also plans to participate in the Peking to Paris race in 2019, taking the dizzying 8,500-mile route as an opportunity to live out a dream of his. “I can’t wait to get out in the Porsche and camp and just rough it,” he says, “being out in the middle of nowhere for six weeks, it’s going to be an amazing adventure.”
In the meantime though, he will continue driving the snot out of this sweet piece of Porsche history, and it’s a plan he has stretched out into the furthest future too; “It’s something I want to keep for life because it’s such a solid car. No matter what, it just keeps on running, and you can beat it up a bit and you can haul ass and it still does great. It starts up every day.”
This is how you use a classic car and wring the most out of it, this is how you Drive Tastefully®.
