The Piëch car has several unique identifying features. Firstly, and in support of the plans to produce just a limited number of cars, a standard narrow-chassis 911 Carrera body was used. This is evidenced by the ‘Carrera’ badge that the car still wears on the engine cover. Secondly, this car sports a rather ambitious 10,000rpm rev counter which was taken from a race car, and this was done quite possibly because there was one to hand. Both the regular 911 Carrera, as well as the production Turbo, were fitted with a rev counter that was only marked up to 8000rpm with a recommended usable limit of 7200rpm.

A third, and unexplained feature in this car was the engine, which was originally a 2687cc turbocharged unit and not the 3-litre engine as used in the 911 Carrera at the time, and later in the production Turbo when it was launched in ’75. Despite the best efforts of all concerned at Porsche today, no-one could explain why this 2.7-litre engine was first installed, but suffice it to say that a 3-litre turbocharged engine does now reside under the engine lid.

The Piëch car’s odometer reads 31,999km, so this car was obviously well used and not just parked up. This fact is also supported by the presence of the Austrian vehicle authorities’ autobahn tag on the front right fender which shows that it was registered in that country for road use in August 1979. The Porsche and Piëch clans have a family home at Zell am See in Austria, and no doubt this car was used on a few trips back and forth between the family home and Stuttgart.