40 years of the Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7RS

The Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7RS celebrates its 40th birthday this year. The 2.7Rs is perhaps the ultimate Porsche icon – the car that is most revered and most copied.

The RS was developed as a homologation special to allow Porsche to compete in GT racing – the company was required to build 500 road-going cars in order to qualify. However, the marketing department doubted whether they could persuade people to pay a premium for a 911 with few creature comforts. Thankfully, they were overruled.

The car was developed from the F series 911S but was significantly modified to improve performance. The 2.4S engine was increased in capacity to 2681cc by using larger 90mm Nikasil-coated aluminium cylinders. This nickel-silicon carbide treatment gave the bores a hard, low friction surface and went on to become standard on later 911 engines. In other respects the engine was the same as in the 911S. The larger capacity pushed power to 210bhp at 6300rpm and torque to 255Nm at 5100rpm – a useful increase over the 911S’s 190bhp.

However, the main performance gains were made by putting the car on a weight-saving programme. The roof, wings and bonnet were made of thinner (and so lighter) steel, while the windscreen and rear quarter windows used thinner glass.

The rear arches were flared by 50mm each to accommodate wider 7-inch Fuchs alloys, and there was the option (which most buyers took) of a distinctive ’ducktail’ spoiler to give added downforce.

To distinguish the Carrera RS from ‘lesser’ 911s, there was the option of large and distinctive ‘Carrera’ side stripes that ran from the front to rear arches. Offered in red, blue, black or green, you have the Fuchs wheel centres colour-coded to match. Combined with distinctive Grand Prix White paintwork this gave what is now recognised as the RS look.

The suspension was tweaked with stiffer Bilstein dampers, uprated anti-roll bars and uprated mountings. Brakes, however, remained standard 911S items.

The Carrera RS was produced in two road-going versions. The RS Sport (which carried the option code M471 and is often called Lightweight) had a very basic specification to keep the weight down to just 975kg. The interior had simple rubber mats, manual window winders, reduced soundproofing, and Recaro sports seats, no rear seats, no clock and no passenger sun-visor. The front bumpers and engine-compartment lid were made from lightweight glassfibre.

However, not everyone wanted to rough it, which is why Porsche also made the more popular RS Touring (M472) model. This had the same lightweight body as the Sport, but with the steel bumpers and interior specification of the 911S. In other words, it had rear seats, full carpets, electric windows and full soundproofing. These additions added 100kg to the car’s weight.

When the RS was unveiled in September 1972, Porsche’s marketing people were proved wrong. So wrong, in fact, that all 500 cars were sold before the RS was officially announced. Because of this, production was continued until July 1973, by which time 1580 cars were built. Of these, the majority were Tourings and 200 were Sports. There were also 17 in the very basic RSH homologation specification, and 55 were race-ready RSRs. The latter boasted a rollcage, even wider rear arches and a 2.8-litre engine that produced 300bhp. Just 117 cars had right-hand-drive.

Because of the unexpected increase in production, later RSs used standard 911 body panels and glass, for the simple reason Porsche had run out of the lightweight items.

After production finished, Porsche went on to built an even rarer RS. Just 109 examples of the 230bhp 3.0-litre RS were made, using standard bodyshells.

Today the Carrera RS is the Holy Grail of Porsches, and good genuine ones are extremely sought-after, leading to a healthy business in replicas, based on contemporary 911s.

There are different ways of approaching an RS replica. The purist will start with a 911 from the right era and religiously create a facsimile of the real thing that would confound even the RS experts. That, though, is an expensive and difficult exercise to get right. I’d rather create what’s often called a ‘recreation’ (a term coined by Autofarm and now much copied). That’s a car that recreates the spirit of the RS without making a perfect copy. A recreation could be based on a seventies 911 but it could just as easily be an eighties or early nineties car (Paul Stephens does a wonderful 964-based RS). Being flexible in this way lets you be much more creative in terms of engine and suspension specification and, if you get it right, you can end up with a car that’s actually better than the real thing, in terms of performance, handling and usability. Finally, the simplest option is to just stick a ducktail and some decals on an otherwise standard 911. That’s OK but the illusion is always broken when you get inside the car only to be greeted by a fully trimmed leather interior!

What do you think of RS replicas? Do comment in the box below.

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