Estimated Price: £480,000 - £550,000

The 1973 RS was the Homologation Series 911 Porsche had to build in order to qualify its pure racing 2.8-litre 911 RSR for 'Group 5' competition. The FIA mandated that at least 500 examples of the RS were required, so Porsche set to work. Two versions were offered, both based on the 1973 911S 2.4 coupé: the Lightweight/Sport option M471 was the racing-oriented basis for the RSR, while the Touring option, package M472, retained much of the interior trim and features of the standard car. Both differed visually from the 911S, with rear quarter panels widened to accept 7" Fuchs alloy wheels and a distinctive fibreglass front bumper with space to install an auxiliary oil radiator if desired. The rear bumper was steel on the Touring coupés and fibreglass on the Lightweights. The engine covers were also fibreglass, reinforced with balsa wood strips, and nearly all RS examples sported the iconic 'ducktail' spoiler that had been demonstrated in both wind tunnel and track testing to greatly reduce rear-end lift and thus improve stability at higher speeds. A small number of Touring versions were delivered without the rear spoiler, but most of those were subsequently retrofitted by their owners. The Lightweight RS was fitted with thinner steel body panels, specially made thinner window glass and a stripped interior with racing bucket seats.

The heart of the new RS was a new and much more powerful engine. The standard 190bhp 2.4 of the 911S was given larger cylinders with 90mm pistons, taking the displacement to a tad under 2.7-litres. The cylinder bores were coated with a new anti-friction material called Nikasil, which had been developed in Porsche's racing department to allow aluminium pistons and cylinders to coexist. With a compression ratio of 8.5:1 and Bosch mechanical fuel-injection, the new engine developed a lusty 210bhp at 6,300rpm along with 202lbs/ft of torque at 5,100rpm. The RS retained Porsche's proven Type 915 5-speed manual transaxle and powerful four-wheel disc brakes. The fully independent suspension featured McPherson struts, longitudinal torsion bars and an anti-roll bar, while the independent rear suspension used trailing arms with transverse torsion bars, tubular shock absorbers and an anti-roll bar. This impressive package provided the lucky owner with a car that offered brilliant acceleration (0-60mph in 5.5 seconds) and a maximum velocity of 149mph with excellent stability and road manners.

According to its accompanying Porsche Certificate of Authenticity, 911 Carrera 2.7 RS, #9113600626/engine #6630642, was built to M472 Touring-specification, finished in Grand Prix White with blue wheels and scripting and completed on 2nd February 1973. This was immediately following the end of the first 500 modified production run and before RS production moved to the standard 911 production line later that year. Porsche is known to have used up its supply of lightweight parts after the end of the initial production run on the next few cars, including #626.

It was supplied to its first owner through Porsche’s Italian importer, Germana of Bologna and registered locally as BO534303. During 1978, the car moved to nearby Modena, registered as MO422456, under the successive ownership of Enzo Brandoli and P. Luigi Pantaleoni, before relocating to Southern Sicily. There, 26 year old Pietro Cotonzoro kept it for four years before exporting it to the UK in 1982 through Gregorio Giaimo. A Rugby dentist, Anthony Morse, imported the car in 1983 and quickly sold it to long term owner, Nick Doczi (later Porsche Club GB’s IT Director), who kept it until 1996.

There is a fascinating and well written history of #626 which runs to several pages, far too long to include here, but it is available to view in the car's history file or can be sent to interested parties in advance of the sale. We have include some bullet points to detail some of this;

• Second series RST to its original base specification - manual windows, no sunroof
• One of the 205 cars finished in Grand Prix White with blue accents, the second most popular production colour after Light Yellow
• Several first 500 leftover lightweight production parts including thin-gauge steel roof, aluminium front axle truss and aluminium engine cover frame with original ducktail
• Period correct 7 and 8" Fuchs wheels, limited-slip differential and Recaro sports seats in the originally specified (2201) black leatherette/corduroy inserts, all added in the 1990s
• 129,000km (79,000 miles) from new with continuous uninterrupted ownership history under nine keepers in total, in Italy from 1973 to 1983 and then in the UK
• Always fastidiously maintained and fresh from a £189,000 Autofarm four year, jig-mounted, bare-shell rebuild and rotisserie repaint to Touring specification
• Supplied with its original numbered magnesium crank case, replaced in 1987
• Engine rebuilt by Addspeed between 2012 and 2015 into the car’s genuine 1987 replacement magnesium crankcase
• Gearbox stripped, refinished and rebuilt by Autofarm in 2020
• Painstaking Autofarm re-assembly to factory standard using its original parts, including tool kit, supplemented by genuine Porsche replacements, including correct Fuchs spare wheel
• Porsche Club GB track career from 1983 to 2016 under two principal owners. Featured in several magazine articles over the decades and on the front cover of the French RS Club’s 50th anniversary event for the 2.7RS at Le Mans
• Accompanied by a detailed video record of the strip and rebuild and a book of many in-period track and other photographs
• Huge indexed history file containing every invoice since 1983 and its Italian ASI record card

One of the most perfectly balanced sports cars ever built, the 1973 911 Carrera 2.7 RS Touring is revered the world over and this matching numbers, fully documented example is now on top form. We invite and encourage your close inspection of #626 to fully appreciate the quality on offer.