STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Early 911S takes a laser focus on originality to impressive volumes of Porsche restorations

-  CHARLIE CALDERWOOD

Nothing can prepare you for the scale of entering Early 911S. There have been car factories that are smaller, with less inventory, than this Wuppertal premises in Germany's Rhineland. Only the Porsche 911, a car that is unusually valuable for something built in such volume, could support an operation like this.

The huge demand for well-restored elfers is made clear by how select Early 911S can afford to be, despite a throughput of about 170 cars in restoration at any one time. It stops at the 993 generation, the last 911s to be air-cooled, and work is done only to factory spec (although minor trim modifications and similar are catered for). If you want your 911 restomodded or prepared for motorsport, you'll need to go elsewhere. What really excites the team at Early 911S are the rare factory variants.