www.QV500.com - Porsche 911 (1972-73) Part 4: 911 2.7 Carrera RS 'Safari'

 
Despite all the success of 1972, a year in which Porsche had dominated international GT racing with their 2.5-litre 911 ST's, the German firm had something special up their sleeve for 1973. They would be basing the forthcoming seasons race cars not on the 2.4-litre production 911, but the all-new 2.7-litre Carrera RS. These homologation specials spawned a variety of competition variants including a 2.7 ‘Safari’ rally car, a 2.8 RSR customer racer and a handful of crack 3-litre RSR ‘Prototyp’s. With the RSR's, Porsche achieved an unprecedented level of success, notching up countless victories during the course of '73.
   
However, by the early seventies, Porsche's works exploits in rallying were beginning to fade and in 1973 there would be just a solitary outing in the tortuous Safari rally for a pair of specially prepared 2.7's. Driven by Bjorn Waldegaard and Sobieslaw Zasada, the two Martini-backed works entries bore chassis numbers 911 360 0285 and 0288 respectively and whilst the speed of these two cars was never in question, their journies across Africa were fraught with bad luck and breakdowns. Running 2687cc Carrera RA engines designated as Typ 911/83, output was identical to the standard RS road cars with 210bhp on tap at 6300rpm. Inevitably though, some extra preparation had to be done and thus the ride-height was jacked up and heavy duty springs and dampers fitted. Four additional spotlights were mounted across the front lid and the interiors were comprehensively gutted, but what was a fairly half-hearted effort in a particularly difficult event led to nothing more than a double retirement.