50 years of RSR
At the end of the 1960s Porsche had been engaged in something of a wrestling match with the FIA, the international motorsport governing body, over the homologation of its 911R for Touring Car racing. Stuttgart had been left smarting, for it knew the 911 to be eminently fit for this popular competition category, and so a plan was hatched to ensure that the Carrera RS of the early 1970s wouldn’t suffer the same fate. This 911 would race as a Group 4 Special Grand Touring car, taking on powerful works rivals such as Ford and BMW.
In the wake of its incredibly expensive 917 prototype programme, there was a real desire internally at Porsche to race cars that shared more of the brand’s road-going models. This would save money and endow any showroom offerings with reflected motorsport pedigree – never a bad thing. The new head of Porsche, Ernst Fuhrmann, was a firm believer in the time-honoured concept of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’, with glory on track leading directly to showroom sales.
The belief that the 911 would make a successful GT racing car was absolute, even outside of Porsche. Yet few at the time (even Ernst himself) could have predicted what would be set in motion. What followed was an epic career
