Almost 60 years ago, the Sports Car Club of America realized it had made a mistake of huge consequence. It had classified the recently arrived 2.0-liter Porsche 911 in D/Production, where it would run against competition with similar engine displacement—most notably the competitive Triumph TR4s and TR4As. By season’s end, 911s proved to be the proverbial fox in the henhouse, running roughshod through D/Production to claim national titles, often beating many C/Production cars along the way. The following year, 1967, the SCCA took a different approach, classifying cars based on relative performance rather than engine size. The 911 was bumped up to Class C, where competition was much stiffer.
Porsche, however, was busy developing and homologating new higher-performance 911 parts packages for FIA approval (which the SCCA had to accept), and the 911 was off and running again. As victories mounted, the SCCA would begin what appeared to many a quiet effort to limit the German automaker’s emerging dominance. It may have had a good reason. We’ll explain.
When the new Trans-American Sedan Championship was unveiled in 1966, Porsche wanted in, as it promised greater product exposure in its most important market, the United States. In 1967, it found a way around some rules that might otherwise have made it ineligible. By 1968, Porsche was ultra-competitive.
Today we present one of the most successful 911s of that era, boasting a stellar pedigree in both SCCA Production and Trans-Am U2. Its current owner, collector and vintage racer Andrew Larson, notes that this 911S is believed to be one of only four factory-equipped with both the “Rally Kit” and “Sports Kit II.” Furthermore, it is likely one of just two that made it to the U.S. in period—the other going to legendary dealer Vasek Polak.
The Kardex document for the car you see on these pages lists it as 118.0.0224, identifying it as a 1968 911S. The ’68 911S was never officially imported to the U.S. because it couldn’t pass California’s strict emissions standards—although that matter was later resolved.
Early 911s and 912s carry their chassis numbers in several places: Stamped in the front trunk floor by the gas tank, and on the lower dashboard behind the kneepad. Additionally, numbers were scrawled in crayon atop the instrument cowling, an area usually seen only by someone replacing the top dashboard covering.
This 911 was specially ordered in late 1967 by reigning SCCA C/Production National champion Alan Johnson, who had just gone to work for Don Burns Volkswagen in the Los Angeles suburb of Garden Grove. Burns tasked him to manage the company’s racing program. Although its Kardex lists January 15th, 1968 as the delivery date to VW Pacific/Porsche Distributors in Culver City, it appears to have actually arrived by air freight just before Christmas of 1967 and was promptly sent to the Burns shop.
Johnson, who later would launch his own successful Porsche dealership and then a Porsche parts business in San Diego, recalls that he and Burns’ in-house Porsche specialist Chuck Nearing prepared the car for both the Sebring 12 Hours and the rest of the C/Production racing season.
The factory had given them a strong head start. Johnson had ordered the car with both the Sports Kit II and the 911S Rally Kit. The Rally Kit was accepted for homologation by the FIA for international competition. It focused on improved performance and weight reduction. Intake manifolds and cylinder heads were polished and matched; there was a selection of carburetor jets and venturis for the triple-throat downdraft Webers, rain “hats” over the carbs, a racing clutch, and a lightened flywheel. New headers and a straight-through exhaust were also supplied, although Johnson would later install a Bursch extractor system. The carb upgrades and exhaust were said to give an additional 15 horsepower.
Weight reduction meant rubber mats instead of standard carpeting, a driver’s dead pedal, uprated brakes, and deletion of the gas-fueled heater and the notorious and heavy (50 pounds) front bumper weights. Included were Koni shocks and struts, 15 mm (0.59 in.) and 16 mm (0.63 in.) anti-roll bars, a smaller alternator, stiffer engine mounts, and a selection of four different homologated gear sets.
The Rally Kit included Speedster buckets trimmed in “Elephant hide”, a roll bar, limited-slip differential, 100-liter (26.4 gallon) gas tank with a through-the-hood filler, plus another rarely-mentioned request, Fahrzeugeinstellung für Sportzwecke Tiefergelegt, which translates to “Vehicle setting for Sports Purpose, lowered”.
Before Sebring, however, there was a National race in Las Vegas the first weekend of February 1968. Along with a black Porsche side stripe above the rocker panels, the 911 wore a horizontal Tartan plaid stripe designed by Alan Johnson’s father, who he describes as an accomplished artist and student of “Family Coats of Arms”. The Burns name traced back to an old Scottish clan with a rich history. “He used the Burns family crest colors from the actual Burns Coat of Arms,” says Johnson. “I had these multi-colored stripes made by a printer in downtown L.A., and these stripes were used on other Don Burns cars, including the Porsche 910 I drove for Don Burns in 1969.”
