Porsche’s Secret Garage
Porsche’s museum in Stuttgart houses many of its famous cars. The problem being, it has too many to be displayed...
We’ve featured one of these not so long ago, but a chance to actually drive one was not to be missed. This is the focused Sport model, so inside we found a set of small bucket seats, and a strap of leather hanging loosely from the door card, the lightweight opening solution. Compared with the deep and restrictive contemporary GT3 sport seats, these are right comfy. But adjustment for the driving position consists of only a sliding seat base, and so you literally conform yourself to the cockpit. Those floor-mounted pedals are off-set while the relationship of the brake and throttle are hardly cohesive; you literally have to lift your right foot up and on to the brake pedal. Just how you’d heel and toe this has us beat. The steering wheel is large and close to the dash, so you’re sitting a little closer than desirable, legs bent while the gear lever is a tad too far back. After some whirring of the fuel pump, the six cylinder bursts into life, the RS’s lack of sound deadening ensuring you hear every explosion. The clutch action isn’t as awkward as the design of the pedal suggests, neither is it heavy and the 2.7 moves off the mark smoothly.
We suspect that given Porsche’s general obsessiveness, this factory-owned RS is meticulously maintained as it feels like new; no cabin rattles, no creaking suspension, no wobbly bits. It idles smoothly in Stuttgart traffic, and is tractable down low on a light throttle. This is despite the 2.7’s output peaking at the top of the rev range with 210hp developed at 6300rpm and 255Nm of torque at 5100rpm. But this does it all easily because it is so light. These Sport models were 115kg less than those fitted with the Touring package, and weigh in at just 960kg. So those with the ‘M471’ option had things like the rear seats, carpets, clock, coat hooks and armrests omitted, and lightweight seats could be optioned. When new it was 34,000 Deutschmarks, while the Sport package was 2500DM and the Touring was 700DM. That’s a change from the current model of Porsche charging more for less. Porsche managed to shift 1580 of its homologation special for Group 4 racing, with 1308 Touring models, 200 Sports, 55 race cars and 17 ‘base vehicles’. They are one of Porsche’s more desirable cars, and RM Sotheby’s recently auctioned a Sport for Euro1.2 million.
With everything warmed up, we gas it, and while there’s an initial hesitation from right down low in second gear, it then fuels smoothly, and revs hard, feeling properly frisky from 3000rpm onwards for a fifty-year-old. Out on to the motorway we revel in the mechanical clamour as the old girl winds around past 6000rpm, changing up as the tacho needle sweeps toward 7(and then wobbles back and forth around the dial). We slot fourth, and ease off as it settles on overrun, and then BANG, there’s an unholy explosion of unburnt gas that scares the bejesus out of us. The shift of the five-speed manual is not quite the fluid, slick change you get in the latest GT3 but there’s a solid, positive action, the throw long. It’s noisy in the cabin with plenty of wind rush and engine clamour but with all the mechanicals out the back, there’s none of that fumy, old car aroma. This, we discovered, is reserved for those following behind. But what a perfume.
The ride would probably have been deemed firm in the seventies, and it’s a bit lumpy at a sedate pace but it’s then rather supple at speed. The steering is fairly light too and completely unassisted. There are a few degrees of freeplay at the straight ahead, but then it turns quickly, and is vibing with energy. It’s quite surreal how the wheel transforms from seemingly light and lifeless to turning the RS accurately, loading up and simply buzzing with feel. There’s some initial squirm as it turns, but then everything settles nicely. We didn’t press it too hard through the curves but being such a communicative thing you can sense the weight transfer in the rear through the downhill bends, suggesting it would be something to be wary of at full chat.
The RS was the first Porsche with wider rear tyres, the 15-inch Fuchs alloys wearing 215/60VR15s aft and 185/70VR15s on the front. The body was therefore 42mm wider than standard to accommodate the larger wheels. It was deemed the fastest German car of the day with 0-100km/h in 5.8sec and a top speed of 245km/h. The spoilers front and rear aimed to reduce lift and were formed by wind tunnel testing. It’s said the tail helped reduce drag while negating lift, and it also raised the top speed of the car.
The Porsche Museum has a workshop below it, visible from one of the onsite cafes and following our outing there was S GO 1973 H, up on the hoist the next day, the engineers giving it a once over, such is the meticulousness of the Porsche way.
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