Legends, Volume 2: The Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS
- Danny Davies
- Nov 25, 2024
- 11 min read
Updated: Dec 3, 2024
Across a history spanning almost eight decades, Porsche have firmly established themselves as the greatest race car manufacturer of all time. They have won Le Mans more times than anyone else, with 19 overall wins and over 100 class victories. They have won the Targa Florio 11 times. Porsche-engined cars have won the Formula 1 Constructor's championship twice, and the Driver's championship three times. They have won the Rallye Monte Carlo four times, and the overall International Championship for Manufacturers (the precursor to the FIA World Rally Championship) in 1970. They have 19 overall wins at Daytona, 18 at Sebring, 13 at the Nürburgring, and eight at Spa Francorchamps - and that's not even everything. Quite the illustrious history, if I do say so myself.
And, of course, Porsche's iconic 911 has acted as the foundation for many of the cars that have collected so much silverware for the Stuttgart Manufacturer over time. In fact, estimates suggest that since 1963, the 911, in its several different guises, has won in the region of 30,000 races - a truly extraordinary achievement for a company who were once regarded as the underdog of the motorsport world. However, despite enjoying such success, the 911 was only really catapulted into the realms of true motorsport greatness through this car: the immortal 911 Carrera 2.7 RS. Without it, the 911 wouldn't be half the car it is today; and for that reason alone, the 2.7 RS absolutely deserves to qualify for legend status. Let's delve into why.
First though, a bit of back story is needed to explain why, and how, the 2.7 RS came to be in the first place. The year was 1963, and Porsche were readying the replacement for their incredibly successful but ageing 356, which was the car that started it all for the Stuttgart-based manufacturer. Despite sharing several fundamental things in common with the Volkswagen Beetle, the 356 actually became a coveted and popular car to race; it wasn't very powerful, but Porsche made up for the fact through a combination of excellent handling dynamics and bulletproof reliability. In 1951, a 356 won its class at Le Mans for the underdog Porsche team, which provided them with their first real taste of motorsport success - and it's safe to say that they soon caught the bug, and wanted to experience the feeling again.
Throughout the 1950s and early '60s, a series of light and nimble prototypes based around the 356's internals were wheeled out of the Porsche factory, and taken to events such as the Targa Florio and the Carrera Panamericana where further successes and class wins were enjoyed. However, the little 356 was starting to show its age by this point, and it was becoming increasingly more apparent that a replacement would soon be required if Porsche wanted to maintain the success they had been enjoying in motorsport. A new model was developed, and eventually, the successor to the 356 was given a name; it was to be called the 911 (after briefly being called the 901, but that's a story for another day) - and straight away, just as Porsche had intended, motorsport success began to follow it around.
The 911 entered its first ever motorsport event just four months after it went on sale in January 1965, where Vic Elford drove his 911 to fifth overall at the Monte Carlo Rally. Quickly realising the apparent motorsport potential of the 911, Porsche quickly developed even more competitive variants, starting with the 911 R in 1967. This lightened, more powerful version of the 911 would enjoy considerable success both on rally stages and race circuits; in its first ever race in 1967, it earned a podium at Monza against cars that were much faster on paper, before claiming victory at the Rally Coupe Des Alpes later in the year. In 1968, the 911 R won the Rallye Neige et Glace in 1968, and in 1969, it claimed first place at both the Tour de Corse and the Tour de France.
With the 911 R, Porsche experienced regular, consistent outright event wins for the first time as a company; an achievement they only wanted to emulate again when the time came to replace it. In late 1969, the replacement in question came along in the form of the wild 911 S/T, but nothing really changed in regard to the way it performed; it enjoyed a few successful years in endurance racing, and in 1970, it went on to win Porsche the overall International Rally Championship for Manufacturers. In less than a decade, the 911 had established itself as a force to be reckoned with within the racing world, but things would soon have to change once again.
In 1972, the FIA released a new set of rules, dubbed 'Group 4', for the upcoming sports car championship, and Porsche wanted to seize the opportunity to renew the 911's shelf life as a competitive race car, while also ensuring it would continue to be successful. However, the 911 had started to lose its advantage (for the time being, anyway) within the rally world; it was an inherently bigger car than many of its competitors, and in the 1971 championship, the 911 S/T was eclipsed to the title by the smaller, featherweight Alpine A110. Because of this, Porsche decided to focus their attention on making the 911 as competitive and successful as possible on circuit.
