1974 Porsche 911

You are viewing what is most likely the most original 1974 911 left in existence.  This is a completely unrestored 67k original mile Northern-California Porsche.  The factory Lime Green Paint is all original, the velour and vinyl interior is original and near flawless, all numbers match, and the car was immpecably cared for and maintained for it's entire life.  It's history is unbelievably documented with photos dating all the way back to 1976 and receipts back to 1974.  The only alterations performed to the car were the addition of Fuchs wheels circa 1977 (the original wheels were the ever-so unpopular cookie cutter alloys), and a cassette stereo from approximately the same time period, which both were performed by the second owner of the car.  The engine is dry, the clutch is strong, the Pirelli P6000 tyres are almost new, and the vehicle recently received a major service including spark plugs.  Much of the history of the car is laid out below in a letter from the third owner, who owned this incredible Porsche from 1978 until 2016 (at which time in was placed in a collection and stored in our climate controlled storage facility for the past year and a half).  Finding a nicely restored 70's 911 is tough enough, but finding an original unrestored yet pristine example? Impossible...

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1974 Porsche 911 Serial No. 911 410 2894

The first owner of this vehicle was Kurt E. Kahn. Mr. Kahn was in the military stationed in Germany
at the Kaiserslautern facility in 1974. He was at the headquarters for the 15th Military Police Brigade,
an Army function. Mr. Kahn was approximately 45 years old when he purchased the 911 in 1974. One
of the German records is a delivery certificate. It states many of the specifications of the car and names
the VIN number. I have translated the information contained on this certificate and it's quite
interesting. Also on this document is the name of the dealership in Kaiserslautern where the car was
purchased. The dealer was autohaus Georg Rittersbacher. Upon researching info concerning this
dealer, I found that it's still in operation in Kaiserslautern today. Included in the binder on the car are a
few pages relating to this auto dealer.


Mr Kahn previously participated in the Vietnam war and was listed as Command at the Headquarters
Commandant. He received a Joint Service Commendation Medal Achievement on 7/20/1969. He also
received a Bronze Star on 8/25/1969. Today, it appears that Kurt E. Kahn is approximately 86 years old
and lives with his wife in Melbourne, Florida.


The following section about the second owner is particularly interesting because there is a man by the
name of Charles C. Baldwin who was in the Air Force and achieved the rank of 2 star General at the
height of his career. He was Chief of Chaplains in the Air Force and retired in 2008. But he is NOT
the Charles C. Baldwin I purchased the 911 from in 1978. Unfortunately, the Charles Baldwin I
bought the car from is not prevalent on the internet mainly due to two reasons I believe. First,upon
further reflection, I believe my Major Baldwin was quite a bit older, perhaps 50-55 in 1978. Therefore,
finding info on an elderly person on the internet is most often not successful. Secondly, the 2 star
General Charles Baldwin casts a huge shadow on the internet and it's near impossible to search other
Charles Baldwins without finding info on the retired General. This is understandable, but makes the
search task near impossible.


The second owner of the Porsche was Air Force Major Charles C. Baldwin. I, Ken Struven, purchased
the Porsche 911 from Major Baldwin in May of 1978. From the German service records I know that
Major Baldwin was stationed at Ramstein Air Force base. The APO number on the records
corresponds with Ramstein. So this much is clear.


I always wondered how and why the second owner, Major Charles C. Baldwin began ownership of the
car in approximately March of 1976. When I researched Kurt Kahn, I discovered that the Military
Police Brigade to which he was attached went inactive in Germany in June of 1976. This fact explains
why Kurt Kahn decided to sell the Porsche to Major Baldwin. Kurt Kahn probably didn't want to or
couldn't afford to ship the car back to the US, so he advertised it and sold it to another person who was
present at Ramstein AFB in Germany (Major Baldwin).


Further research showed that both the Air Force, which Major Baldwin was in and the Army, which
Kurt Kahn was in, were situated in the largest military base outside of the U.S.A. The military
community was and is known as KMC (Kaiserslautern Military Community). Major Baldwin was
affiliated with Ramstein AFB, which is part of the KMC complex. In all the KMC complex has about
53,000 military personnel today.

 
I have been the caretaker of the 911 since May of 1978. I purchased the car directly
from Major Baldwin. Major Baldwin was driving many of the cars he was importing and selling in the
U.S. What I remember is that he was moving cars back to the U.S. on a space available basis on the
Air Force transport planes. The marques he was importing, as I remember, were mainly Porsches,
Mercedes and BMW's. His favorite auto, the green 1974 911 was most often stored away while he was
having fun driving all the others. He decided it was senseless to keep it stored, so committed to selling
it to me. He later regretted this decision, as he called me twice in the years following, asking if he
could purchase it back from me. I said no both times as I was enjoying it immensely.


