1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSH

I want to start the New Year off with a car that’s quite special and one of the rarest models Porsche has ever produced for the 911. We’re all quite familiar with the legendary 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS. What most are much less familiar with is the precursor to those great machines. Prior to production of the RS the car needed to be homologated – this was the whole purpose of building the model in the first place – after which a few creature comforts would be added to bring the RS to either the Lightweight or Touring spec that became the typical production models. However, 17 owners chose to leave the cars as is, adding none of the options and built based off of those homologated models. These 17 were dubbed the RSH. They were very spartan lacking clock, radio, soundproofing, even the glove box lid and as such tipped the scales at a mere 935 kg, making them even lighter than the RS Lightweight. The RSH takes one of Porsche’s truly special cars and raises the stakes even further.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSH at Jan B. Lühn

Year: 1973
Model: 911 Carrera RSH
Engine: 2.7 liter flat-6
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Mileage: 78,258 km (~ 48,627 mi)
Price: Inquire

1973 PORSCHE 911 2.7 RSH
ONE OF ONLY 17 RSH MODELS BUILT
Chassis No
9113601256
Model history:
The Porsche 911 RS 2,7 has been introduced in October 1972 at the Autosalon in Paris. The first idea was to produce only 500 pieces of the RS to get accepted as Group 4 race car. The larger 2,7 ltr. engine produces 210 hp at 6300/min.

To reduce weight the first 500 Carrera RS had light weight panels and an engine lid made out of reinforced glass fiber plastic. The roof, trunk lid, doors and side panels were produced in thinner light weight panels. To offer more comfort to the clients, Porsche produced the Touring version which has been the same standard as at the 911 S. The lightweight version was approx. 100 kg lighter, less comfortable and much louder.

1590 cars had been produced in total. 10 prototypes, 1308 RS-Touring, 200 RS-lightweight, 55 RSR 2.8. But only 17 RSH homologation cars.

These models are sometimes considered by enthusiasts to be the most “classic” 911s. RS stands for Rennsport in German, meaning race sport. The Carrera name was reintroduced from the 356 Carrera which had itself been named after Porsche’s class victories in the Carrera Panamericana races in Mexico in the 1950s. The RS was built to meet motorsport homologation requirements. Compared to a standard 911S, the Carrera 2.7 RS had a larger engine (2687 cc) developing 210 hp with Bosch Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection, revised and stiffened suspention, a “ducktail“ rear spoiler, larger brakes, wider rear wheels and rear fenders.

In RS Touring form it weighed 1075 kg, in Sport Lightweight form it was about 100 kg lighter.
The 17 RSH cars were the Ultra Lightweight versions. It had zero options and a weight of 935 kg only!

The basis for all Carrera RS cars was the homologation version RSH.
After the assembly of the new RS models the first RSH cars had been driven to the official scale of the municipality of Stuttgart to get the official weight documented. After weighing, the cars had been returned to the Porsche factory to be completed to the specific order of the client. Only 17 cars (RSH) had been ordered in this Ultra Lightweight version!

The RSH had following identifying features (list is not complete):
– Thinner glass
– Only one battery
– No clock
– No under coat
– Light weight seats
– Door interior panel
– No noise damping
– Only one fanfare for the horn
– No sun visor for the passenger
– No lid at the glove department
– Only lightweight carpets and rubber mat

Specific history of this car:
The RSH was delivered in May 1973 to a hotel owner at the Tegernsee south of Munich in “viper green”. The car had zero options and was ordered as one of the few RSs with the weight of 935 kg only!
After a number of years he changed the duck tail engine lid to a regular metal lid and changed the color to metallic green as he attracted too much attention with the viper green car with ducktail spoiler. The paint job was done in the typical early 80ies style, as only the outside of the body shell had been painted but not the engine bay, trunk, under floor, etc.

The car never raced and was sold to the second and present owner in 1983 with 68.000km.
The second owner assembled an ash tray, radio, carpets and a clock to the car. All features can easily be removed.
As all RS specific details of the car did get removed #1265 was a forgotten RS for the next 33 years!

The engine # 66312227 and the gear box # 7831202 are fully matching numbers.

The overall condition of the car is amazing! As the car has been stored dry and has only be driven 10.000 km in the last 33 years there is no evidence of rust. The engine is dry and has the typical RS power. The gearbox operates without trouble.

This amazing Porsche 911 RSH is now for sale. It has a wonderful patina and comes with a large history file. A truly unique opportunity to purchase a highly eligible and very rare piece of Porsche history.

The story of how this car was found possesses its own magic and really fits the bill of the legendary “barn find.” How such a car gets packed away and forgotten is beyond me, but it appears to have been the case with this RSH and now it awaits a new owner. It is said to be entirely numbers matching, though not entirely original. The first owner of the car, who had it during its first 10 years of life, found the original Viper Green exterior to be a bit more eye catching than he desired and thus had it painted in the darker metallic green we see here. Around that time the rear ducktail spoiler was replaced with a standard decklid. The current owner, in whose possession the car has been for over 33 years but only 10K kilometers, added a few interior details to make the car more livable and that accounts for why we see a radio in the interior now. While the original Viper Green paint would be wonderful (and I do hope whoever purchases this returns it to that color) reverting this RSH to original condition shouldn’t be too difficult. I suspect sourcing a proper ducktail likely being the most difficult aspect. This is truly a unique car and while not wholly original it does sit in unrestored condition and with pretty low miles. With the Carrera RS Lightweight now seeing sales over $1M I can’t imagine what an RSH might fetch. The lack of original paint will ding it slightly, but given the extremely low numbers we’ll just have to live with that.

-Rob