Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Celebrates 50 Years

Celebrated History

These days, the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is a rather famous model, known by many nicknames including "duck tail," "RS," and "2.7." The RS 2.7 was also the fastest German production car of its day and is the first series-production model with front and rear spoilers. With this iconic sports car celebrating its 50th anniversary, Porsche recently took a look back at where it all began, as well as how we got to this point, where the 911 RS 2.7 is an incredibly valuable and sought-after collectible.

Photos: Porsche

Influential Ride

From the very beginning of its development, Porsche intended to create a lightweight, supremely fast machine as a homologated version of the racing variant. The result was a true technical marvel that had a tremendous influence not only on the world of motorsports but also on 911 road cars for generations to come.

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Exceeding Expectations

Porsche originally planned to build just 500 examples of the 911 Carrera RS 2.7, and by November of 1972, all 500 had been spoken for - just one month after the model debuted in Paris. Thus, Porsche decided to effectively triple its production to 1,580 units, including 200 "lightweight" M471 cars, 55 racing variants, 17 base models, and 1,308 touring versions.

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Lightweight

The 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is best known for what it doesn't have - rear seats, carpets, clock, coat hooks, and armrests - all to save as much weight as possible. There were varying levels of lightness as well, with the Sport coming in at 115 kilograms (253 pounds) lighter than the Touring model, giving it a curb weight of 960 kilograms (2,116 pounds).

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Super Quick

The 911 Carrera RS 2.7 was powered by Porsche's naturally-aspirated 2.7-liter flat-six that was rated to produce 207 horsepower and 188 pound-feet of torque, which was enough to propel the sport version from 0-62 mph in 5.8 seconds - making it the first production car to break the 6.0-second mark. 

Photos: Porsche

All by Design

Thin sheet metal and glass helped contribute to the car's light weight, while details such as that famous duck tail spoiler were designed to air aerodynamics. "During tests, we found that with a taller spoiler we could increase the top speed due to the decrease in drag. So we kept raising the rear spoiler upward by millimeters with sheet metal at the tear-off edge until we found the reversal point at which the drag increased again," said former Porsche head of testing Peter Falk.

Photos: Porsche

Utter Perfection

Today, the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is celebrated as one of the greatest vehicles in that automaker's illustrious history, which is truly saying something. But then again, it's pretty rare to see any automaker hit such a solid home run in virtually every way, creating a car that's as close to utter perfection as one can get.

Photos: Porsche

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