Golden God: 1979 Porsche 911SC Targa
Sean Rooks | March 15, 2024
Porsche colors and patterns have always been attractive, dating back to the 356 and 901 series cars. The Pepita (houndstooth) fabric that debuted with the 901 could be found on Ferry Porsche’s personal 356B Cabriolet. Fish Silver Gray, offered on the earliest 356s, was formulated using actual fish scales. For a car, especially a sports car, exterior and interior color are reflections of both the culture of the time and taste of the owner.
The Porsche Club of America’s fantastic “Rennbow” website is a terrific resource for researching Porsche colors. There is a staggering number of hues, shades, and variations produced by the factory over the years. And much loved is Porsche’s “Paint to Sample” program, where customers can have their new car draped in whichever color they specify.
From Pinstripes to Pasha, Porsche has an equally vibrant catalog of interior colors and patterns. Most of these wonderful examples date to the 1970s and here on Porsche’s website you can view a brief video highlighting Porsche’s Top 5 Fancy Seat Patterns.
We could do a whole series of posts on Porsche colors, but this is Good Find Friday, so let’s get to discussing a car that brings the color and the pattern.
Located in the Netherlands, today’s Good Find Friday car is a 1979 Porsche 911 SC Targa presented in its original exterior color of Opal Metallic with a brown interior featuring cream and black Pasha velour inserts.
The car was delivered new in Germany and underwent a complete repaint in its original color in 1991. Apparently this was the first of two repaints, the second one in 2008 when the clear coat failed on the first repaint. The current paintwork is in excellent condition, per the selling dealer.
Opal Metallic is one of those Porsche colors that seems like it gets mistaken for a variety of other golds, and it’s one that I feel isn’t too often seen on a 911. These hues find themselves more on the 928s of the period in my experience, or it’s possible the 1980’s penchant for repainting everything Guards Red eliminated a lot of 911 examples.
The interior is where this car really shines. Another fabric pattern often seen on transaxle cars is fitted to the interior of this 911 SC: Pasha seat material.
Pasha is often referred to as “Op Art” or “Seeing eye” fabric, but the German internal word for this material is “Schachbrett” or “Checkerboard” in English. Most likely this was inspired by Porsche’s racing heritage and designed to evoke a waving checkered flag.
Unfortunately, the passenger seat appears to have a couple of splits or tears in the material, but given the originality of the rest of the interior, it’s probably best to leave it as-is.
One lovely feature of this car is its Targa roof, which means the interior is on full display when removed. And who wouldn’t want to show off such a cool and unusual interior?
One other incredibly rare feature spied on this car is a rear wiper. Much more common on Porsches now, rear wipers were rarely options on G-body cars and even less so on Targas.
In addition to the car’s visual splendor, the dealer promises to perform full belt and fluid services and a general tune-up before sale. The car is said to shift and drive well, so we can consider this preventative maintenance. Since the car has only around 89,000 miles on it, the engine should be pretty far from rebuild territory. We’d still suggest a pre-purchase inspection on any air-cooled 911, though.
Air-cooled Porsches have been so hot they’re starting to become almost common, so if you’re in the market why not get one that will command attention? This 911 would definitely draw a crowd at your local Cars & Coffee or even a national Porsche show.
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