Porsche 911 964 Carrera RS.

Porsche 964 Carrera RS.

The 911 964 Carrera RS was based on the cars built by Porsche for the Carrera Cup race series. Just like the old 2.7 RS of the early '70's it was stripped of any luxuries to reduce weight. The motor was 'blueprinted' and gave a claimed 260hp against the standard cars output of 250hp.

The 964 RS was designed to enable owners to use their car on the road, track, hillclimb or sprint. 

The body shell was stronger and lighter too, with aluminium front lid, seam welding, lighter doors and 3mm versus 4.7mm side windows, lightweight rear bumper, underbody  sealant deleted, an in built battery cut off switch, special ultra light Magnesium 17" Cup wheels, 40mm lower suspension and much uprated dampers and springs. Turbo front brakes brakes with re-tuned ABS.

The picture above right of a black 964 RS is of a one owner totally original 30,000km car. Note the different rear pu to the standard 964.

Inside you got lovely lightweight carbon fibre 'Recaro' race seats, 4 point safety harness, no air con, no heated window, no electric windows or central locking and special thin side glass..

Trim was sparse, very basic door cards, a little strap rather than a handle to pull the door shut, little soundproofing, the rear seats were removed -even the interior light was deleted in effort to save weight.

You could order your car with or without a roll cage, but only some small luxuries were available on the basic version, including optional leather covering for the seats.

The 964RS 'Touring' version was very rare and included more of the comfort features of the regular Carrera 2.

The picture on the left is a standard  964 'RS' with tri-colour leather seats, wind up windows and on the right a race 964 RS with roll cage installed.

These 911 were stiff. Superbly communicative, a real drivers car, great on the track, or fast smooth roads. Bumpy roads can get a bit tedious.

The RS weighed only 1230 kg compared to the standard spec Carrera 4 that weighed 1450 kg. A total of 2,282 were built, of which about 76 were delivered with the touring option. Number Made = 2,282 , of which 76 are Touring, 290 competition cars, 72rhd basic and 11rhd touring).

The option codes can help identify the RS models; M001 for the racing series, M002 the touring, M003 the competition model.
Colours included some 'cheerful' offerings, along with the traditional, black, guards red, grand prix white, midnight blue and silver, customers could order (and often did) RS blue, speed yellow and rubystone.

Pictured left is a standard original RS in rubystone with just 700km travelled over the last 10 years - in effect new.

Porsche 911 964 RS America.

The 'European' RS was not going to be legal in America. Partly because of the lightweight features, the thinner glass and lack of side impact protection. Therefore in 1992 a special 'RS America' was developed for the US and Canadian markets.

The RS America was never intended as a racing version. In fact the key to understanding the nature of this car is that it was a stripped out 'cheaper' Carrera 2 as opposed to the homologation special nature of the 964RS.

It lost the Carrera 2's power steering, rear seats, some soundproofing, air conditioning and sunroof. It used the sports M030 suspension (available for the Carrera2) along with the regular 250hp motor and gearbox, the aluminium Cup wheels and a fixed rear spoiler, altogether saving around 70 kg's (about the same as a lightweight passenger). 240 RS America were sold to the end of 1992.