Our story begins with an Oregon man purchasing a complete, but disassembled, 2.0 liter 911 engine that he found advertised on his local Craigslist. Mr. Oregon purchases the engine with the intent to reassemble, restore and resell it at some time in the future. For whatever reason he never gets around to working on the engine and simply sells the engine in its disassembled state to another Porsche community member in South Carolina.
Nine (9) months later, after having sold the engine in question, Mr. Oregon stumbles upon an eBay listing for an early 1965 911 (build date 01/65) that is missing its original number-matching engine. Doing the right thing, Mr. O contacts the person who has listed the car in Southern California to let him know that his Porsche’s engine is now in South Carolina, and he is willing to facilitate a line of communication between SoCal and SoCar. Confusing enough for you, yet?
While Mr. SoCal was interested in selling his 1965 Porsche when it was a non-numbers matching car, this new information prompts him to remove the car from the market with a handful of days remaining on the auction, before he’s certain that he can even purchase the original engine. Just the idea that the original engine is still out there gives him a modicum of hope.
It Worked Out In The End
California calls Carolina and they work out a mutually beneficial trade where the disassembled, but fairly complete numbers matching engine is traded straight up for a running, early two-liter engine in Mr. California’s possession.
As of last Tuesday, the engine and the Porsche have been reunited once again.Those among us who follow such things will likely have already picked out Mr. California as Porsche celeb Magnus Walker. Magnus sat down with us over the weekend to tell his tale, and it brought to light a heartwarming connectivity of the hive-mind in the Porsche community.
Magnus Explained That He Felt the Reunion “was a bit of Porsche Karma” Coming Back to Him, and Here’s Why.
A couple of years ago, Magnus sold a car that didn’t have its numbers matching engine. Months later he was contacted by someone who found the numbers matching engine that went with the Porsche he sold. Magnus, without any further investment in the project, forwarded the engine owner to the Porsche’s new owner and a deal was struck. For a second time, the cosmic forces brought engine and Porsche together in Magnus’ vicinity, and perhaps because of the first, he was able to reap the benefits of the second.
The “Why?” and the “What?”
When the red ’65 eBay auction was ended early, there was some question as to why and what would become of the Porsche. The “why” is now abundantly clear, the “what” is a bit murkier. Now that the original engine has been located, a restoration effort should begin in earnest. The Porsche, one of the earliest 911s on the planet, deserves as much. Magnus, for one, agrees that the Porsche should be brought back to its former glory, he’s just not sure if he’s the one to do it. You can be sure that we will continue to follow this story, and update as new information comes to light.
A Needle in a Haystack
Magnus mentioned that this serendipitous situation was a bit like “finding a needle in a haystack without even looking.” Personally, while I understand the metaphor, I like to think of it more as the haystack working together to deliver the needle to him. A hearty “well done” should be delivered to the Porsche community as a whole, and especially to those individual parties involved. There is something special in “the hunt”, in finding that one missing piece of the puzzle, but it is certainly equally rewarding when that one missing piece finds you.
Other Porsche Blog Posts You Will Enjoy
Magnus Walker on the “World’s Fastest Car Show”
Magnus Walker’s STR II for Sale at Gooding’s Pebble Beach Auction
Magnus Walker’s Urban Outlaw
View Comments (4)
Shame that nobody has created a 'dating site' for marrying up all the loose old engines and chassis that have incorrect engines. Would be very straightforward to do on somewhere like Rennlist or some other Porsche site.
Mutually beneficial for all involved.
Now this is one of the best stories of automotive karma ever! Kudos to all parties involved!
Actually, on the 356 Registry website they have a section just for posting have and wanted engine numbers hoping for that elusive marryment. This is even more wishful thinking in terms of 616 motors as many of them died with their cases ripped apart and there were at least 3X as many to begin with. In any case this is such a rare thing to try to facilitate, because you have to spend a hundred bucks with PCNA to get a certificate identifying what engine number was original to your car and only the owner can do that. In addition there must be hundreds, if not thousands of cases sitting in piles at places like EASY that have not had their numbers posted in any public place, if they are known at all. Just yesterday I saw an ebay ad for an ostensibly running 356 motor installed in a Lazer 917 and I thought about some poor guy with his '57 35A coupe losing sleep over whether his car would ever have its rightful engine back again.
Makes me wonder how many 911 engines we have sold with vin's that someone is looking for. :)