1972 Porsche 911S – Original, Unrestored Example

This 1972 911S has lived a pampered life and it remains original. The Road Scholars definition of “original” is not the same as most of the world: our definition means original, unrestored, and well-maintained.

Back in 1981 a young man named Richard Griot was looking for a new toy and he found this 1972 2.4 911S. He bought it from John Hoyt of Coral Gables, Florida, who was advertising it at the time. Richard loved a clean car and he spent countless hours in San Diego caring for this 911. His passion for cars eventually led to a career in car care with his company Griot’s Garage. Griot’s used the car to test their renowned automotive cleaning supplies and it became a rolling advertisement for their products. Featured in almost all of their catalogs and on his first catalog cover, this 911 is as good as they get without ever being restored.

In the mid 1990’s Richard passed it on to one of his managers at Griot’s, Kenji. Richard kept him busy so the car became a fair weather car for cruising around the islands and back roads in the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle area is known for rainy days (which limits driving) and the 911S was relegated to limited drives on nice days. Kenji spent more time on the road traveling for the company, so he passed the torch to Mark, the President of Griot’s. Again the car was used sparingly and more catalog shots were taken, more products got tested and more hours of attention and detailing consumed. Mark called us when he was sending his son to college back east and asked if we might be interested. We bought it on the spot and his son’s college education is paid for!

What I love about any car is that it can only be original once! We have had a large number of cars over the years and we have found very few 42-year old cars with almost all of their original paint, let alone in this condition. I sold this car 3 1/2 years ago to one of our favorite collectors as a placeholder. We bought it back 2 years ago and sold it to another great Porsche collector and we just traded to get it back to us again.

The car has clearly been exceptionally well-maintained – both cosmetically and mechanically. This 911S has traveled 170,000 miles and the paint is as you’d expect after being rubbed on so much by true car lovers…which is to say it’s excellent. This is an opportunity to buy an original paint, well-documented, 2.4-liter 911S that was a one year-only example with the side mounted oil door. We have priced the car in accordance to its rarity and we offer it to the true connoisseur of original Porsches.