Johnson was delighted with the car’s performance. “It won its first race, the SCCA National Points race at Stardust; it finished seventh overall and won its class at the 1968 Sebring 12-hour International race, and then qualified for and won an SCCA National Championship. There are not many cars that were run in three different categories in one year and had wins in all three.” Johnson tells us that this particular car was probably his favorite Porsche to race.
After Vegas came a quick turnaround to prepare for Sebring in March. That meant a change in gearing, more dyno tuning, installation of extra driving lamps, and some track testing at Orange County Raceway. Then it was loaded up for the long drive to Florida. There, Johnson teamed with Bob Kirby, qualifying 37th in a huge field of 71 entries and finishing 7th overall and first in Under-2-Liter (U2), leading a 1-2-3-4 Porsche 911 sweep.
Recalling that 1968 contest, Johnson says Kirby took the first shift, jumping into the car, but slammed the door on his hand. He yanked his hand out of his driving glove and took off. “We changed drivers five times, but had no other problems.” In 1967, Kirby and Johnson had finished ninth overall and first in GT2.0 in another 911S, the best result for a production car.
Retired Formula One driver Richie Ginther, now serving as racing manager for Porsche’s west coast distributor John von Neumann, had watched the Burns 911’s successful run at Sebring. After reportedly discussing strategy with von Neumann, Ginther called Johnson and asked him to join a new Porsche-backed team to take on Carroll Shelby’s new Toyota 2000GT in C/Production. Some quid pro quo was involved.
If the Burns 911S with Johnson driving would race in SCCA’s B/Sedan category, Burns would be granted the Porsche franchise he very much wanted. Besides, Ginther warned him that a privateer team stood no chance against factory-backed efforts. In the end, both parties were satisfied; Burns changed his car’s classification from C/Production to B/Sedan, Ginther’s operation covered the conversion costs, and Burns got his new dealership—as well as a National Championship Trophy for Johnson’s win in B/Sedan.
Along the way, the paperwork got decidedly “hinky.” Because the SCCA had not recognized the 911S as a B/Sedan at that point, Ginther appears to have transformed chassis number 118.0.0224 into a class-legal 911T by changing the trunk number to 118.3.0224 using a factory stamp. Nobody was the wiser, and the car easily cleared subsequent tech inspections.
While big American V8s dominated SCCA A/Sedan, the B, C, and D/Sedan classes with engines of 2.0-liter size or less proved very popular as well, attracting import manufacturers and their growing customer base. Alfa Romeo had captured the first B/Sedan title with its Giulia GT in 1966, and Porsche had taken note; it wasn’t going to take that lying down.
Porsche lobbied hard to have the SCCA classify the 2.0-liter 911 as a “sedan”, and after an argument over interior volume was settled, it went on to win the fiercely fought class title the next three years running. Better still, because the 911 was now recognized as a sedan, Johnson was able to run in two SCCA classes that year, notching three points-paying victories in C/Production and six more in B/Sedan.
Records show that Johnson’s first B/Sedan contest had been an SCCA National at Continental Divide Raceway in Colorado a month before. It worked out nicely as Johnson won both the B/Sedan race on Saturday and C/Production on Sunday. His last C/Production race with 0224 was a six-hour Enduro at Riverside on Thursday, July 4th, 1968, again driving with Bob Kirby, winning the class and finishing second overall.
“Racing in 1968 in the SCCA B/Sedan class,” recalls Johnson, “we won enough points to qualify for the year-end National Championship race at Riverside. I was on the pole and had a race-long battle with Don Pike in the Kendon-sponsored Porsche 911. I was second at the end of this race by less than a car length, but was given the National Championship win because the Kendon Porsche was disqualified for having a front track one inch too wide. This was the same thing the Burns 911 had been disqualified for in a race in San Diego during the year.” The stewards also tried to disqualify Johnson because of a relocated front oil cooler, but discovered that all the first five Porsches had the same modification and settled the matter by giving each a small fine. Then Burns decided to give his 911S a new home.
The new owner was Jack Andersen, another Southern California Porsche Owners Club (POC) member and majority owner of a VW franchise. He’d owned several 356s and an early Solex-carbureted 911, which he drove in POC time trials, often taking Best Time of the Day. His friends encouraged him to try club racing. He used his 1966 911 to obtain his racing license and began looking for “the best racing Porsche available.” That turned out to be the Burns car from 1968. Andersen planned to run it as a B/Sedan for the 1969 season throughout California and Arizona.
