Looking Back

What Better Way to Celebrate 70 Years of Porsche Than Sampling Some of the Greatest Sportscars Produced by the Iconic German Brand?

- Gautam Sharma

Porsche is already among the most hallowed nameplates in the automotive arena, but when one of their offerings wears an ‘RS’ suffix, said vehicle is elevated to an altogether higher plane. Cars in this echelon command reverential respect and are guaranteed instant collectible status — they’re essentially the wheeled equivalent of a Picasso.

The RS badge (short for ‘Rennsport’, which is German for ‘Racing’) dates back to 1957, but the 1973 Carrera RS 2.7 — the first 911 to wear the RS badge — is to this day regarded as the quintessential Rennsport model. This is reflected by their now almost priceless status, and the few examples that change hands these days do so for Dh3 million or more, depending on their condition and provenance.

There’s no doubt the Carrera RS 2.7 — one of the fastest production cars in its day — was and still is a driver’s delight, but the descendants that have followed in its wheel tracks are all glorious in their own way, as this wheels scribe is about to discover with an exclusive drive through Germany’s Black Forest in a smorgasbord of RS greats made available to us by the Porsche Museum. I could babble on with the preamble, but let’s cut to the chase and get straight to the seat-of-the-pants drive impressions of each RS hall-of-famer…

911 Carrera RS2.7 (1973-74)

Compared with the heavily scooped and bespoilered current-day GT2 RS, the Carrera RS 2.7 has a beautiful understated simplicity about it. Mind you, its front lip spoiler and ducktail at the rear were pioneering features in its day, adding downforce — and therefore high-speed stability — in an era when none of Porsche’s competitors had cottoned on to the notion of aero management.