Porsche 911 Carrera RS (964) Review

Porsche built the 964 Carrera RS for Europe in the 1992 model year, launching it in the autumn of 1991, and based it on the car it was already racing in the Carrera Cup, the one-make series it had started for the 964 in 1990. It listed at 145,450 marks in Germany, about $87,600 at the 1991 exchange rate. Porsche Cars North America judged that it could not meet American crash and emissions rules, so it was never sold new in the United States; buyers there got the softer RS America, based on the US Carrera 2, of which 701 were built for 1993 and 1994. Eberhard Kittler's production figures give 2,282 Carrera RS coupes, and 290 cars were ordered with the M003 Clubsport option.

The recipe was subtraction. The M64/03 engine made 260 PS, only 10 PS more than a Carrera 2, but it drove through a lightweight flywheel and a G50/10 gearbox with closer ratios, steel synchromesh and an asymmetric limited-slip differential. The suspension sat 40 mm lower on stiffer springs and dampers with adjustable anti-roll bars, and power steering was deleted except on right-hand-drive British cars. The shell was seam welded, the front lid aluminium, the door and rear glass thinner and the 17-inch Cup wheels magnesium; inside, the rear seats and most of the sound deadening went, replaced by thin carpet, lightweight bucket seats and fabric door pulls, and the weight came down to a little over 1,200 kg.

The Clubsport added a roll cage and racing seats and lost the electric windows, stereo and air conditioning. On a smooth road or a circuit it is one of the most absorbing 911s of its era, with steering that reports every change in the surface and an engine that answers instantly; on a broken one it is loud, stiff and tiring.

Running one is less fraught than the price suggests. The M64 is a tough engine, and one of the 964's known flaws, a distributor drive belt in the twin-plug ignition that Porsche addressed with a vent kit, is simple to check. The expensive parts are the RS-specific ones, from the magnesium wheels to the thin glass, and many cars have been raced or used hard on track, so documentation and originality set the price; Stuttcars warns buyers about American-market RS clones. RM Sotheby's sold one for $500,000 at Monterey in 2023 and another for $511,000 at Monterey in 2026.

The 964 is not the best-looking 911, and the RS has none of the RS 2.7's aerodynamic invention: it is a Carrera 2 stripped, stiffened and sharpened. Judged on comfort, equipment and running costs it scores poorly, and it should not be judged on them, because giving those things up is the point of the car. What it offers in return is the most direct road-going 964 Porsche built, and a formula that led to the 993 Carrera RS and then to the GT3.