Porsche 911 Carrera RS

The vehicle in detail

Debuting in 1973 during a period of internal upheaval as Porsche restructured its production and motorsports programs, the groundbreaking 911 Carrera RS 2.7 profoundly reshaped the German automaker’s engineering and corporate strategy. The indelible kinship between its roadgoing and racing models is largely thanks to the 911 RS 2.7, developed in the early seventies for FIA Group 4 competition that required 500 street-legal examples for homologation.
Porsche marketing execs had little faith at the time that the company could sell more than 80 examples of the stripped-down, track-focused 911 Carrera RS 2.7 to private racers. “Considering the extremely spartan equipment necessitated by weight requirements, and having seen and driven the car, we do not believe that we can effectively market the car under normal circumstances,” wrote the marketing department to then engineering director Ernst Fuhrmann, as quoted in the book Carrera RS.
Debuting at the 1972 Paris Motor Show as the first 911 to feature the “Carrera” moniker, brisk demand for the RS 2.7 drove Porsche to produce more than three times the homologation requirement, with 1,580 units built for the 1973 model year. Further proving just how misguided the marketers were, 200 of these were specified with an M471 Lightweight conversion that jettisoned what little “spartan equipment” there was on the interior and fitted thinner body panels and glass to reduce weight. A less extreme M472 Touring conversion retained some creature comforts, making it an ideal middle ground for driving enthusiasts seeking to enjoy their lively homologation special in daily driving or for long-distance touring. With the 911 RS 2.7, Porsche attracted a dedicated group of enthusiasts that grows stronger with each passing year.