The 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS is considered by many in the hardcore section of the Porschephile community to be the single best 911 of all time. This is high praise when you consider the staggering number of special edition 911s that have been built over the 50+ years since the model’s introduction.
As Porsche wound up the racing program for the 917 it looked to Group 4 GT class competition as its next challenge, homologation was set by the FIA at 500 cars per season but Porsche eclipsed this in almost the blink of an eye – a total of 1580 were made over the course of the program, these cars are now amongst the most collectible in the world.
In order to create the 911 Carrera RS, Porsche engineers took the stock 911’s engine and bored it out to 2687cc (from an original 2.4 litres), added Bosch mechanical fuel injection and its cylinders were lined with Nikasil to reduce drag. Suspension was upgraded to race-spec on all four corners, wheel arches were widened 6 inches at the front and 7 at the rear, and a ducktail spoiler was added to reduce lift at high speeds.
Within the Carrera RS model line existed 4 distinct sub-models. The Touring model you see here, the Lightweights, the RSH prototype cars and most famously of all – the RSRs. As you may have surmised, the Touring model was developed to be as close to the race-track version as you could get, and still pass a road worthy inspection by a humourless bureaucrat in coveralls.
By the time production ceased, Porsche has built 1,308 examples of the 911 Carrera RS Touring and still not satiated demand and even 42 years later, this is the car most people see in their heads when you bring up the 911.
The India Red example you see here was originally delivered to Germany before making its way to Japan and then the USA, where it underwent a full rotisserie restoration in the capable hands of Kundensport in Camarillo. The engine and transmission was rebuilt by the Aase Brothers in Anaheim and the interior was restored by Tony Garcia, of Autobahn Interior in San Diego.
The restoration was finished in 2012 and its racked up a modest 1000 miles since, if you’d like to add it to the collection you’ll need to click here to visit RM Auctions and register to bid at the Amelia Island Auction on the 14th of March 2015.
Photo Credits: Erik Fuller ©2015 Courtesy of RM Auctions
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
