1978-’83 Porsche 911 SC
Some things from the 1970s and ’80s haven’t aged well. CB radio slang, for instance. Every episode of Joanie Loves Chachi (recorded on VHS). Or Flock of Seagulls haircuts. But the 1978-’83 Porsche 911 SC? Given that values have doubled, even nearly tripled in the last decade, it’s safe to say that this formerly rank-and-file version of the 911, once overshadowed by its older and newer siblings, is defying age like Wilfred Brimley in Cocoon.
The same can’t be said for some write-ups about the car when it was new, declaring the 911 SC dead on arrival. Take these excerpts from a review in the August 1980 issue of Car and Driver:
“Porsche says there will be a 911 as long as there is demand for one, but it’s difficult to see the car or the demand lasting more than another couple years. At the most,” the late Mike Knepper wrote in the article’s “Counterpoint” sidebar. “It has outlived its usefulness and as attrition takes the die-hard traditionalists, the 911 will outlive its demand.”
The late David E. Davis also played the age card — on a car that has since become Porsche’s most long-lived model: “This Porsche feels old, somehow. It feels as if it’s finally coming to the end of its allotted lifespan… From now on, the Porsche of my dreams has a V-8 engine in the front.”
But Davis’ dreamy front-engine V-8 Porsche, the 928 (of course), was more like a bugle sounding out reveille to the 911’s
