Words by Glen Smale. Images by Glen Smale & Corporate Archives Porsche AG
With the introduction of the Porsche 911 in 1963, there was no high-performance model included in the line-up. It took almost a decade for that to happen, when the 911 Carrera RS was introduced at the Paris Salon in 1972.
On Rolf Sprenger’s arrival at the Porsche factory in 1967, the 911 model range was still fairly new and little had been done to develop the car to any competitive level.‘I remember when I arrived, we had the T and the S as carburetor cars, and then we split them – the T, E and S and the output was relatively close together. There was no, how should I say it, no“hammer”, no very special strong engine, because we still needed to develop the fuel injection’, Sprenger recalls.
Once again Porsche was pushing the technology envelope with fuel injection, because at that time it was fairly new, there being no other air-cooled engine on the market with fuel injection. One of Sprenger’s first tasks was to adapt and develop the fuel injection system for the six-cylinder 911, just at the time when there was talk of increasing the engine capacity to 2.7 litres. Sprenger again:‘When it came to the 2.7-litre, I developed the power curve for the 2.7 with this very special torque curve, and when we drove the car, the engineers, I am sure Mr. Porsche and Bott andPiëch, everybody in the upper levels, said now it is time we have another“hammer”, its time to use the name Carrera again.’
Success with the 911 S in competition had convinced the Porsche engineers sufficiently that a lightweight version of this car could achieve even greater success. However, the sporting regulations at the time limited the extent to which the ’S’ could be modified for homologation purposes,and so the decision was made to produce a runof 500 specials, which was included as an extra model to the range. Once it had been decided to develop the engine to its maximum capacity, it took surprisingly little time to complete the work as Rolf Sprenger recalls:‘It actually took a period of no longer than twelve months, to develop that engine.’
Available only in coupé form and developed as a lightweight version of the 911 S, the Carrera RS debuted at the Paris Salon in October 1972. Considering that a 911 S Coupé could be bought for DM31,180, the basic Carrera RS was almost a gift at DM34,000, but the price was deliberately kept this low as the Zuffenhausen sales department was still nervous about the possibility of not being able to sell them all.
There was no mistaking the newcomer to the Porsche family, with its bold side lettering and revolutionary rear spoiler, but the improvements to the car ran far deeper than mere external embellishments. The extent of the surgery that was carried out ensured that the Carrera RS 2.7, made it eligible for homologation in Group 4, the GTracing category (for improved cars) that Porsche was to dominate so convincingly in the future with this new weapon.
The fact that Porsche wanted to homologate the Carrera RS tells us that they intended this car for competition use, but to ensure the sale of all 500 cars, they had to be offered as manageable street cars. Powered by an enlarged version of the 2.4-litre 911/53 engine used in the 911 S, the 2.7-liter motor (designated 911/83), was identical to the engine from which it was derived except for the cylinder bore increase (from 84mm to 90mm), and the material from which the cylinders were constructed. For the 911/83 engine, the cylinders were electrolytically coated with Nikasil which greatly improved the frictional qualities of the cylinders, thereby increasing power output. Many lessons learned by Porsche in their motor racing activities found their way into the production cars and the Nikasil-coated cylinders were a feature of the indomitable 917. The increased bore pushed the engine capacity to 2,687cc and by retaining the same stroke, the general engine dimensions remained unaltered. With fuel being delivered by mechanical fuel injection, output was increased from the previous 911 S’s 190bhp to210bhp, and, combined with various weight-saving measures, the Carrera RS topped out at 149mph(239km/h) while the 0–60mph dash was achieved in an impressive 5.5 seconds.
Originally the Carrera RS 2.7 was developed as a homologation series and a car for customer competition. Working closely with the project, Rolf Sprenger explains:‘Actually, the project was more a kind of competition project for those customers who wanted to do smaller competitions, but we also knew there are some rich people who didn’t want to drive so fast but they liked to have more comfort, and for that reason, the M472 “Touring” was made.’
The Porsche Carrera RS 2.7 has become one of the most recognizable sports cars of all time. As a manufacturer, Porsche had never been prone to putting any decoration on their cars that wasn’t necessary. Norbert Singer, creator of the Carrera RS 2.7, reckoned that the car needed gluing down at the rear when at speed, and as usual, he was right. Sporting a distinctive rear spoiler which significantly improved rear downforce, this appendage was not initially popular with the top management at Zuffenhausen.‘Butzi’Porsche, designer of the 911, felt that it did not do the styling of his original 911 any favors, but there were those who thought that the rear spoiler gave the car a menacing, more aggressive attitude. Steps to improve airflow over and under the car included the fitting of a deep front air dam, to reduce front-end lift at speed, and the installation of the now famous rear spoiler, or duck tail, which helped to put the power on the road at the rear and keep it there.
For the body, 0.7mm sheet steel was used in place of the normal 1.0mm, and the windows were replaced with lightweight Glaverbel glass. The engine lid with rear spoiler was fashioned from glass and, to accommodate the wider tires, the fenders were widened to take the 6-inch(front) and 7-inch (rear) Fuchs alloy wheels.