Right at the same time, however, Porsche ran into a problem. As per the FIA's new Group 4 homologation rules, the fastest production 911 in 1972, the 2.4-litre S, suddenly became unviable as the base for a race car destined for the top 'GT' class of sports car racing. In short, the new regulations stated that the road-going version of a race car needed to have an engine that was larger than 2.5-litres to compete in the top class - trivial, yes, but the rules were the rules. Therefore, if Porsche had built their Group 4 challenger based on the 2.4-litre 911S, the resulting race car wouldn't have been allowed to compete in the top class and continue to challenge for the outright race wins that the company were seeking. In other words, what Porsche now needed was a 911 road car with an engine that had a higher capacity than 2.5-litres, to act as a base for the new breed of race machines.
Well, that sounds simple enough, you might be thinking - just put a bigger engine in the 2.4S and there you go. But this is Porsche we're talking about here, and that would be far too easy. Instead, they seized the opportunity to build something really quite special.
To begin with, Porsche's first point of call was indeed to build an engine that would make the 911 eligible to race in the top class of the sports car championship. Starting with the flat six from the 2.4 S, the team in Stuttgart were able to stretch the capacity of the unit to 2.7-litres, increasing the bore from 84mm to 90mm. Such a change led to the use of a low-friction Nikasil coating on the cylinder walls to strengthen them against such a significant jump in displacement, and the services of Bosch mechanical fuel injection were also called upon. Besides these changes, the new engine was relatively unchanged; however, the 15% increase in capacity, as well as the MFI system, meant that the new 2.7-litre engine produced 207bhp and 188lb-ft, which were both substantial hikes compared to the 2.4-litre unit it shared so many of its components with.
They didn't just stop there though, as the 911, despite enjoying such success, did have some fundamental flaws that needed some attention. Given the unique layout of the 911, and the fact that the heavy engine is unhelpfully hung out over the back of the rear axle, previous findings had suggested that the key to better roadholding and predictable handling was a large section rear tyre. Therefore, the engineers behind the new road car decided to widen the rear wheel arches by 42mm in order to accommodate for the larger set of 7'' rear wheels, and the 215 section tyres they were to be encased within. The anti-roll bars were also stiffened, a Bilstein-tuned suspension setup was equipped, along with several aluminium components to keep the weight down. Plus, on the topic of weight saving, the metal panels for the exterior were machined more thinly than the equivalent parts on the 911S, and it was a similar story for the glass around the car.
The other thing that needed some thought was the 911's lack of aerodynamic properties, in a world where cars were getting faster and faster, and aerodynamics were becoming more and more important. Up until this point, the 911 had suffered from a light front end at high speeds, which didn't exactly inspire much confidence within environments like Eau Rouge and the Mulsanne straight. Early attempts to solve the issue by weighing the front down with lead wasn't really a long-term solution, so young aerodynamicist Tilman Brodbeck was tasked with fixing the issue. He subsequently came up with a new front bumper design that dramatically reduced the front end lift on the 2.4S he was using as a test car; Ferdinand Piëch was so impressed he ordered for it go into production as soon as possible. He also provided Brodbeck with another problem to solve; customers racing their 911s had started to complain about a lack of performance around corners compared to the latest offerings from Ford and BMW, which had both started to utilise basic aerodynamic features. In true Piëch fashion, he wasn't happy about this, and instructed Brodbeck to design something that could be equipped to pre-existing cars that would close the gap to the competition.
What Brodbeck came up with would completely change the production car agenda, and would accidently become an utterly iconic piece of Porsche design. After placing the 2.4S in a wind tunnel, Brodbeck and his team found that a vortex of air was forming at the rear of the car, so the 26-year-old aerodynamicist figured that an improvement may have been visible if the airflow off the rear of the car was smoothed out. Inspired by an upgraded rear engine lid on his Fiat 850, Brodbeck dreamt up what would later become known as the 'ducktail' to sit on the rear deck lid of the 911, which he developed in less than three weeks.
Data from the wind tunnel showed that the innovation had a dramatic impact on reducing lift at the rear of the car, and when the test car was returned to Weissach and driven around the Porsche's test track, it was much faster than when the regular decklid was refitted. Via a slight compromise in height due to complaints from the design team, the ducktail soon became incredibly popular.
Porsche's new homologation special was therefore shaping up nicely. The hot new engine had exceeded output expectations, and thanks to the MFI system, still retained the drivability of the 2.4S. The new lightweight components and suspension modifications were deemed successful, and of course, the new components developed by Brodbeck massively altered the aerodynamic profile of the iconic 911 shape. All that was left now was a name.
Well, perhaps it was obvious that '2.7' would find itself somewhere within the name of the new car, given how important the engine was to the model's existence. However it was the other two parts of the name that were so significant; Porsche chose to use the 'Carrera' namesake, that had previously appeared on the 356, 904 and 906, on the 911 for the first time - something that has been on every generation of the 911 since. Also, for the first time ever on a Porsche road car, they decided to use a new name that, going forward, would be used to baptise only the most special creations wheeled out of Stuttgart: Rennsport, or more simply, RS, which stood for Racing in English. Placing all of the names together, the Carrera 2.7 RS was born, and Porsche were ready to show the world what it was made of.
