Wearing one of the most elegant yet understated colors Porsche ever applied to one of its cars, this stunning Agablau (Aga Blue) over-black leatherette 1966 911 has made several trans-Atlantic crossings over its nearly 60-year lifespan. Now enjoying life as a fully-restored showpiece, it turned the heads of the judges at the 2024 La Jolla Tour and Concours d’Elegance, who presented it with first place in the “Porsche 911 Air-Cooled Variants” class.
Background
After newly-completed 911 chassis number 303501 departed the factory in Zuffenhausen on January 19th, 1966, the 110th example of 1709 constructed that model year, its initial destination was not the docks of Hamburg or Bremerhaven to be shipped to the United States, but rather Porsche Konstruktionen Gesellschaft mbH, the distributorship jointly owned by Ferry Porsche and his sister Louise in Salzburg, Austria.
Although it was a Euro-spec model, the blue Porsche was prepared for Tourist Delivery and export to its first owner, identified on its Kardex vehicle build/warranty card as Dr. Julius T. Krüger Jr., from Lubbock, Texas, on January 19th, 1966. Dr. Krüger, or Krueger, was a cardio-vascular thoracic surgeon who had followed his late father and grandfather into the medical profession. After wrapping up a ski vacation with a good friend, he brought his new 911 back to Porsche Salzburg for its first service on the last day of February 1966, as noted on the Kardex, and then arranged to have the car shipped to America.
The Kardex records another service at Porsche Cars Southwest in San Antonio, Texas on May 10th, 1966. By December 2nd of that year, when the doctor brought the car in for another service, it had racked up some 12,886 kilometers, or just over 8,000 miles, on its Euro-spec VDO metric odometer. It isn’t clear why the car’s instrumentation and lighting were apparently never converted to meet U.S. standards. If they were at some point, all the original components were put aside and stayed with the car through its entire lifetime.
The just-introduced 911, born as the Type 901, was a revelation in both physical appearance and performance. It was built on a steel platform chassis with a wheelbase of 87 inches, referred today as being the “short” wheelbase design. Porsche retained the short wheelbase chassis until 1969, when it was stretched by about 3.4 inches in the interest of improved handling stability.
The 911 made its first public appearance at the 1963 IAA show in Frankfurt. It was physically larger and much roomier than its immediate predecessor, the 356 series, and thus weighed more. This demanded a more powerful, larger-displacement engine. The four-cam Carrera four, although quite powerful for its size, was deemed too complex and costly for mass production and couldn’t be enlarged beyond two liters.
After much experimentation, Porsche management decided on a rear-mounted, magnesium alloy-cased opposed six-cylinder single-overhead-cam powerplant, cooled by a combination of dry-sump lubrication and fan-fed air-cooling over the generously-finned cylinders. Fuel from a 16.4-gallon front-mounted fuel tank fed a set of Solex 40PI recirculating carburetors on engines completed in 1964 and 1965, but the arrival of 1966-model examples saw Porsche changing to a pair of triple-throat 40 mm (1.6 in.) down-draft Webers.
The transaxle was a fully-synchronized five-speed, the suspension was fully independent with MacPherson struts in the front and trailing arms with telescopic shock absorbers in the rear, and disc brakes were fitted at all four corners. Dry weight was claimed to be 2,381 pounds.
New 911s in standard form were quite well-equipped at the factory, with the interior tastefully trimmed and highlighted by a handsome—if thin by today’s standards—wood-rimmed steering wheel and a matching wood veneer strip traversing the dashboard with its lockable glove box door. This 911’s Kardex indicates that Dr. Krueger had chosen carefully from Porsche’s color and option lists when he ordered the car. He specified the newly introduced Agablau for the exterior.
The late Charlie White of the Porsche Club of America’s (PCA) Arizona Region was long considered the go-to guy for information about Porsche colors, options, and literature. He wrote that “Paint colors were still somewhat limited for the early 911/912, with nine regular colors and no regularly offered special colors, compared to seven regular colors and four special colors for the 356C.” That was based on a color chart published in May 1965, and it’s where Code 6608, Aga Blue, appears for the first time. It’s an interesting color.
The PCA’s “Rennbow” database describes Agablau as “a somewhat uncommon shade of dark blue containing a hint of grey-green.” Rennbow says it was offered on short-wheelbase 911s and 912s for just the 1965 and 1966 model years, one of six different shades of blue offered by Porsche in those early years. Times have indeed changed. Rennbow currently lists more than 125 different “blues” dating from the company’s beginning over 75 years ago to the present day. Their visual effect ranges from nearly white to nearly black, depending on ambient light. Some carry simple names while others are more imaginative and descriptive.
