Porsche 911 Carrera RS Sport Lightweight ‘AUI 1500’ as it is today
The Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 broke cover in October 1972, being revealed to the public for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. Porsche’s marketing department considered it a big risk for such a small company to make such a high performance and specialised model. Although the Carrera RS was a more-than-capable racer, the marketing team insisted that the bulk of the cars should be prepared as roadgoing models, to ensure that they did not sit with parking lots full of expensive unsold cars. A production cap of 500 units was duly applied, to limit any potential losses.
Porsche 911 Carrera RS Sport Lightweight ‘AUI 1500’ in action in the 1970s
As it happened, almost the entire production of 500 cars was sold out two weeks after the Paris Motor Show closed its doors in 1972, and so a second batch of 500 units was approved for manufacture. When they too flew out of the showrooms, a third and final batch of 500 cars was authorised. Although the purists will always hanker after the ‘first 500’ batch of cars for their collection, this final batch benefitted from feedback given by customers and Porsche’s own tests, and the last 150 cars were the best handling cars as a result. The Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 and the car it was built to homologate, the Group 4 RSR, was immediately successful on the track, and became the weapon of choice in the hands of both professional and privateer drivers.
