“I’m not a car guy. I don’t like to drive cars.” As an opening comment, this seems surprising coming from Manfred Hering, founder and CEO of the largest Porsche restoration business in the world, Early 911s. However, he’s keen to clarify: “I like designs, and I like the perfection of the 911 design.” Yet for a man who claims not to like cars, he has a lot of them. His collection of 911s numbers over 700, at least 300 of which are extremely rare models. About 100 are fully restored and available for purchase, the rest either in various stages of restoration, or donor cars waiting to become build projects.
Since Manfred started the business, it’s delivered over 1,200 restored cars to delighted clients, yet many Porsche enthusiasts have never heard of him. This is perhaps not surprising, since he never advertises and until relatively recently didn’t even have a website. Yet demand for his services is high, to say the least. If you want him to create your dream 911 from his stock of donors, you’ll need to wait about two years for a build slot, and the work itself will take another year. He’s clearly doing something
