Modding the Porsche 911: How to build a Porsche 911 RS 2.7 replica

At Amelia Island this year a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS Lightweight was sold for a record setting $1,402,500. That kind of money can get you a 1,185 hp Koenigsegg or two Porsche 918 Spyders. It is also the kind of money which now officially has doomed the remaining original 1973 911 RS cars to live out the rest of their days as exhibition cars – far from the race tracks where they belong.

So what do you do, if you desperately want a 1973 RS, but you’re not the boss of an international drug cartel or the brain behind a popular ex-girlfriend stalker website on the cyberwebz? Well, you can always build your own. In theory it is simple.

Buy a Porsche 911 coupe produced between 1969 and 1973. That will give you a long wheelbase car without the impact bumpers of later models.

Install RS flares in the back along with wider wheels. 7x15” or 8x15” if you are going for originality or 16” if you want more tires choices. Put RS spoilers in the front and a duck tail in the rear. If you are serious about building a lightweight car you should consider fibreglass or carbon fibre hood and doors.

Strip the interior. Remove the clock and glove box. Remove all sound deadening under the carpets and replace them with lightweight felt carpets. Replace the door panels with RS panels. Remove the rear seats and install early Recaro seats in the front. Take your lead from this guy:438 lbs gone in 5 days.

The correct engine would be a 2.7 with mechanical fuel injection and full RS specs. But any high-revving 911 engine with aggressive camshafts would do. Most importantly: Paint the shroud red. As for the transmission you could lighten the flywheel and install a shorter ring and pinion and/or close gear ratios.

Put in sport shock absorbers, stiffer torsion bars and anti-roll bars. Bilstein offer a specific RS damper set which they claim has been tuned for the Nordschleife.

The real deal used thinner gauge glass for the windscreen and windows. They can still be bought today but are hugely expensive. So consider Lexan or polycarbonate substitute as an alternative.

Voila. You’re done. Except of course you are not. You have just started on the slippery slope of less weight and more horsepower. So beware. Suddenly your very own Porsche 911 RS might become your very own Amelia Island tragedy.