Chris Banning's 1 of 1 Porsche 911 RSR Mulholland Drive Racer
Inside Chris Banning's custom built Porsche 911 RSR that dominated street racing on Mulholland Drive. This is one exclusive interview you can't miss!
Dark Horse
Mulholland Drive has its legends, but Charlie Woit and Chris Banning are largely unknown to those who frequent the road today. A Porsche guru and perfectionist in his own right, Mr. Banning set out to build the ultimate 911 for racing the hills above Los Angeles. One that would take down the legendary Charlie Woit and his infamous Corvette. Unfortunately, the battle never happened, but Chris and the car lived to tell the tale today. I called Chris for an exclusive interview, and the story of Mulholland’s notorious dark horse: the custom 911 RSR.
Knowledge is Speed
To build the ultimate 911 you have to go straight to the source, and that’s just what Chris Banning did. As a young man, he made the trip all the way to Porsche HQ in Germany and met with a woman who went by the name of Frau Baer. She would give him a tour of the racing factory where so many legends were born. Shortly afterward, they found themselves in a vault where he was given original research and design documents about how to properly setup a 1973 RSR for racing on bumpy roads. “This is a gift from Porsche” she said.
Genesis
Equipped with everything he needed to build a car worthy of becoming King of the Hill, Banning set out to create a 1 off Mulholland racer. Purchasing a cheap 1973 Porsche 911 chassis, the car would be built from the ground up. Entirely custom. Eventually, it would pound out lap after lap at a time when the population of Los Angeles was much smaller, the road was largely untraveled with few police. A private race track. Heaven.
Custom Tailor Everything
Every component of this car is bespoke and tailored to make it one of the fastest cars ever built for racing on Mullholland. The body was acid dipped to cut over 350lbs of weight, and two inches were shopped from the height of the roof, for better aerodynamics. The wheels are extremely rare original IROC race series units, covered with massive racing slicks. A custom T6 aluminum roll cage was fabricated by John Mason who was a contractor for the Department of Defense.
The Engine
A European spec 2.8 liter RSR motor, further tweaked and tuned, allows the car to produce extremely reliable power. When Chris fired the car up for the first time I actually jumped; it's loud and sounds purposeful. Headers come from the Porsche factory and dump into a custom muffler that does little muffling. The way this car responds to inputs from the right foot is ridiculous. The specially prepared motor revs incredibly fast! Power is approximately 300 whp with the car coming in at just over 2100lbs.
Additional information about the engine:
- High compression pistons
- European low butterfly mechanical injection
- Forged steel 8 main bearing crankshaft
- Carrera 6 camshafts
- 300 whp @ 7500rpm
More Details
The gear ratios in the transmission were custom selected for a particular stretch of the road, in true racing fashion, with a finned magnesium transmission case for weight savings and better cooling. Chris' car features Carrera 6 brakes and alloy calipers, reportedly similar to what the 917 race car uses. Double adjustable custom Koni shocks and Delrin bushings help the chassis soak up bumps. Tying the whole thing together are custom shock tower braces designed and built out of T6 aluminum by the same gentleman who fabricated the roll cage. The speedometer reads to 200 mph and the tachometer redline stretches to 8,500 rpm, though top speed is estimated to be only 180 mph. If you read the original 1978 street racing story, it is confirmed to have hit 155 mph on Sepulveda late at night.
King of the Mountain
Despite his best efforts, legend has it that Charlie never gave Chris the satisfaction of a heads up race, so we will never know who would have won. Over the years many people have claimed to be "king of the mountain", but Chris was truly the man to beat at the height of it all in the early 1980s. The era he drove in was unparalleled in terms of danger and all out racing, and these days there is too much traffic and too many cops. Today, if you talk to street racers in L.A. and sit for a few hours, you will likely never hear his name. Most people don’t know this story, or at least the whole story, so I thought I would tell it. I hope you enjoyed learning about one very rare Porsche, which Chris still owns and only occasionally takes out to show.
There was a feature film made back in the day, called King of the Mountain, based on the legend of Chris and Crazy Charlie. Unfortunately, in the movie the 911 RSR is played by a 356 Speedster replica, but it is worth watching. You can find it on iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, or Amazon.
For help with service of your car, check out the how to section of RennList.com