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Justin,
The Carrera RS is considered to be special because most Porsche enthousiasts, Racing drivers and other people in the know that have a vast experience with driving fast road and race cars seem to be unanimous in considering the 1973 911 RS to be the best handling and best balanced Porsche 911 of all times, including the more modern ones.
The RS was developed in 1973 because Porsche needed to homologate for racing in group 4, and had to build 500 cars to the same spec. They ended up making 1500, because the car proved to be so popular!! It uses a 2.7 litre engine as opposed the 2.4 in the normal 911s, and was tweaked to 210bhp. Giving it a 152mph max, and it did 0-60 in 6 seconds. The car was built in 4 guises, the 911 RSH which were the original homologation specials, the 911 RSL, which were the lightweight stripped out roadversions, the 911 RST which were the Touring versions, with a bit of sound deadening and a few creature comforts (these were sold the most), and finally there were the 911 RSR which were the "Rennsport" of Racing versions, utterly prepared for the track. You won't find many of these around, but they would certainly be the quickest of them all, but very bare and usually not with a registration to be used on the road.
I am afraid I totally disaggree with the good old pub stories about the 911's dangerous on the limit handling. ANY car is dangerous in the hands of the unexperienced or reckless driver, whether it is an old car or a new car. Personally, I can't be bothered with the familiar stories and myths around the 911 because they are GREATLY exaggerated and usually come out of the mouth of the people who have no first hand experience. If you listen to the people in the know, like specialists, testers and racing drivers, people like Paul Frere, Jacky Ickx, Tony Dron, Derek Bell, who have literally tested and raced nearly every car under the sun, they all seem to aggree that the 911RS is still the most involving and best handling of all 911's.
As with any performance car, you can only start exploring the limits of a car when you are an experienced driver and have come to know a car from front to back. The problem with modern machinery nowadays is that any old sod can jump into a supercar and drive outrageously fast, giving the driver the feeling that he is in control, but it usually is the gadgets in the car that allow him to drive the car at such speeds safely. I personally think that this is just not what driving is about. Anybody can drive fast, but it's the driving experience that makes a fast driver quick. A car that is tricky on the limit, can be a very fast car indeed in the hands of a capable driver. In the hands of somebody unexperienced, the car will bite back hard. And the easiest thing to do then is to blame the car!!!! Surely the driver couldn't have been at fault... :) Yes, you can drive and accelerate faster in a brand spanking new Porsche 911, but the whole experience is flattened and made more bland because of the modern gadgets like traction control and the lot. And why would go want to go 170 mph, instead of 150mph. A/ You couldn't drive that fast in Ireland anywhere anyway, and B/ That's not what driving is about!! A lot of people nowadays are blinded by statistics in that this car accelerates faster, or has a higher top speed. I think that really isn't what it is all about. Steering, Handling, Poise, Speed, Driver involvement, all these factors have to come together to give you a teriffic driving experience, whether you are going fast or not so fast. That's what driving is about. And that's why a lot of Professional drivers aggree on that they would still prefer driving or racing an and old RS over a modern 993 or similar.
Now, to get to your other query about the strange porsche you've seen, this could be a 914. Here is a pic:
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This is a mid engined Porsche with a 4 cyl 1.7 litre tuned Volkswagen engine out of the old VW 411. It never was really very succesful in Europe as it was bagded VW over here. In the States is was sold as a Porsche and most of the 914's you see here, are from the States brought back to Europe. They are actually a surprisingly fun and cheap alternative to the 911, although no match with regards to the power and speed of the 6 cylinder 911's. There was however one interesting 914, the 914/6, which had the 2.0 litre 6 cylinder engine out of the 911. Still not as fast as a 911, but the handling was excellent because of the midengined layout. Very few of them around, though.
The only thing that bugs me though, is the 77 license plate. The last 914 was built in 1976 ???? Maybe a mixup during import/registration...
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Paul Kanters
Nothing beats Classic Motoring! welcome.to/classiccarsireland (http://welcome.to/classiccarsireland)
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[This message has been edited by PaulKanters (edited 16 April 2000).]