Porsche Design × Braun

Announced October 3, 1974, on the Porsche stand at the Paris Salon de l'Automobile, the T 911 was listed as an option for the G-series 911. It was also sold through Braun dealers with a fitting kit. It is a DIN-sized slide-in receiver with an analogue clock. In the car it locks into a galvanised steel sleeve behind the radio aperture in the centre of the dashboard. At night it slides into a light grey Braun base beside the bed and becomes an alarm clock radio with its own speaker.

Each party had its own job. Zell am See specified the case: matt black anodised aluminium, a flat fascia that does not reflect the windscreen, and a dial that had to read as a sixth gauge. VDO supplied the numeral artwork from the 911 instrument masters. Lubs laid out the clock face on his usual plan and added the yellow second hand, which Porsche accepted after one meeting and one objection. Rams contributed the control logic: two knurled thumbwheels in the T 3 manner, three light grey convex band buttons and one green button for power.

The base belongs to Braun, with a Porsche angle. It is light grey lacquered sheet steel weighted with a cast iron plate. Its front face is inclined at exactly the 10 degrees of the 911 dashboard, so the dial is read from the pillow as it is from the driver's seat. A T 3 perforation grid covers an 8 cm speaker, and there is a green alarm-off bar you can find in the dark. The alarm pointer is set by a small recessed wheel on the back of the unit, where it cannot be knocked while driving. As on the T 1000, the complete operating instructions are printed in black Akzidenz Grotesk on the underside of the base. They include a diagram showing how to release the unit with the ignition key.

Auto Motor und Sport found the car output weaker than a Becker Mexico's, but gave the T 911 an extra paragraph as the only radio that did not spoil the 911 dashboard. Weissach test drivers reported that the Braun and the VDO clock in the instrument cluster disagreed by up to four minutes a week, and the Braun was usually right. From early 1975 the fitting kit therefore included a printed card telling owners to set the Porsche by the Braun.