A Rotting 1978 911 Turbo Just Won Porsche’s Dealer Restoration Contest
Harper Porsche’s neglected Sonderwunsch Turbo beat a factory-correct 993 Turbo and an RS-style 993 build at Luftgekühlt 12. Entries fell from last year’s record 73 to 60.
A 1978 911 Turbo 3.3 that spent years rotting has taken the top prize in the 2026 Porsche Classic Restoration Challenge. Porsche Cars North America named Harper Porsche the Grand National Champion on October 16, closing out a season that started with a field of regional finalists and ended on the floor of Luftgekühlt 12 in Fayetteville, Georgia.
Three dealers took the three national titles, and each one won by doing something different to a 911: rebuilding one, un-modifying one, and reinventing one.
Restoration: the green Turbo nobody wanted
Harper's car is an early Sonderwunsch commission, ordered through the special-requests department that Porsche formally founded in 1978, the same year this Turbo was built. It left Stuttgart in Paint to Sample Buick Medium Green metallic over white leather with pinstripe velour inserts, and it arrived at the dealer in poor shape after years of neglect, according to PCNA.
The team cut out the rust, repainted the body from bare metal, and rebuilt the engine, transmission, and turbocharger. The result won the Restoration category outright before taking the overall title. Porsche's Sonderwunsch department still exists, and these days it builds cars like the road-legal Slantnose 911 one-off it revealed in September.
Preservation: putting a 993 Turbo back to stock
Gaudin Porsche of Las Vegas won Preservation with a 1996 911 Turbo that had been modified over decades. Instead of replacing parts, the team reversed the changes, kept the original finishes, and had the car's authenticity verified through a Porsche Classic Technical Certificate. It's the second year in a row for Gaudin in this category: in 2025 the dealer won Preservation with a 1988 944 Turbo S, according to PCNA.
Individualization: a Pastel Yellow 993 turned RS
Porsche Orlando won Individualization and the People's Choice vote with a 1997 911 Carrera that started life as a Pastel Yellow 993. The team stripped it to a bare shell and rebuilt it as a bespoke RS-style car with a high-revving 4.0-liter flat-six for its longtime owner. Enthusiasts at Luftgekühlt picked it over the other finalists.
What changed from 2025
This was the program's sixth season. It drew 60 entries from Porsche Centers nationwide, down from the record 73 that PCNA reported for 2025, when the final ran alongside Luftgekühlt 11 in Durham, North Carolina. Last year's Grand National Champion was Porsche Bend, with a 1973 911T built as an RSR tribute, and Harper Porsche took the People's Choice award with a 964 RS. This year Harper went one better.
Porsche says the United States is the largest market in the world for classic Porsches, and the challenge exists to show that its dealer technicians can handle those cars with access to nearly 85,000 Classic Genuine Parts. The 2026 finalists shared the Trilith lot with the 935 K3 and the Targa Florio cars that headlined this year's Luftgekühlt.
PCNA hasn't announced dates or a host event for the 2027 challenge yet. Before-and-after galleries of all three winners are on the Porsche Newsroom.
