SENTIMENTAL VALUE

Sentimental Value

Why Felix crossed oceans to chase a very special Carrera 2.7 RS.

“The car was an omnipresent part of the family, which is why saying goodbye to it hurt so much, and why finding it again means so much more.”

No matter what it was, there’s always a certain sentimental value to the car you grew up in that you just can’t get from anything you go on to experience as an adult. Be it an old minivan or a cherished sports car, that imprint of smells, textures and sounds you get from those hours spent in the back seat could be a memory that you chase for a lifetime without ever finding it again.

Felix Joergens grew up with parents who were very active in the historic racing scene, so the car in question for him was a Carrera 2.7RS. Once upon a time, these were the workhorse of longhood 911 racing. Over a thousand were made and many did not live sheltered lives. They were rallied, modified, and rebuilt for decades until finally the collector market began to take them in, and one by one they went from race car to museum piece.

Felix’s parents sold their car at some point in the 2000s and it promptly disappeared into an overseas collection. It wasn’t until recently that he happened to chance upon it again.

“I’d been hunting for a 2.7RS for several years and never quite found the right one. I knew our car had gone to the US, but I didn’t know much more than that. Then, one Sunday evening, I opened Bruce Canepa’s newsletter almost absent-mindedly, and the scales fell from my eyes. There was this yellow RS, and my father’s name printed all over the racing history.

The next morning I wrote Bruce directly, and within the week I was on a plane to go and see it. I knew from the very first moment that the car simply had to come home.

“I’d been hunting for a 2.7RS for several years and never quite found the right one. I knew our car had gone to the US, but I didn’t know much more than that."

"I remember being strapped into the passenger seat and taken on a few runs along the country roads with the open race exhaust howling, until the noise finally lulled me to sleep."

The car was in my family for many years. Both of my parents raced across Europe in the 90s and 2000s, in everything from the Tour Auto to the Tour d’Espagne. Some of my earliest memories are of a childhood spent longing to be allowed along just one more time, or of steering the car from my parents’ lap.

On nights when I refused to fall asleep, I remember being strapped into the passenger seat and taken on a few runs along the country roads with the open race exhaust howling, until the noise finally lulled me to sleep. That sound went straight to my bones.”

Felix never expected to find his parents’ Carrera 2.7RS but once he did, it was an easy decision to bring it back into the family. His history with this particular car is the icing on the cake, but one way or another he was always going to figure out a way to get back into one of these legendary homologation specials.

“The 2.7RS has an extraordinary sense of ease about it” he says. “For its age, the way it drives is simply incomparable to any other 911 of the era. It has the perfect dual character: a genuine grand tourer and a race car in the same breath. From the tightest little Alpine passes to the German autobahn, it takes on everything you throw at it. Of course there’s also the legendary ducktail, which is unmistakable from any angle. There’s really nothing else like it.

The moment it arrived, the first thing I had to do was drive one of the routes from my childhood, the same one I used to do with my father. From there I took it straight down to Como for a road trip with my closest friends. The car is made to be driven, and that’s exactly how I intend to keep using it. Most recently I took it on my own rally up to Spa in Belgium where it was worked properly and got to show off every bit of its charm.”