It is increasingly rare these days to find a no reserve auction for a vintage, air-cooled Porsche 911, but this 1972 example is an exception to the norm. The seller has provided a clear, no BS assessment of the car, and bidding is strong as it approaches $50,000 with just over two days left in the auction. The 911 is original in some ways and not in others, but the big deal items like the matching-numbers engine are present. The seller reportedly had the engine torn down and rebuilt, and has only put a handful of miles on the 911 since then. The 911 can be found here on eBay wearing a non-original shade of tangerine.

The seller has owned the 911 for ten years, noting he bought it from another Porsche enthusiast wearing what was likely its original color of Sepia Brown paint. Now, I dig this color as it’s very period correct, but a lot of enthusiasts find it a turn-off. For all I know, it may actually hold values down, as I found out with my European-spec E21 that didn’t do particularly well when it came time to sell it. Tangerine is a much more desirable color among long hood enthusiasts, and even though it’s not original, it may help the seller here – especially if it’s done as well as he promises it was, with not a spec of brown paint to be found anywhere. The panel above the engine lid was replaced due to rust, but that was apparently the only rust to be found on the car.

On the inside, you won’t find the desirable sport bucket seats, but sourcing a set of Recaros and seat rail adapters isn’t a huge task if the standard buckets aren’t racy enough – and you may want to, given the seller claims the foam is pretty tired. The seller has made some cosmetic tweaks inside, including RS-style “flat” door panels and new carpets. As you can see, the paint job did go into the door jambs with the trim plates and door strikers removed, so hopefully the next owner will see orange paint throughout, even in the hard-to-repaint places. The 911 does not have a radio or any speakers, and the seller notes typical cracking by the speaker opening in the dash.

The engine was freshened and resealed by an independent Porsche shop in Indiana just under 10 years ago, and the seller claims he has only driven it 10 miles since. Why do people do this? I always find it to be a head-scratcher that cars with fresh mechanical bits see such little use after the expensive work is done. The engine is numbers matching, and retains the MFI which is still functional. The seller notes the transmission is not original, replaced with a unit from a 1974 S model, and that the original transmission was stolen from him years ago. The 911 rides on classic Fuchs wheels, and while the seller does acknowledge the car still needs fine-tuning, it looks like a smart buy with no reserve and lots of heavy lifting already done.