Our Cars: David’s 911

Predictable, I know. Everyone knows that all car journalists are in the pay of Zuffenhausen – that’s why 911s always win sports car group tests, right? Now that I am also an occasional automotive scribbler, I should come clean that I too own a flat-six sports car with the engine in the wrong place.

A little while ago, Julian Thomson wrote about his bedroom wall poster cars when he was a kid. My own poster car was equally predictable – a lairy 930 Turbo with full early-Eighties whale-tail and aggressively swollen arches. But while Julian leaned towards Italian rather than German exotics, it seems we shared a teenage obsession with Debbie Harry…

Here’s a quick bio of my particular car. It’s a 1980 3.0 SC – the version of the 911 built between 1978 and 1984, and one of its most commercially successful incarnations. With the solid 3-litre engine and full body galvanisation, it’s a pretty safe bet for older air-cooled 911 ownership. Less revvy than its 2.7-litre predecessor, but a little lighter than the 3.2 Carrera that replaced it, it’s a very common, and still relatively affordable, 911.