Just the other day, I saw an auction for a 964-chassis Porsche 911 Targa no sale at just over $100,000. It was fascinating to see the spread in the comments section of watchers and viewers who came from two different camps: the ones who knew Targas had become a very desirable model, and the ones who still thought they were at the bottom of the heap in the Porsche hierarchy. The car shown here, a 1980 911 Targa SC, is quite sought after these days, and the coupe with the removable roof panel is enjoying a bit of a rebirth. Find this 911 Targa here on eBay with an asking price of $50,000.

There’s no option to submit a best offer, and that’s not a surprise. $50K is a fair price these days for the once-unloved Targa, and this one benefits from a bevy of recent maintenance and a seller that has done some smart preventative work to address concerns of a sight-unseen buyer. A leak down test with solid numbers and inspection of the potentially troublesome head studs should put some minds at ease that this one is worth the price of admission. And the colors aren’t bad either, with white one of those shades that has become quite popular again (I had an old colleague who once told me all racing cars are white, which always seemed like a good reason to buy one.) The seller admits this 911 isn’t perfect, but that should make actually using it less of a gamble.

The chocolate brown interior is a very period-correct color, and despite having a roof panel that conceivably would allow the sun to beat down relentlessly on fragile dash plastics and seat upholstery, this cabin has been preserved. The seller again affirms that the restoration work has been almost entirely mechanical in nature, so imperfections are to be expected. There are no sport seats inside this 911, but that’s an easy – if not expensive – omission to correct via your local Porsche club classifieds, where sport seats show up for $3,000 or more these days. One thing to note about the 964 Targa pricing is that they made far fewer Targas in that generation, and almost 10,000 examples were made with the removable roof between 1978 and 1983. Rare, but not exceedingly so.

The real appeal to this example is how much attention has been made to refreshing the mechanical bits. Among the repairs noted by the seller are a fuel distributor rebuild; a new fuel pump, fuel accumulator and fuel filter; new plugs, wires, distributor cap, and ignition distributor wire; a new alternator, battery and starter; and new front and rear brake rotors, calipers, and pads, among numerous other replacements and repairs. Combined with the solid bill of engine health affirmed via a compression test, this Targa seems worthy of the price of admission, and a car that will continue to hold its value well into the future.