A forefather of the iconic sports car from Stuttgart. The idea for the 911 started from Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, as a replacement for the 356 sportscar but bigger, better and more importantly - Faster. And as soon as it was unveiled at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show, the world knew this model was going to be a future icon in the automotive universe.

Well, this gorgeous citrusy piece of machinery, is our beloved 1970 Porsche 911E Sportomatic.

As the name suggests, this 911E comes with the very rare optional Sportomatic gearbox that was designed as an early interpretation of an automatic gearbox in Porsche’s favourite sportscar to aid city driving. The technology was based on a 4-speed manual gearbox (Type 905), but with the flywheel replaced with a torque converter while maintaining the single-disc clutch - which is also now vacuum-operated with the clutch pedal removed.

The result was a driving experience like no other during its time. Blending the ease of an automatic with two pedals while maintaining the analogue sensation of a traditional H-pattern shifter. Speaking of which - is also different from the regular sequence, replacing gears 1st through 4th gears with “L” for Low, “D, D3 and D4”. Although Porsche only intended the “L” gear to be used for steeper terrain, motoring journalists from back in the day found that it aided in acceleration tests too.

Mated to that gearbox is a 2.4-litre naturally-aspirated flat-6 that is a delight to go through the revs with its mechanical fuel injection system, a technology that was still new in the period with much success from motorsports applications.

This particular Sportomatic car was delivered new to South Africa on May 1970. It went through 3 ownerships from new till the early 2000s with full-service records from Porsche South Africa. Subsequently, it had a full restoration built by the team at Abbot Cars in Kyalami South Africa, in 2018. Tim Abbot of Abbot Cars is a Porsche specialist that has been rebuilding and restoring aircooled Porsches like the 356 and 911 models since the 1970s, a renowned master of his craft amongst the Porsche community in South Africa. With such rich experience and knowledge from the team at Abbot Cars, they have carefully restored this 911E to the condition as when it left the showroom floor back in 1970. 

The exterior features the eye-catching Tangerine Orange paint with the iconic 15-inch Fuchs-style wheels. Other options on the outside include a lovely set of factory-installed foglamps and the tasteful chrome window trim to match the rest of the chrome around the car. Inside is finished in a full black leather interior with the original radio system and air-conditioning that AutoIcons installed for the current owner in 2023. Despite being a modern electric air-conditioning unit, this was carefully installed using factory mounting points with no need for fabrication on the body of the car.

Being an early generation 911 from 1970, this is the perfect car for investment collectors to enter the Porsche market as it was the first iteration of the now-iconic sportscar from Porsche. Although early 911s have rapidly increased in value over recent years, market trends still suggest that there is more growth to be expected with an increase of around 40% in average price from 2018 to 2023 according to classic.com.

The Sportomatic models were even rarer with only less than 300 made per year during the time of its production. It also inspired the future development of an automatic gearbox in Porsche sportscars that would lead to the now famed PDK gearbox that is loved by many.With such historic significance as a forefather for Porsche’s (and our) most beloved sports car, we believe that this 911E Sportomatic will be a great addition and investment for an enthusiastic collector.