The 2.7 RS was officially shown for the first time in October 1972 at the Paris Motor Show, and it immediately became the talk of the motoring world; firstly because of the curious spoiler on the back of the decklid and the lairy blue decals and wheels that adorned the side of the car, and secondly because of how brilliant it was to drive. The new 2.7-litre engine offered a major leap in performance over what was previously expected of a road-going 911, and the updated front and rear spoilers had a profound effect on the car's handling and high-speed stability, just as Brodbeck had found in the wind tunnel. To everyone's surprise, the car that was originally intended to purely be a homologation special, and to allow Porsche to continue racing the 911 at a high level, actually became an instant icon as a road car.
There weren't many options to tick on the 2.7 RS; however, there were three trim levels available. You could either have a base-spec car, although hardly anyone did; the majority of customers either ticked the M471 'Lightweight' package, which made the 2.7 RS as light as possible with a kerb weight of 975KG, or, for 2,500 extra deutschmarks, you could option the M472 'Touring' package, which gave you all of the interior luxuries from the 2.4 S. Perhaps the lack of options were because of the fact that Porsche didn't think the 2.7 RS would be popular; the sales director of the company famously didn't like the idea of the car and thought it would impossible to sell more than a dozen of them. Nevertheless, as per the Group 4 homologation rules, Porsche only had to build a minimum of 500 units anyway, so he obliged to at least try and shift the required amount. Oh, how wrong he turned out to be; the 2.7 RS turned out to be a huge success. To everyone's surprise, 1580 units were built before production ended in July 1973, with the vast majority being Touring-optioned cars (1308 to be precise, along with 200 Lightweights, 17 base-specs and 55 race cars). The 911 had always been a desirable and sough-after car, but the 2.7 RS launched it into another stratosphere altogether.
It's probably no surprise either to hear that the 2.7 RS, as well as being a special road car, did exactly what it was built for and formed the base for an amazing race car. The car in question was unveiled as the Carrera 2.8 RSR, which improved upon the 2.7 RS recipe by stretching the capacity of the standard car's flat six even further to 2.8-litres, and by making the already widened body even wider still. The RSR made it's debut in late 1972 as a development car at the Corsica Rallye, before being fully unleashed the following year. In February 1973, the 2.8 RSR claimed a historic outright victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona, before going on to win six out of the nine rounds of the 1973 European GT Championship, including the 12 Hours of Sebring and, famously, the final ever running of the Targa Florio.
After such a successful season in 1973, the momentum was created for the 911 to dominate the motorsport world throughout the rest of the 1970s. Several different evolutions and variants were developed by the team in Weissach, such as the 1974 Carrera RSR Turbo and the 740bhp 935, with each being even faster and more technologically advanced than the last - an escalation that eventually led to the ultimate prize of an overall victory at Le Mans in 1979. However, those cars can each trace their roots back to the 2.8 RSR, which in turn can trace its own roots back to the 2.7 RS that acted as its base, making it an incredibly important car in Porsche's racing history. Just for that reason alone, it would deserve its title as an automotive legend.
However, the 2.7 RS achieved even more than that. While it did also act as the starting point for an incredibly successful run of racing cars that won Porsche countless pieces of silverware on the track, the 2.7 RS is also a legend for what it started as a road car. For the first time, the 911, through this special new variant, was a car that could rival the latest and greatest from Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini in terms of desirability, acting as an important stepping stone within the journey of Porsche's iconic sports car. Also, through the use of the 'RS' name, the 2.7 RS started a dynasty of some of the best cars of all time, in the form of greats like the 964 Carrera RS, the 993 Carrera RS, and of course the several generations of the 911 GT3 RS and GT2 RS. Those cars have consistently been, during the various points in time they have each been on sale, the best of the best, and capable of rivalling anything built by anyone. That was all started with the 2.7 RS, and without it, Porsche simply wouldn't be the performance car powerhouse they have otherwise become. Oh, and how could I forget Brodbeck's ducktail?
In other words, the 2.7 RS is about as legendary as they come. Originally devised as nothing but a way of getting around the FIA's new set of rules, it quickly became something really, really special in the process, setting a new precedent for what could be expected from a Porsche 911 as a road car. Of course, it also paved the way for some pretty special racing cars in the process, that went on to mop the floor with the competition in the 1970s, and well and truly unlock the 911's full potential in motorsport. What a fantastic history, and what a truly legendary car.
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