In an automotive world in which long legacies of high-performance are continually trotted out and watered down for commercial appeal over time, it can be hard to find examples of restraint. That word might not be the most apt descriptor of Porsche 911 models that wear the italicized “RS” on their rumps, but the company has shown plenty of it over the last half-century by resisting the urge to turn their legendary Rennsport treatment into the equivalent of a glorified sport package for soccer mom Macans. Since the very beginning, Porsche RS road cars have meant nothing but business.
Porsche 911-based RS models are hard to fault no matter which part of the timeline you pick, but as is so often the case, the beginning is often lauded as the best part of the story. And although choosing between something like a modern GT2 RS and an original 1973 Carrera RS is a subjective decision, we think today’s film presents a strong case for the latter.
For starters, we can trace a great deal of the 911’s many triumphs in motorsport back to the project that begat the star of today’s film, the road-going Carrera RS. Built and sold to homologate a higher-performing basis for Porsche’s 911 racing program in the 1970s-which saw a rapid evolution over the course of the decade from the first RSs and RSRs to the turbocharged 930-based beasts-the Carrera RS is rightly considered as one of the Porsche’s most significant products, on and off the track. Though light weight and more power defined the car, they weren’t as raw on the road as one might expect. The rare righthand-drive Touring model driven by our host Sam Hancock is perfect proof of this, as it happily tackles the undulations of the route in the rain.
This car needs no introduction, so we’ll cut ours off here. We hope you enjoy watching this film as much as we enjoyed making it. As you can imagine, a bit of soggy weather couldn’t dampen the fun of wheeling this iconic sports car around on an empty stretch of road like this, limited-slip diff or otherwise.
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