A few weeks ago, I was searching for something in the June 2005 issue of Porsche Panorama. On the page opposite of what I was looking for, there was an ad for an air-cooled, flat-six engine rebuilding service. The company quoted $3,595 for a rebuilt 3.0-liter long-block (with a rebuildable core exchange). Adjusted for inflation, that’s around $5,800 in 2024 money. Mind you, this was a pretty good deal, even back then. I can’t comment on the quality of work, but even if another shop might have quoted 50% more than this one, and you had to spend $5,400 ($8,700 in today’s money), it’s a far cry from the $20,000+ it would set you back today. Prices for just about everything engine-related in the Porsche world are increasingfar more quickly than the rate of inflation.
I owned a string of air-cooled 911s from 1988 through 2014. For most of that time, it was what I referred to as a victimless crime. Nothing catastrophic ever happened, normal maintenance was all they required. And when I moved on, there was always someone clamoring to take my car for a few grand more than what I paid for it, essentially underwriting the cost of the oil changes, valve adjustments, and leaky oil-return tubes that I fixed — it was essentially free Porsche ownership. There was no “nuclear winter” scenario. If the worst thing happened, and you dropped a valve or had a chain tensioner collapse, as the above-quoted numbers indicate, it wasn’t a Chapter 7-level event. It’s a far cry from the current situation. And it’s not just the exponentially increasing costs. Adding insult to injury today is the fact that the readily available parts obtained via the aftermarket are often of inconsistent quality, in spite of often carrying recognizable brand names. Case in point, a very close friend has now had his 3.2-liter Carrera engine rebuilt three times by a very good shop. The second two were on the shop, the fault not of theirs, but of defective parts. Even good OEM used/core parts are drying up, and prices are skyrocketing for the ones that exist. Porsche needs a realistically priced crate engineprogram, now, and not just for air-cooled cars, but for M96/M97 engines as well.
Times have clearly changed, and it’s not a case of old man yelling at cloud. The “good old days” aren’t ancient history — hell, they’re barely even old enough to vote. The precise causes for this lamentable situation are beyond the scope of this column, but in many instances, it’s simply market mechanics at work — robust demand (often driven by tuners and builders) combined with a dwindling supply. Because of rising values, fewer and fewer people are parting out air-cooled Porsches and the aftermarket is clearly failing here. There really is only one entity that can address the problems of dwindling supply and inconsistent quality, and that’s Porsche Classic.
It’s not that we aren’t appreciative of the work that Porsche Classic is already doing. We all love thumbing through the latest installment of “Originale” to see what previously NLA part they’ve de-extincted. But the fact is, in many cases, they’re leaving the very hearts of their legacy up to others. Sure, a Classic Center will rebuild your engine, but there isn’t one around the corner from a lot of enthusiasts, and the lead time can be substantial. General Motors, who for the most part has zero cares to give about its legacy products or the enthusiast community, has a robust crate engineprogram offering numerous permutations and combinations of big and small-block V8s, starting at under $6,000 for a turn-key, ready-to-go engine, and they’re available immediately from numerous authorized retailers. Naturally, I’m not expecting Porsche to be able to sell a 3.0-liter SC mill at that kind of money and make a profit, but certainly they could at 2.5 times that (less induction and accessories), I think. Demand would almost certainly exceed expectations, especially with the guarantee of quality innards, and some sort of warranty. I think the number of LS and Subaru swaps that we’re starting to see is at least somewhat reflective of the unpleasant reality described above. Conversions like this might be expedient, but they’re not anyone’s best interests. PAG could execute a game-changer here if it only had the will to do so.
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