Over the years, Andersen’s Porsches had been maintained by Allred Brothers Porsche-VW, a modest dealership in Glendale, north of Los Angeles. Jim Allred was quick to offer sponsorship. Charles Akly, a friend Andersen met through POC events and the Allred shop, was the dealer’s top Porsche technician. Akly not only took over maintenance and preparation of Andersen’s newly-acquired 911 race car but would join the team as a co-driver and coach.
Akly was also racing his own A/Production Porsche 904 and was on his way to winning Cal Club’s “Driver of the Year” trophy in 1969. The plan was for Akly to drive the 911 for the full 1969 season, but because his mid-engined 904 and the rear-engined 911S required different driving styles, Akly asked that someone else drive the 911 when possible. He raced it only three times, once at a Riverside Regional and twice at Tucson. That left Andersen, who owned the race car but lacked a National racing license himself, in need of help.
Enter Elliott Forbes-Robinson III (EFR), who had been racing his own B/Production Cobra. He knew Porsches pretty well and had met Akly and another mechanic, Julius Czombos, at the Allred Porsche dealership. EFR agreed to drive the B/Sedan National races and the four Under-2 Liter West Coast Trans-Am races. He would also provide expert coaching to Andersen so he could obtain his own National license while driving in Regionals.
The Burns livery was gone by the time the car arrived at Riverside in February; it now wore a red center stripe with Allred’s name on the nose and front fenders. Andersen’s pit crew, made up of several of his close friends, was outfitted with white Levi’s and blue and white striped tee shirts. EFR says the crew had never as much as changed a tire during a pit stop, but they all pitched in and made it work. Andersen recalls that Roger Penske stopped by to check out the crew’s snappy outfits, and by the next race, his own Sunoco pit crew, running Mark Donohue’s famed blue #6 Camaro, was similarly dressed for the occasion.
The rest of the season saw the Andersen team, with EFR handling most of the driving, racking up 10 B/Sedan wins in 15 SCCA Production races, a second place in U2 at a Trans-Am Pro race at Laguna Seca, another win in U2 Pro at Sears Point (now Sonoma), tempered by a pair of Trans-Am DNFs at Kent in September and another at Riverside in December, where EFR had started from pole. At one point, the team of EFR, Andersen, and Akly ran up a string of five consecutive SCCA B/Sedan class wins. Porsche won the very competitive B/Sedan class after a season-long battle with Alfa Romeo.
EFR ended the 1969 season finishing third in the field of 14 B/Sedans at the 1969 American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) Runoffs at Daytona. He remembers that the car needed some extensive changes when it arrived in Florida, so it was taken up to the Brumos shop in Jacksonville. EFR notes wryly that Brumos didn’t share all its preparation secrets. Its star drivers were Peter Gregg and Wilbur Pickett, who would finish the race first and second, with EFR third, eight seconds behind Pickett. Like Johnson, EFR says he found the 911 very reliable and easy to drive. “It was amazing to enjoy so much success. We were just a bunch of newbies!”
Rule changes at the end of the season prompted Andersen to retire his small-valve Porsche. He recalls that to remain competitive, he’d have to make some very costly engine upgrades, so he had it converted to the street and asked Jim Allred to find a buyer. It then passed through at least three other owners, by which time it had become a 911 hot rod. Changes made included anti-roll bars, roll bar mounts, and a driver’s dead pedal. The last of those owners approached New York Porsche broker Don Ahearn in 2020.
A copy of its Kardex revealed the car’s true identity and rare options. Ahearn purchased just the rolling chassis, realizing he had something special, a 911S race car that had lived in obscurity for decades. He soon found a buyer in vintage racer Andrew Larson, who sent it to Dave Imes at Apex Classique in Denver for a comprehensive restoration using donor car parts. Imes brought the car back to its 1968 appearance for the 2025 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, with the car wearing its Don Burns livery.
Ecurie Engineering built a fresh race engine, and Emery Geiger of Geiger Works restored the suspension, electrics, and interior, including the original
“Elephant hide” trim. The 1968 instruments were restored, and there is a period-correct roll bar. The brake calipers were restored and new brake lines and hoses fitted. There are oversized torsion bars with Delrin bushings and new Koni racing shocks.
So, was there subterfuge back in the day? So it would appear. Was there some bribery involved? Burns got his Porsche franchise in exchange for switching classes. Recall the success Penske and Donohue achieved with their Trans-Am Camaros, and the subsequent tales of those cars being acid-dipped to reduce weight—a questionable, if not illegal, practice. Smokey Yunick certainly tried to shade NASCAR rules on many occasions and was usually caught, but as Richard Petty once said, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t racin’!”