I learned of the car from a fellow at a jewelry store (Hiltons Jewelry Store) here in my hometown, San
Carlos. This fellow, Bob Hilton knew that Major Baldwin had brought the 911 to California and it was
at Baldwin's family home in Diamond Springs, near Highway 50 on the way to South Lake Tahoe.
Bob Hilton, as I remember, was dating Baldwin's daughter (maybe her name was Yvonne) and
therefore, that's the connection. Furthermore, I believe Baldwin chartered Bob Hilton to sell the car by
advertising it in Northern California. It seems Major Baldwin believed that selling his 911 in Northern
California made more sense than selling it in Arizona because the 911 didn't have air conditioning. I
believe Charles Baldwin's wife was living at their home in Diamond Springs. Charles Baldwin's
current residence at the time was in the Phoenix area of Arizona, as they were separated as I
remember.


When I heard about the 911, it sounded good, but all I could picture was that it was in horrible
condition due to driving on back country dirt roads around the Placerville/ Diamond Springs area in the
mountains. I arranged to go to Diamond Springs to view the car. Major Baldwin drove up from
Arizona to meet me and allowed me to test drive the car. When I went to see it, I knew that it hadn't
been driving the back roads around Diamond Springs, as it was beautiful. I was a little put off by the
bright color and when I tried to negotiate the price down a bit because of the color, Major Baldwin put
me in my place very quickly. I also asked to have it inspected by a mechanic of my choosing and he
declined that offer immediately. He assured me it was in A-1 shape as verified by his mechanics, so
there'd be no more checking than that. He didn't want the car going to some shop he didn't know. So
there was little left to say other than I'd buy it. He drove the car down to the Bay Area and we
completed the transaction/DMV transfer at CSAA in Redwood City.


I have never used the car as a daily driver. It was always garaged and kept covered when not in use.
The furthest the car has strayed from the Bay Area is the Napa/Sonoma wine region to the north, Lake
Tahoe in summer time to the east and San Luis Obispo, just north of Santa Barbara to the south. It has
always been taken care of to the best of my ability. I understand automobiles quite well as I have
repaired, restored and enhanced many types and models for years. I helped to completely restore a
1960 bug eye Sprite in approximately 1971 and 1972. That was one of my earliest complete
restorations and planted the seed for all the subsequent auto activities.


In 1986, a friend of mine at my workplace, Bruce Saito, from Siltec/Cybeq Systems in Menlo Park
talked me into showing the 911 at three PCA concours events in the area. Bruce had a beautiful bright
red 356, but it wasn't concours quality. He helped me prepare my 911 and we showed it first in Palo
Alto at Carlsen Porsche/Audi on Embarcadero Road. It took a third place despite our ignorance about
concours shows. The judges were blown away by the car and one of them said it had the potential to
go all the way to the nationals in the right hands. I think that was a direct slight to us as we really
didn't know what we were doing.


The next show that came along was at Pasa Tiempo golf course on Highway 17 on the way to Santa
Cruz. At this point we had seen what they liked and didn't like and how these folks judged. So we
prepped the car more carefully and went to the event. It was a good day. The judges were highly 
complimentary and scored the car very high. It gained point standing too because it had a little more
than 50,000 miles and that gave it another 10 points due to mileage accumulation to boost the total. It
took 1st place that day. The judges wondered who we were and where we came from, because we
weren't PCA members. It was a fun day.

My formal education was in Mechanical Engineering (BSME, UC Davis) and business (MBA, College
of Notre Dame). I have worked in the engineering field my entire career, first as a Mechanical Design
Engineer and most recently, up until my formal retirement at the end of Feb. 2015, as V.P. of
Engineering for many years at the company I co-own. Since 1980 or so, I have continually worked in
R&D, design, and manufacturing of semiconductor manufacturing/processing equipment. I've sold
equipment into companies all around the world large and small. Many are names you'd instantly
recognize, others are small and more obscure, but important to the industry just the same. It was a
fascinating and rewarding career in many ways. At this point I'm happy to pursue other endeavors and
take it a little easier. So far it's been a very good time. The combination of working just enough to stay
active and yet, having loads of discretionary time is an irresistible combination.


There have been vehicles that I sort of regret selling. One was a beautiful dark green 1967 Mustang
fastback with high output 289. Another was a 1973 Land Cruiser FJ40 completely restored and
enhanced in many ways. It was a brute off road. And another was my little race car, a 1993 Miata
that I worked on for a year and a half and put over $5000 of parts into by means of my own engineered,
original modifications and work. I sold the Miata because my son was turning 16 and starting to drive.
I knew that car was the very definition of trouble in the hands of a 16 year old! But it was
tremendously exciting to drive! It just took a good measure of restraint to not get into trouble.
Something most 16 year olds are not known for.