• Year of manufacture 
    1973
  • Car type 
    Coupé
  • Drive 
    LHD
  • Condition 
    Used
  • Location
    United Kingdom
  • Exterior colour 
    Orange
  • Gearbox 
    Manual

Description

This M471 is one of the most fascinating examples; supplied new in 1973 as a 2.7 RS Lightweight to BaldrinAuto, in the lightest form with no additional extras, in striking Blutorange. This car is one of just 16 2.7 RS Lightweights originally painted this sensational colour, as presented today.

Italian race and rally team “Baldrin-Auto” bought the car to race. In the first few years of the cars life it is to have had some success in Rallying, however fame would not come until 1976. The car was purchased by Padova based rally driver Roberto Bianco Mengotti who raced under the pseudonym of “ROBIM” alongside his co-driver Antonio Degan in 1976. It was prepared for the 1976 Rally season in Blutorange, bearing the names and logos of Robim’s main sponsor “Radio Padova”.  In just his 2nd rally with the car, Robim tackled the famously challenging RAAB the “Rally Alto Appennino Bolognese” at its first attempt the car secured victory. Such was significance of this success, for the 1977 season further sponsorship came on board and this necessitated a change of colour scheme to white and green.

The 1977 season was more even successful and stellar performances at the Rally du Valli,  Rally 1000 Miglia, 1977 RAAB and the international Rally San Martino di Castrozza brought with them the 1977 championship.  Alas all good things must come to an end and at the of the 1977 season Robim got engaged and decided to retire from racing and focus on his career in business.

Robim sold the Porsche to Giorgio Prestini of Brescia. Prestini was a leading figure in the Italian rally scene as he owned “EtaBeta” a large alloy wheel manufacturing company, owning a Stratos alongside the RS Lightweight. In his ownership the car’s livery changed again with glasses maker “Nylor” and Zambelli being added to that of his own “Eta Beta”. Another full season of rallying ensued with more spectacular results especially at the highlight events of the RAAB and the Rally 1000Miglia. During one of these rallies, a brush with the banking caused some minor damage to a front wing - damage which would later be very helpful proving the cars competition provenance.

Meanwhile back in Northern Italy, a very promising young driver by the name of Sergio Schizzi and his professional co-driver Francesco Fughetta had been making stories in the newspapers. More importantly following a series of meetings in Rome, Schizzi had secured a very serious motorsport sponsor for the 1979 Season. Schizzi needed a competitive car and no longer short on funds, he was able to buy the car he really wanted from Giorgio Prestini.

 In 1979 the most iconic of motorsport liveries met the most iconic of all 911s 

This car is one of very few rally cars to bear the famous Gulf Livery. It competed with great success at the famous Rally Targa Florio, the Rally 1000Miglia, Rally San Marino and Rally Modena to name but a few. The car became a legend; the press couldn’t get enough of the charismatic charm of Sergio Schizzi throwing the Gulf Carrera RS around Italy’s most famous rally stages and who could blame them?

Following this standout season, the Italian homologation rules stated that the 2.7 RS was now out of date, and that Sergio Schizzi would have to buy a new “G-Series” 911 if he wished to continue top level rallying. Given the similarity of the two 911s and the effort he had put into making his car an effective rally machine Sergio Schizzi decided not to sell his highly developed 911, instead buying some G-Series bumpers and proceeding to alter the appearance of his car so as to fool the authorities into thinking it was a new model! To further distinguish the cars apart he also applied a new green and black colour scheme. It worked and Schizzi contested another season of rallying with the car.

Later following retirement from international racing, the car was returned to road use with the then current G- series road bumpers being fitted to the car. Schizzi, assuming it would be more valuable in road trim sold the car off. The car remained in Padova until in 1986 when two German Porsche enthusiasts Hans Reuter and Karl Heinz Holz (the honorary president of the Porsche Owners Club) stumbled across an odd 911.

After much searching for the missing RS; the pair found the 911 looking like a G-Series but with a 2.7 RS Lightweight chassis number. The owner, a hairdresser by the name of Bruna Maggi was totally unaware of the significance of such an important car. The Germans purchased it and drove it back to Germany without delay. Together with the help of a renowned German Porsche restorer and expert, the car was returned to Carrera RS lightweight specification and painted white with red script. After the completion, the car was driven and showcased at Hockenheim. This gentleman, a serial Porsche collector, would keep the car for many more years driving in a number of non-competitive tours and rallies including the German 911 30th Anniversary in 1993 in Stuttgart.  Hans Reuter would own and enjoy the RS from 1986 to 2008.

In 2008 the car was sold to a Frankfurt based businessman, the new owner of the car entrusted the car with the same restorer who had converted the car back to RS specification 20 years prior and together they embarked up on a different level of restoration; a bare shell concours restoration.   The restoration took over 12 months to complete, stripping all the way to back to a bare shell.  During this process, the original Tangerine paint was abundantly clear beneath the white paint and beneath the trim items, the rest of this corroborated to the finest detail the stories and photographs from the cars racing history, the floor showed rally damage from the number of stones thrown up in the loose gravel stages, damage on the car even matched known damage from various rallies. It was totally clear in this de-constructed state that this car was the famous RS from Italy!  This restoration was completed with the addition of period correct oil cooler and the car resided in the owner’s private collection in Frankfurt. In 2013 the car was purchased by DK Engineering and today remains in the care of DK on behalf its private owner.

Whilst under the care of DK for the last half a decade an unprecedented amount of research has gone into the car. A quite incredible collection of history files have been amassed (featuring over 100 period racing images). Through the course of the research DK’s Harvey Stanley met and interviewed every living owner of the car and recounted their tales of rallying and racing in this special car. The car remains an icon and hero of the Golden Era of rallying, a number of models have been made of the car and it features prominently in a number of books and publications and at least four models have been made of the car.

Today the Gulf RS Lightweight is a truly unique opportunity. The car has Porsche Certification, “VIN Print” approved, it has been inspected and its authenticity corroborated at least three of the world’s leading Porsche 2.7 RS specialists, it has full valid FIA Papers and FIVA certification.

Please refer to our main website for full details, more pictures, our terms of sale and accurate pricing as some websites may use out of date currency exchange rates: https://www.dkeng.co.uk/ferrari-sales/1044/blue_chip_competition_cars/porsche_911_2_7_rs_lightweight.html