1967 Porsche Targa 912 by Karmann
Way back in 1967 (before some of you were born) Porsche offered their version of an open-air Porsche 911 sports car known as the Targa and today little respect is given to this ‘spirited’ open top Porsche.
The 911 Targa was initially featured a stainless-steel wrapped roll bar with a vinyl soft top which was replaced in later year with a glass window.
The 911 Targa design was inspired by a British iconic sports car, the Triumph TR250 and it used a similar removable Targa roof panel. This Triumph TR5 (pictured below) was built over just a 13-month period between August 1967 and September 1968 by the Triumph Motor Company in Coventry, United Kingdom.
It was visually identical to the Michelotti styled TR4 and this TR5 kept its main differences well hidden under the body and the most significant of these was its powerful engine. The TR5 was powered by a 2.5 litre straight 6 fuel injected engine developing around 150bhp. This engine was carried forward to the TR6.
Meanwhile, at the time, fuel injection (or PI petrol injection, as it was sometimes called back then) was uncommon in new sports cars. So much so that Triumph claimed in their sales brochure that it was the “First British production sports car with petrol injection – PI”.
This engine could propel the TR5 from standstill to 80km/h in just 6.5 seconds and it had an impressive top speed of 201km/h which is just a tad more than electric cars today.
Meanwhile, back to the history of the Porsche 912. While Porsche did not originally intend the 911 to be a replacement for the 356, when the 911 was first shown in 1963 it made the 356 design appear rather dated.
Porsche quickly surmised that the new 900 series design would be the successor for the 356, and 356 production halted in 1965.
This resulted in a fusion of the 356SC 4-cylinder engine into a 911 body; and thus, the Porsche 912 was created. First offered in the middle of 1965, the 912 Porsche weighed 200 pounds less due to its lighter engine.
Some still argue that the 912 is a more balanced and better handling car than the early 911s. The 912 engine benefited from many years of development during 356 production, which made the 912 a very desirable model upon its release.
912 production began during April 1965 with bodies being constructed in house by Porsche and by the coachbuilders at Karmann. By the way, Karmann also built the Mk1 Golf Cabrio.
Today the Porsche 912 has become quite collectible with numbers matching examples highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts across the globe.
