964 RS VERSUS C4 LIGHTWEIGHT
As introductions to a new track go, this one undoubtedly registers at the ‘surreal’ end of the spectrum. I’m no stranger to learning unfamiliar circuits, but I don’t normally initiate myself to new surroundings quite like this.
At the wheel of a 964 Carrera RS, I’m familiarising myself with Botniaring’s nine distinct turns, all the while battling 1.62 miles of damp Finnish tarmac soaked an hour or so earlier by an unseasonably heavy rainstorm. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, I’m attempting to keep up the pace with one of Weissach’s racing legends, Jürgen Barth. Yes, that Jürgen Barth, the man who has stood on all three steps of the La Sarthe podium, topped off by a victory in the 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Did I mention that Barth is driving a near-priceless 964 Carrera 4 Lightweight, a car that he devised while heading up Porsche’s customer motorsport division? No? Well he is, and the advantage of four-wheel-drive traction (and his obvious surplus of talent) is making my job entertainingly difficult. I said it was surreal.
Thankfully, the 964 Carrera RS – as we found out on the Peak District’s roads in issue 128 – is the friendliest Rennsport partner a 911 enthusiast could ask for, one of the key factors behind its current resurgence in the eyes of Porsche collectors. Unlike later GT3-prefixed RSs, the 3.6-litre 964 is no high horsepower animal, meaning that I’m left to revel in the delicious chassis devised by Roland Kussmaul and co at the turn of the 1990s. More on that later.
The Porsche 964 RS – the first Rennsport to get a large production run since the iconic Carrera 2.7 RS – was, like many
