Bruce O’Neil’s Sports Purpose 1968 911S

by Max Minshull

• Documented Trans-Am participant

• Matching drivetrain & replete with rare parts

• Three owners from new

• Long term ownership of near 30 years each for 2nd & 3rd owners

• Impeccable vintage racing history

• Highly eligible for Rennsport, Monterey Historics, and premier European race events
  
  
• P.O.A.

Introduction

Bruce O’Neil has for the past 55 years been involved in Porsche racing and competition. He is a true enthusiast and one of the early pioneers of amatuer racing with the evergreen Porsche 911.

It all started for him in 1966 when he owned a Porsche 912 while a physician at the American Hospital in Paris. After getting hooked on racing O’Neil wanted to upgrade to the faster 911s he saw performing so well at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry circuit just outside the city. O'Neil visited the Porsche factory in the late summer of 1967 to express his interest in acquiring a 911, and Huschke von Hanstein subsequently sold him a 1965 911 ex-factory test car that was upgraded at the factory to contemporary 911S specifications for competition. The car was driven all over Europe in late 1967 with support from the factory. When O’Neil returned to the United States in January 1968, he brought the 911 home with him. Throughout that next year, O’Neil raced at Cotati, Santa Barbara, Laguna Seca, and Riverside with the car. By then, though, faster 911s were available and his over-achieving but older 1965 chassis was in danger of being moved from C Sedan to B Sedan in which it would be uncompetitive against newer 911 chassis. O'Neil made the decision to sell the 1965 911 coupe to Walt Maas, who continued to race the car in Trans-Am and San Francisco Region SCCA events in 1969 and 1970. The car remains in excellent condition today with its long term third owner Dr. Ed Matsuishi.

Bruce had inquired with the factory as to a replacement for this 1965 911, and this is where #11800337 comes into the picture. This 1968 911S was built on October 27, 1967, as a tangerine coupe with black vinyl interior and equipped with webasto heater, tinted glass, sport seats, and through the grill driving lights. The handling dealer was Autohaus Krauss of Nürnberg, who sold it to Robert Gschossmann of Bamberg, Germany. Sadly Mr. Gschossmann died in late 2022, sadly shrouding the early history of the car while in Germany.

Original Kardex showing entries until April of 1969

Original “Wagenpass” with matching address & name to Kardex.

Racing History

San Francisco SCCA Regionals:

O’Neil, having sold his 1965 911 for around $6000 in the fall of 1968, looked for a suitable replacement to be found via his contacts at the factory. O’Neil was informed that a racing specification 911S, which would be optimized for SCCA C Production regulations, could be available for purchase. The car was air freighted to him, arriving sometime in April 1969.

The car had arrived as promised to O’Neil in late April 1969 in full race form, having been air freighted to LAX as O’Neil recalled. The racing options that arrived attached to the car included a factory roll bar, 6R / 7R fuchs, 911S badge deletion, 911R style muffler, lightweight interior with momo steering wheel, and a full 906-style two liter twin plug race motor running Weber 46 carburetors. However, the car retained a full steel body and non-flared fenders as per a normal street-1968 911S. Flares were subsequently added to increase the allowable tire size with the “7R” wheel for.

May 3-4, 1969 Laguna Seca Regional SCCA:

Original period Laguna Seca visitors guide brochure

O’Neil’s maiden event with the car was at the Laguna Seca San Francisco SCCA regional on May 3-4, 1969. Photos below are from that event. It is likely he did not finish or at least didn’t finish inside the top six finishers in the C-Production class. Likely the spin as shown in the photos contributed to this outcome.

O’Neil’s friend Harald Kirberg can be seen driving his #47 356 Roadster E-Production race car at the same weekend at Laguna Seca. Kirberg Motors was founded in 1967 in San Francisco and sponsored the 911 during its period race career.

June 12, 1969 Sears Point Regional SCCA:

On June 12, 1969, O’Neil won the Sears Point Regional SCCA race in the C-Production category. This netted him 9 “regional” San Francisco SCCA points.

The all new for 1969 Sears Point International Raceway

Here O’Neil is being followed by another C-Production 911 and the #21 E-Production Speedster of Bob Tucknott.

Incredible color photo of the car with “Kirberg Motors” sponsorship. The “A” oil sponsorship has been added and the “Bosch Spark Plugs” sponsorship moved to the bottom of the door.

This photo is from the Sears Point paddock. One can note the roll bar, 6R / 7R fuchs, European specification bumpers, European specification tail lights, 911S badge deletion and 911R style muffler.

July 6, 1969 Cotati Regional SCCA:

On July 6, 1969 O’Neil drove the #51 911 at Cotati Raceway. Details include a larger “Kirberg” sponsorship and the same yellow hood as at Laguna Seca & Sears Point. As at Laguna Seca O’Neil either DNF’d or did not finish inside the top six.

August 23-24, 1969 Laguna Seca Trans-Am:

On August 23-24, 1969 at the Laguna Seca Round of the SCCA Trans-Am championship, Harald Kirberg appears to have driven the car at practice and qualifying but failed to complete the Sunday points race for unknown reasons. Kirberg was one of the sponsors of the car from the beginning as could be seen on the fender. Further investigation on the events of the weekend are pending.

Harald Kirberg driving the car he sponsored.

It appears in these stills taken from YouTube that the car was running “minilite wheels” in one of the practice sessions, while the still shots show the car running on its 6 & 7R fuchs. The “STP” sponsorship on the door has replaced the “A” oil and “Bosch Spark Plugs” sponsorship. Also, the car now has a full black hood as oppposed to the yellow stripe it had while #51 earlier in the year. The #29 appears to only have been retained for the Laguna Seca Trans-Am and Sears Point Trans-Am entries with Harald Kirberg driving. 

> Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_mdGLSfKDI

Trans-Am Sears Point September 20-21, 1969:

According to my research conducted with the San Francisco SCCA region historian Gary Horstkorta, Harald Kirberg appears to have entered the 911 in the Trans-Am Sears Point event but then did not likely arrive for either practice or the race.

The following entry list from the Gary Horstkorta collection shows Harald Kirberg entered as #29, the same number he had at Laguna Seca in the Trans-Am race one month prior. This was likely issued a few weeks ahead of the event.

Official SCCA results from the Trans-Am Sears Point event showing no result for Harald Kirberg. Further research on this topic is pending.

Above can be seen the 1969 SCCA San Francisco regional point distribution resilts, showing 9 points for O’Neil which would have been earned at the June 12, 1969 Sears Point SCCA race. O’Neil raced the car in 1970 in the SCCA SF Region as well.

Later Results: 

The next race that there are documented results for is the May 1-2, 1971 Laguna Seca SCCA regional race. The 911 is back runnning #51 as it had when Bruce O’Neil drove it before the Trans-Am entries.

O’Neil continued to race the car in local SF SCCA events off and on until 1973 when he suffered a crash.

O’Neil retained the car in storage subsequently and in 1985 had the car restored to vintage racing specification. He then raced it at the Porsche 50th Anniversary weekend at the Monterey Historics in 1998. After Monterey, Bruce sold the car to Ed Matsuishi, who also had owned Bruce’s 1965 911 race car since 1971. Dr. Ed has continuosuly raced it since then including many of the Rennsport & Monterey Historic weekends. The car retains its original gearbox and motor, along with many “R” specific parts that set this car apart as a factory prepared car from the genesis era of the 911 race car. A full list of these parts, as well as a total spares list, is pending.

Contemporary Photos: