1988 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera Targa Sport - My Car

You never really know a car’s provenance unless you ask, and that certainly goes for this 911. But the car is only one part of this story.

We’re going to start with the car though; what you’re looking at is a beautiful 1988 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera Targa Sport in Guards Red. The car was the final year of the G-Series 3.2 Carrera, so has its 3,148cc air-cooled flat-six engine mated to the sought-after G50 5-speed gearbox. Owner Richard Douthwaite told us the model’s spec sheet says the car’s good for 231bhp, but that it might not apply to this car specifically…

“It belonged to the boss of Lister Cars”, Richard said. For those out of the know, Lister is one of the most prestigious marques in British motorsport. Started in 1954, the Cambridge-based manufacturer is “Britain’s oldest and most successful racing car company”, per its site, and it has secured sports car racing wins at almost every circuit in Britain.

After a revival around the millennium, the company entered their Lister Storm in the 2000 FIA GT Championship - taking first and second in the drivers’ championship and first in the constructors too. Notable drivers include John Surtees (the only man to win championships in both Grand Prix motorcycle racing and Formula 1) and Jack Brabham (the only man to win an F1 championship in a car run by his own team).

So, not exactly a bad team then. And you can bet that a car owned by the boss of that team will have a little extra pep compared to any other examples.

“I know it’s got a fast road cam in it, it’s been chipped, and it’s got a straight-through stainless exhaust on it, so it’s been mildly tuned by Lister,” Richard said. “Mildly tuned” might be slightly modest - he’s not sure if there were any other modifications to the car, but did mention that the specialists at Revolution Porsche in Leeds said it “was the best they'd ever seen and amongst the quickest they'd driven,” so take from that what you will…

The car was a COVID treat which he actually picked up from the Lister factory five years ago and which still bears the Lister name on its front license plate, saying “there’s half-million pound racecars littered about the place. So that was just like ‘this is the one I need to be buying’, because he’s obviously not going to be buying cheap oil from Halfords,” he joked.

Which is a very fair point. As cars swap and change hands through the years, it’s easy to lose log books or miss a service or find cars with partial (or suspect) history, however provenance is something this car has in abundance. “There’s loads and loads of paperwork,” Richard said. “Every MOT, every service - it’s got about 40 stamps in the book. And obviously coming from an organisation like that, [you can trust it].”

And for a car that’s nearly 40 years old, it’s in amazingly good condition - showing little to no signs of its 135,000 mile odometer. Everything is immaculate, even down to the tyres. The interior also wears its age remarkably well - the black leather showing fewer wrinkles than a person of the same age would have.

Surprisingly, the fact that it’s a Targa wasn’t the deciding factor in his purchase, but the unique story of the car again won out - Richard saying that he’d have preferred a Coupe, but couldn’t turn down this car.

“If it had been a Coupe I’d have had it - I’d have rather had a Coupe to be honest. I didn’t want a convertible because it spoils the lines of it, but I bought the car on the provenance. The fact that it was a Targa didn’t bother me.”

While the work done by Lister’s has certainly made it “a proper driver’s car”, per Richard, it’s not really a daily driver - the extra power making it a beast.

“I prefer driving my 944 S2. It’s a bit uncivilised, this - it’s a little bit savage. It’s keen. It’s on it. It revs a bit higher, it revs a bit longer with the fast road cam. So it’s wanting to go all the time.

“It’s great for a Sunday run, but if you’re wanting to go for a sedate, civil drive, it’s not really the thing.”

And herein lies the other side to this story. Richard himself is an incredibly passionate car man, and, as alluded to, this is far from his only car. 

Having left school at 15 and gone into entrepreneurship, he’s amassed enough cars to fill multiple garages. While previous 911s include a Carrera 2, a Carrera 4 Targa, and a Whaletail Turbo, his current roster includes a BMW 535i M Sport (one of 16 remaining), a 1992 Mercedes 500SL, a 1979 Mercedes 450SLC.

“I like my retro stuff. I love old school stuff. 70s, 80s, 90s is my period.

“[Those model year cars] are undiluted. I had a 964 Turbo and that was an animal. It had no power steering, no ABS, no traction control. I had it for four years and it scared the life out of me every time I took it out because it was so unpredictable.”

This love of cars and entrepreneurial spirit is something that Richard is passing down to his son, Kurt. “He’s 12 and he already loves cars, and keeps ours valeted and fresh,” Richard said, “along with a YouTube channel (Kurt’sVlog) where he shares car reviews.”

The father-son love for cars is one we see a lot in talking to people, and Richard remembers his own from when he was a child with his father.

“My first memory of a 911 was being about seven years old in the back of a Targa.

“My dad had gone to drive one and I sat in the back of it. I was like ‘buy it dad, buy it, buy it, buy it’, but he ended up with a Mercedes instead. But my first memory was a red Targa. And when I sat in this one, I just thought ‘bloody hell, I feel seven again’.

“So it was fate really - it just happened to be a Targa, and I’ve got fond memories of begging my dad to buy a Targa when I was seven.”

It’s funny how life often brings people in circles, and this definitely seems to be one of those moments. To find another red Targa, and one with such a fantastic history, seems almost too good to be true. And while many people might take the opportunity to buy the car and then put it away in a climate-controlled garage, under a dust sheet, patiently waiting for it to appreciate in value before selling for a profit without ever having turned a wheel in it, that’s not Richard’s style.

This car might be “savage”, Richard’s love of retro comes with respect too.

“You’ve got to respect them. And that’s what I like about them - they keep you on your toes, they keep you on edge, and they excite you because they’re analogue.

“I don’t want a Gen 2 991 that’s steer by wire and PDK - I want something that’s a machine.”

We agree. Driving today is far more boring, with cars that do all the hand-holding for you and make you feel disconnected from the entire experience. So we can rest easy knowing that there are still people like Richard out there - people who see cars for what they are, and who aren’t afraid to use them for it either.