My enthusiasm for the Porsche 911 is well-known to most of our readers, I think, and having finally acquired my own classic 911, a 1972 2.4 911T, that enthusiasm remains undimmed. The Stuttgart sports car has been with us since 1963 and its profile through eight generations is largely unchanged. In many other respects however, it’s a very different car to the one that first appeared as the 901 before Peugeot laid claim to model numbers with a zero in the middle.
It’s immensely more powerful, has a much bigger footprint, not least due to the huge wheels and tyres it now wears and is faster than ever. And it’s not been air-cooled for about 25 years, much to the chagrin of some so-called purists. Yet the basic layout – a 2+2 coupe with engine over the rear axle – is unaltered, as Porsche engineers gradually eliminated the roadholding issues that having most of the weight at the rear entailed.
One of the ways in which they did this was through increasing use of aerodynamic aids, starting with the subtle front spoiler introduced on the 2.2 911S in 1971. The most extreme manifestation of this – on road-going 911’s, at least – was the whale-tail that appeared on the mighty 930 Turbo in 1974, but this wasn’t the first rear spoiler to appear on a 911.
That distinction belongs of course to the legendary Carrera 2.7RS, for many, still the greatest 911 – possibly even the greatest Porsche – ever made, and this year marks half a century since its introduction in 1972 at the Paris Motor Show. It’s certainly the ultimate 911 from the so-called “classic” period i.e. 1968 – 73, before impact bumpers were made necessary by US safety regulations and is by some distance the most expensive original 911 you can buy, with prices starting at around £500k and frequently passing £750k and showing little sign of levelling off.
The origins of the Carrera 2.7RS can be found in Porsche’s motor sport programme. While privateers had been racing the 911 2.4S, Porsche was targeting the Group 4 (under 3.0-litre) category in European GT racing, and needed to be more competitive against the bigger, more powerful competition in the formidable shapes of the likes of the Ferrari Daytona and De Tomaso Pantera. To homologate the new car, it was necessary to build 500 identical special 911’s, and under Norbert Singer, the company looked at developing the ultimate 911 for the track.
Based on the 2.4S, the engine was bored out to 2681cc, and the body was subjected to the Colin Chapman dietary regime that included using thinner steel panels, fibreglass for the engine cover, lighter glass and removing the rear seats, carpets and door trim, all with the aim of getting the car’s kerb weight below 1,000kg. The internal door handles were replaced by cord pulls, sound deadening material, sun visors, glovebox lid and even the clock were all left off the RS. Famously, even the Porsche crest on the bonnet was replaced with a sticker in order to shave off a few more grams.
2.4 911S…………………………………………2.7 911RS
The chin spoiler got deeper and the rear wheel arches were widened in order to accommodate fatter wheels and tyres – the first 911 on which this was done and a trend that continues to this day. The other significant visual aspect of the car that was changed was the addition of the now-iconic “duck tail” spoiler over the engine, lending the car it’s famous profile and which reduced rear-end lift by as much as 75%.
The result of this crash diet was a reduction in weight of 100kg from the 911S to 975kg in Sport spec, while power output went up from 190bhp to 210bhp; combined with an 18% increase in torque, a 0- 100kmh time of under six seconds was achieved, with 100mph/160kmh coming up in under 13 seconds. Maximum speed was 150mph/240kmh, not too shabby, if relatively modest by today’s hyper-car standards.
While not outrageous, these were nevertheless very impressive figures for what was basically a small, light sports car. By way of comparison, a De Tomaso Pantera tested by Autocar in December 1972 took just over six seconds to hit 60mph and hit a maximum speed 159mph but this was with a 5.8-litre V8 pushing out 330bhp. Of course, the Italian-American hybrid was considerably heavier at 1413kg. Even with twice the cubic volume and number of cylinders, the Series 3 5.3-litre V12 E-Type with 253bhp was considerably slower than the Porsche. Clear evidence – if needed – that brute power, as every Lotus driver knows, does not necessarily mean superior performance.
Ahead of the car’s debut in Paris, there was some nervousness within the company’s sales and marketing departments about being able to sell so many stripped-out road cars, not least because they couldn’t sell any in their largest overseas market, the US, so a few marketing twists were added to further differentiate the 2.7RS from the “cooking” 911 range. To start with, it was given a distinctive name, with the Carrera appellation linking back to a class win in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana Mexico race and previously used on the 356 Carrera, and the RS initials were added to denote RennSport, “motor sport” in German, putting the car’s performance intentions front and centre.
For homologation purposes all 500 cars that left the factory had to be the stripped-out versions, but to make the car more palatable for non-race driving customers reluctant to give up all creature comforts (not that there that many in the 911 anyway), but wanted the fastest Porsche available, a Touring Package – essentially restoring the car to the 911S’s trim level – was offered as a dealer option, effectively putting some 75 percent of the previously saved 100kg back on; we’ve all been there.
The sales team’s reservations turned out to be unfounded as 51 cars were ordered during the Paris Show and all 500 were spoken for just a week after it closed, prompting Porsche to build a second series of 500 and at a slightly higher price. Passing 1,000 units meant that Porsche could have the RS classified for Group 3 racing, building 55 RSR models specifically for that purpose. These were the ultimate RS cars, with the other three versions of the 2.7RS breaking down as follows – 17 RSH (Homologation), 200 RS lightweight sports and 1308 RS Touring, making 1580 cars in all, plus a few prototypes. Of these, 111 RHD cars came into the UK, 94 in Touring spec and the other 17 were stripped-out Lightweights.
The exceptionally rare RSH versions had black Carrera script along the doors while the Lightweight and Touring could be specified with black, blue, green or red decals, complete with matching wheel centres. Buyers could also choose to have these left off if they wanted their RS’s to be a little less conspicuous.
Body colours included white, signal yellow, purple, and customers could also choose from a number of special order shades such as India Red and Gulf Blue.
When new, the 2.7RS cost £6,621 in the UK – more than a Ferrari Dino 246GT or an Aston Martin DBS, and twice as much as a Jaguar V12 E-Type, but cheaper than a BMW 3.0CSi, and very similarly priced to a De Tomaso Pantera. It’s now worth significantly more than all of these, having seen a steep rise in prices in recent years in particular. As little as £9,000 would have bought you one back in 1980; by 2004, you would have needed to find around £65,000, and now…you’ll need more like ten times as much to add one of these fabulous cars to your garage.
With prices of original 2.7RS’s at such stratospheric levels, and supply very limited, there are many hundreds – possibly thousands – of look-alikes and “evocations” around, where later 911SC, Carrera 3.2 or 964 variants are “backdated” to look like the real thing. I guess a Porsche that looks a million dollars but drives like a $75,000 car is still pretty cool, but it seems somewhat delusional to me.
I’ve never had the good fortune to drive a 2.7RS, but those that have use words like enthralling, engaging, fun, exciting, thrilling, addictive, with precise steering and an unmistakable yowl from the back of the car, and of course, fast. It looks fantastic in any colour – although I think that of almost any 911.
Motor Sport magazine called the 911 Carrera 2.7RS “one of the great cars of the 1970’s”, and there would be many who would agree. Happy 50th birthday to the Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7RS!
