This story covers the development of the Porsche 911 RS/RSR prototype in the middle of 1972. Surprisingly, the very first Porsche RS/RSR, chassis number 911 360 0001 started life as a rally car—a factory built ST, 911 230 0769, which the factory itself re-numbered after the car had been returned to the factory after an accident in the Polish Rally.
By 1972, the racing department of the Porsche factory was, shall we say, “financially troubled”. The racing campaign of the enormously successful Porsche 917 had drained the racing budget, plus more that had had to be taken from other budgets. With the forthcoming Group four regulations of 1973, Porsche saw that they could run a vastly less costly racing effort than with the sports-prototype 917, and perhaps even make it profitable by selling a GT racing 911 to wealthy customers, who could represent Porsche in that market.