Where did the name “Aga” originate? That question sent us in search of an answer, but it appears that just about everyone involved with paint color selection and naming from that period is gone, so this may well remain a mystery. Says Porsche insider Jürgen Barth, “It was just a name…”
Dr. Krueger also checked the boxes for standard black leatherette upholstery rather than optional leather, with a standard off-white headliner and charcoal square-weave carpeting underfoot. Perlon nylon carpet was installed in the front trunk. As to options, he ordered Catacolor tinted glass all around, a Webasto gas heater, a set of chromed steel wheels and center caps, a single chrome-plated Talbot outside mirror, adjustable round headrests for both front seats in matching black leatherette, and a “radio package” consisting of a speaker and an antenna.
A Blaupunkt AM/FM radio was installed after the car arrived in the U.S., a common practice that began after radios had a habit of disappearing from cars being shipped from Europe. The 911 was also fitted with lap belts for both seats and a couple of elastic cords, which Porsche called “expanders”, for securing luggage on the rear seats when those were folded down.
The most interesting option selected by Dr. Krueger was a drip-rail-mounted ski rack, an item which had just been introduced, replacing the engine-grille fixture as offered in the 356C accessory catalog. Charlie White once wrote an article on optional equipment for the 356C and early 911 and 912, stating that this ski rack option first appeared in Porsche’s July 1966 Accessories catalog, suggesting that Dr. Krueger may well have been among the first customers to buy it.
Dr. Krueger passed away in 1987 at age 58, but we were able to track down his children, who shared some memories of their dad’s Porsche: “He always had some cool cars, recalls son Ben, although he thinks the blue 911 was the only product from Zuffenhausen. “I was only 12 or so at that time. He also had an old Thunderbird and later on a Mercedes-Benz 280SE convertible”. His older sister Carolyn tells us that while her father was an avid skier, their mother was not, so when he traveled to Austria to pick up his new car, she stayed home, and Dr. Krueger was accompanied by a ski buddy.
Back home in west Texas, Carolyn says her father loved driving the Porsche fast over the state’s wide-open highways. “It was a four-hour drive to go anywhere,” she says, and local authorities got to know the doctor well. “He got away with a lot. They left him alone because they knew they’d occasionally need his help.” Carolyn got quite a bit of 911 seat time as well, learning to dodge orange cones in local gymkhanas, as autocrosses were once called. “It was a lot of fun,” she says. “Although Dad was horrified, he was always there to encourage me.”
There were some downsides, too. Early 911s had their share of headaches. The Porsche was “a novelty, there simply weren’t any other foreign cars in the Lubbock area in those days,” says Carolyn, “so there were no shops or mechanics who knew how to service the car and make repairs when necessary.” Because of the high temperatures in Texas, the doctor had an aftermarket air-conditioning system installed, but it didn’t work very well. The 911’s rear weight bias caught the doctor out on one occasion, recalls Carolyn, sending him off a rural corner that he entered too quickly and into a barbed wire fence.
The car’s ownership subsequent to the good Dr. Krueger is vague, but research indicates it changed hands once or twice more, based on registration records from Texas and Ohio. Then, we are told, its then-owner arranged to send the Porsche back to Europe, selling it to someone described as a German collector car dealer. He, in turn, sold it to White Skiff Classics, a restoration shop in Bicske, Hungary, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) west of Budapest.
Restoration to Present
White Skiff, founded by Illés Szabolcs Dudás, is known throughout Europe for its high-quality restoration work, especially on early Porsches. The car arrived at White Skiff in February 2019, and a full nut-and-bolt disassembly commenced, with every effort made to retain and re-use original parts where possible. The body shell was taken down to bare metal before a proper re-spray, and the original engine—numbered 903546 and gearbox, numbered 224786—were rebuilt to factory standards, as were the other mechanical and electrical systems. A complete and correct new interior was created.
After the work was completed in 2022, says White Skiff, “We tested this stunning artpiece of engineering on a closed track to make fine adjustments and thus deliver to a prospective owner a piece of automotive history in the most perfect condition.” Although they are not mentioned on the original Kardex, a pair of amber-lensed Hella Nebelscheinwerfers (fog lights) were installed on the lower front valance beneath the bumper along the way, and the old non-original air conditioning system was removed. The restoration was fully documented in a lavish book produced by White Skiff. Then the Hungarian shop looked for a buyer.
The best place to find this car’s next owner proved to be the United States, long a hotbed of Porsche enthusiasm, so the car was consigned to Bonham’s sale at The Quail that summer. The successful bidder soon decided to flip the car, consigning it to Broad Arrow Auctions at the Jet Center in Monterey a year later.
There, this handsome 911 was purchased by a representative of Cool Classics International—CCI for short—based in Reno, Nevada, which displayed it at the La Jolla Concours. The blue Porsche’s most recent owner was the Elfer Collection, which put it back on the market in 2025. It was offered at the Broad Arrow Air/Water sale and found another new owner, who now looks after #303501.
Several early Porsche paint colors that were put aside after a brief appearance have re-emerged in recent years. Will 6608 Agablau reappear someday on future Porsche order sheets?
