RM Sotheby’s Auction: 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring

Tony’s Take: You’ve got to hand it to Porsche for their gearboxes. To handle the extra torque generated by the air-cooled  2,687 liter flat six, Stuttgart’s finest blessed the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring with a type 915 unit pulled straight from their 908 LeMans race car.

Don’t let the engine size fool you. Early Porsches weren’t the heavyweights later models became. Thanks to lightweight panels, thin glass, a fiberglass front bumper, deleted sound insulation and a stripped-out cabin, this one tips the scales at a scant 975 kg (2149 pounds).

The resulting car – the first road-going Porsche to sport a duck tail – was extremely nimble and plenty fast. With the motor cranking out 210 hp @ 6,300 rpms and 188 ft lbs of torque @ 5,100 rpm, zero to sixty required 5.5 seconds, with a 150 mph top end.

Supercars.net calls the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring – a homologation special – “one of the best road cars of all time.” It wasn’t always so.

The 2.7 RS initially couldn’t legally be used in the U.S for anything but racing. It had no emissions equipment because it was made strictly as a European road-race car. Fortunately, the EPA eventually relaxed emissions standards enough for older cars to let Porsche 2.7 RS owners legally drive it on U.S roads.

supercars.net

The car for sale here was the 2014 Tour Auto Class H Winner. It was up for bids last month – and fell shy of the auctioneer’s prediction by $100k+. No sale at $480k.

RM Sotheby’s reckons this orange car will hammer for $370k to $430k. Even though Porsches remain strong during this classic car correction, they aren’t bringing what the owners and their representatives think they’re worth. (Which is precisely what someone will pay, obviously.)

Downside: no airbag (obvs.), tiny bit tail happy and rough riding at low speeds.