We recently stumbled on a great article by Robb Report on a father and son team that builds and sells a concours-quality tribute to the original Porsche hot rod, the 1975 911 turbo. They releases the C9 911 RS Turbo to the automotive world at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2020 and have won lots of love from Porsche fans around the world since.
Few automobiles have a lineage of continuity as the Porsche 911 Turbo. Originally conceived as a homologation special to legalize it for racing, the 1975 911 turbo was the first production car in Porsche’s history to be renowned for horsepower and top speed. It inspired a generation of car enthusiasts and became the undisputed flagship of the Porsche line up.
t was hard to drive and became known as the Widowmaker, with a mystique and speed that captured a new generation of car nuts worldwide. While today’s supercars are fast on an entire different level when it comes to the numbers, remember what the world looked like in the mid 1970s. Cars were slow, heavy and couldn’t handle. Turbocharging wasn’t really a thing.
And here comes Porsche with a 2635 lbs car with no power steering, no ABS, and no traction control and a beast of a turbocharged engine in the back with the most insane turbo lag you can imagine, ready to throw you over the side of a cliff if you were brave enough to keep your foot down mid-corner as the boost spun up. The 930 had a top speed of 155 mph and could sprint from 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds. It catapulted Porsche into elite performance car territory but the 930 was considerably less expensive than most of its rivals.
The C9 RS Turbo takes that formula and enhances it for the 2020s. Conceived for the enthusiast that appreciates Porsche’s motorsports tradition, the C9 RS Turbo is a Porsche 911 classic inspired interpretation of this heritage with nostalgic aesthetics, an amazing power to weight ratio and an analog driving experience. The C9 RS Turbo focuses on the simplicity of form that make the early era 911 so desirable while respecting the sports purpose enhancements that make this car truly unique.
The 3.0 liter, turbo motor is the soul of this Porsche 911 classic and is finely crafted in both beauty and performance. Rated at 420 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque at 3,400 rpm this bespoke power unit is meticulously developed, assembled and dyno tuned by iSystems. Combined with a chassis curb weight of 2,340 lbs, this car delivers performance on par with some of the most elite cars developed by Porsche.
As expected with this kind of custom 911, there are lots of options and customizations you can make. Check out the full article at Robb Report and also check out the Classic Nine website. There are two configurations, the Touring which according to Classic Nine is “a 911 classic configuration is the standard model specifically crafted for the enthusiast that intends to utilize their 911 on the street and spirited back county driving”. You can also opt for the Sport edition, which focuses on suspension, brake, wheel/tire and transmission gear changes that make the car more focused for track events.
All photos are curtesy of Classic Nine Motorwerks.
