The first right-hand drive Porsche 911 comes up for sale in London this week through Bonhams. The 1965 911 is finished in Bali Blue and looks to have retained all of its original features. So many of the parts on these early cars are unique, so it is important to have all of those in place. Bonhams say:
‘Prototype No: 13364’, the car we offer was built in Porsche’s experimental division rather than on the Stuttgart production line, as confirmed by Mr John Aldington, CEO of concessionaires AFN Ltd, the then official Porsche importers (see correspondence on file). Also on file is a copy of the Porsche kardex dated 9th February 1965 listing ‘300474’ as a ‘Prototyp für Versuche’ (Prototype for Testing) and recording Rechtslenkung (right-hand drive) as part of the specification.
The comprehensive history file also reveals that ‘MMU 911C’ was collected from the factory by Peter Bulbeck – later managing director of Porsche Cars Great Britain – for delivery to AFN where it was retained for dealer training and testing pending the arrival of the first ‘customer’ cars later in 1965. There is a copy photograph on file of the car carrying the German customs plates required for the journey to the UK.
Early RHD Porsche 911 history
The 911 was first registered to AFN Ltd on 1st April 1965. AFN’s stock card refers to the car as a demonstrator ‘sold to Pobjoy’ in April 1966. This was Derek Pobjoy, who part-exchanged his 356 Carrera and owned ‘MMU 911C’ only briefly but did not register it in his name. The (copy) original logbook shows that the 911 was secondly registered to racing driver Charles Lucas (its owner from 1st August 1967) and then fellow racer ‘Willie’ Green, before passing to its fourth private owner, R Murray-Leach, in May 1969.
Apart from a short gap in the early 1970s, the Porsche’s ownership history is complete. Copies of old registration documents record that ‘MMU 911C’ was previously owned by long-time Porsche enthusiast Roger Goode (who had purchased the 911 from one A J Herriott of Nuneaton in 1977) and then Michael Gunning, the latter being its owner from 25th July 1983. Our vendor purchased the car from Keith Russell in March 1997 (copy sales receipt on file).
Early RHD SWB 911s have a micro-market all of their own but the low estimate of £300k (with a high guide of £500k) suggests that the car may need a little bit of work here and there, as we all might at 58 years old. It will be interesting to see what it sells for.
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Photos by Bonhams