Marko Hanželic
Mike Brewer he repaired and sold many cars during his time as a professional car salesman before his television fame, and sold even more on the show Wheeler Dealers. But now he's offering us the chance to buy a rare Porsche from his personal collection.
It's a car Porsche 912E, an incredibly short-lived 911 body and four-cylinder engine combination that was offered in the mid-914s to fill the gap left by the end of sales of the mid-engined 1976 in XNUMX. Front-drive, water-cooled model 924 was ready to go on sale, but it wouldn't be in showrooms until 1977, so Porsche used an idea it had abandoned eight years earlier.
Porsche was already offering between 1965 and 1969 four-cylinder 911 model badged the 912, fitting the old 1,6's 356-liter boxer four-cylinder into the new 911's six-cylinder body. The 90 hp result wasn't quite as quick as the 911's (0 to 100 km/h in 11-12 seconds), but was lighter, nicely balanced and more affordable.
Model 912E the 1976 did not have a genuine Porsche engine, although it was tuned by Porsche. It was a Volkswagen four-cylinder from of the Type 4 model, enlarged from 1,7 to 2,0 liters and fitted with Bosch fuel injection, earning it an “E” badge – einspritz being the German word for injection. Power was almost identical to the original 912E at 86 bhp (87 bhp), and despite the weight of the larger bumpers, performance was also the same.
Brewer he says he wasn't looking for a 912E, but came across the car while filming a show about buying a De Soto vehicle in North Carolina. Despite the hand-painted bodywork in yellow, the price makes it – $ 10.000 (£6.000) – simply had to buy and soon it was 912E sent back to UK.
There they took it apart, found it to be structurally sound, and repainted it to its original blue color Enamel Blue and equipped with a set of black 16-inch wheels Fox. It's recently had its engine refreshed, and a combination of the work done and the skyrocketing value of classic Porsches over the past few years means it's no longer in the bargain zone.
Brewer via auction house Iconic Auctioneers hopes to fetch £40.000-£50.000, meaning his 912E much more accessible than visually identical to the 911 similar year and condition, or a 912 from the 60s (which is worth more in Europe than in the US). Certainly a rarity in the UK where it was never offered new.
However, it's a pretty niche offering - we imagine most people would rather pick up a slightly more worn one for the same money six-cylinder, air-cooled 911 or perhaps chose a modern classic, such as Turbo 996. What would you buy?