Developing 190bhp, to make full use of the previous 911 S’s 2.4-liter motor, Porsche ownerswere advised to keep the engine revs above 5,000rpm and rapid overtaking manoeuvres often required changing down a gear to get pasta slower moving vehicle. However, in the CarreraRS, the increased torque made it unnecessary to change gears if the revs did not drop below 4,500rpm. This basic 2.7-liter motor remained in production with very few changes until the end of the 1975 Model Year.
The big advantage for Porsche competition drivers up until this point was that even the Carrera RS 2.7 still ran on regular-grade fuel, the engines not requiring high octane or racing fuel to deliver high performance, thanks also to a relatively low compression ratio of 8.5:1. This, of course, had made it a relatively simple job to run your Carrera around town without the concerns of plug fouling and a stuttering engine when driving at low speeds in traffic. The Carrera RS came in three guises, two street-legal models, and the full racing RSR. The Touring option (M472), was by far the most popular as it featured all the creature comforts found in the 911 S and was understandably heavier, while the Sport option(M471) was a stripped version of the same car. The racing version (M491), known as the Carrera RSR, was dealt with as a separate model by the factory as this car could not be registered for street use. The basic price for the Carrera RS 2.7 was DM34,000 in August 1972, and a comprehensive options list allowed customers to personalize their car to the level they desired.
The product model year at Porsche is always run according to the company’s summer holidays. Thus, a model would be produced up until August of any year, at which time the factory would cease production for the holidays while the assembly line was changed in anticipation of the new model to commence production in September, the new production year. Thus, for the sake of consistency, a model manufactured from September onwards would be known as the following year’s model.
Herbert Linge remembers:‘We figured, we had sold about 175 Spyders (this was a rough estimate, the total number of 550s being 137) which is unbelievable for a race car. So we estimated that 200–250 cars would go racing, the other half to be used on the road.’
According to Georg Ledert, head of Porscheadvertising at the time of the RS 2.7 introduction, their advertising campaign stressed that only 500 men would drive the new Carrera, as they didn’t bargain on any female customers. When Porsche was questioned as to why only 500 were produced because by then demand had surpassed even their wildest expectations, Ledert laughingly recalled that their response to the media was, ‘Oh no, that is only 500 for Germany.’
The first batch of Carrera RS 2.7 sports cars was produced in the original 911 bodyshell with the first cars (1973 Model Year) being delivered by the factory in October 1972. Following the Paris Salon launch, all of the first batch of 500 produced for homologation purposes were snapped up within a matter of weeks, even before a single one had been built. As a result, a second batch of 500 cars was then approved for production and when they too were swallowed up by the market, yet more production was approved, and by the end of this ten-month period a total of 1,590 Carrera RS2.7s had been completed. The vast majority of Carreras during this time were built in left-hand-drive form, with only a hundred or so right-hand-drive cars for the British market. However, the Carrera RS 2.7 was not sold in America.
Buy The Book
Porsche: The Carrera Dynasty AUTOGRAPHED by Glen Smale
In tracing the heritage of the name Carrera, Porsche – The Carrera Dynasty takes the reader around the world on a journey through Porsche’s history over more than 50 years. This book explains how the royal heritage of the title Carrera has followed an ever-changing path through the company’s history from an early engine reference to the whole 911 range today.
Porsche – The Carrera Dynasty illustrates how the famous Carrera lettering came about and how this helped to lift Porsche’s profile during the 1970s. It looks at Porsche from a different angle, explaining some of things you didn’t know about the famous marque.
At the sound of the name Carrera, one is filled with images of gritty racing drivers, battling away at the wheel through the harsh and dry hinterland of Mexico, in sweat-stained overalls with little in the way of support. These were the treacherous conditions into which the fledgling Porsche company thrust its 550 Spyder during those tortuous days of La Carrera Panamericana in the early 1950s.
The Porsche Carrera has come a long way in the past 50 plus years, as today’s Carrera driver is more likely to be wearing a three-piece business suit or even high heeled stilettos. So much has been written on the subject of Porsche to date, but little research had been done into the origins and significance of the name Carrera. It is this name which forms the basis for the book, as the origins and heritage of this royal title can be traced back to that Mexican race in 1953.
Porsche has used the name Carrera as a loose reference for its first four-cam engine, but through time it has been applied to models ranging from its top performer to the whole Porsche 911 range.
Few names conjure up images of such hard-won achievements and determination in the motoring world more than Carrera does. This is not just a story of motor sport victories, but also of adapting to changes in the market and most importantly, the proud personnel who made up the company of Porsche.
Glen Smale is a life-long motoring enthusiast whose writing in this field has covered magazine features, books and automotive marketing. Graduating with a marketing degree from Rhodes University, South Africa, he has a strong interest in motor cars and people and how the two interact.
