Our Cars: Rob Sass’ Porsche 911
Employee: Rob Sass joined Hagerty in early 2009 as Senior Manager for Media Services.
Car make: This fall, Rob purchased a 1981 Porsche 911SC Targa.
Car background: “I was born and raised around cars. My dad always had something interesting around when I was growing up and I’ve written about old cars for The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Business Week and Sports Car Market magazine.”
Why a Porsche 911SC?: “I’ve had four 911s (although none recently) but I always seem to go back to them. They’re fast, reliable, simple and the ones built after 1975 are virtually impervious to rust. Parts prices have even come down quite a bit lately due to increased competition from places like Pelican Parts. The key to a happy life is to be very picky about the 911 you buy. They made more than 50,000 911SCs and most are still on the road, so there are always a lot on the market. Insist on records for work performed and always have an expert do a pre-purchase inspection. The Achilles heel of the 1978-83 cars is the timing chain tensioners. Make sure yours has had the updated oil fed units installed. Other than that, they’re quite bullet-proof and capable of going more than 200,000 miles without major attention.”
Repairs and Modifications (planned or completed): “Porsche 911s never really had effective A/C. There are a number of kits out there with uprated condensers and compressors that can remedy this. I’m planning on purchasing one in the spring and writing about how things work out. Other than that, cosmetically, the car is quite nice. I might have the driver’s seat re-stuffed.”
