2022 is a very important year for Porsche. It is the year in which it celebrates ten years of owning the high-speed Nardo test track. It also marks the 45th anniversary of its first V8, and 50 years of Porsche Design. But all of those milestones pale in comparison to the one we celebrate today: "About 50 years ago, Porsche began with the development of the 911 Carrera RS 2.7."

Without this car, the world would never have understood that a rear-engine setup can be sublime to drive, and we would never have the 911 GT3 RS, or any of its hardcore siblings, for that matter. So how did it all come about? Sit back and relax - the story of "Germany's fastest sports car" will take some time to tell.

The First Of Its Kind

The 1973 RS was significant for many reasons: it was the fastest German production car of its time and the first series-production model with both front and rear spoilers, the latter of which earned it the 'duck tail' nickname. Peter Falk was the Head of Testing at the time and recalls that the car "was intended as a homologation special. It was to be a very light, fast sports car." The car ended up becoming something of a testbed for various racing disciplines, including rallying, and around 15 engineers developed the car from May 1972 onwards. Christened 'Carrera,' it got a name fitting for the most powerful model of the first generation of the 911.

Production And Variants

Porsche originally intended to build just 500 of these to homologate the car for Group 4 Special GT cars. Presented at the Paris Motor Show on 5 October 1972, the response was overwhelming, and by the end of the following month, all 500 were sold. Porsche built more, tripling sales figures by July 1973. In total, 1,580 examples were made and the car was homologated for Group 3 and Group 4 racing once the 1,000th was built. An optional M471 equipment package led to Porsche building 200 lightweight 'Sport' versions of the car. A further 55 examples of the racing version, 17 base vehicles, and 1,308 touring versions (M472) were built."

The M471 package was known as the 'Light' package because it pared the car back to the essentials, according to what the customer required and the production date. "Among other things, the rear seats, carpets, clock, coat hooks, and armrests were omitted." If the customer specified it, the sports seats were replaced by lightweight shells too, and the Porsche crest on the hood was glued on - a practice that continues to this day. The more expensive 'Touring' package (M472) was evaluated and found to make the car around 254 pounds heavier, but it was still a featherweight by today's standards at a little over 2,116 lbs.

Both versions of the car were powered by a 2.7-liter flat-six fuel-injected engine producing 207 horsepower and 188 lb-ft of torque. In the Sport version, independent tests saw the car accelerate from 0-62 mph in just 5.8 seconds, with the top speed arriving at 152 mph. The slightly porkier Touring models managed 6.3 seconds and 149 mph respectively, and "the RS 2.7 became the ideal synthesis between weight, performance, aerodynamics, and handling."

Aerodynamic Efficiency

The rear spoiler of the car is arguably its most obvious styling trait, but it was developed for a reason. The body itself was all about weight reduction, with thin sheet metal, thin windows, plastic parts, and the elimination of insulation. This helped decrease the weight of the racing cars to below the 900 kilograms (1,984 lbs) required for homologation. But a car needs grip to go fast too, and to minimize lift at both axles, a spoiler was added to the front and the ducktail was developed in the wind tunnel "to compensate for the drawbacks of the sloping rear."

Its benefit was twofold, with more cooling air being supplied to the engine and more downforce at high speed - all without any increase in drag. In fact, top speed increased by 4.5 kph (2.8 mph). The spoiler got higher and higher until the engineers found the point where drag was returning, and on 5 August 1972, a new patent was filed.

Staggered Wheels Appear For The First Time

Obviously, Porsche doesn't do things halfheartedly, and it experimented with wider rear wheels. "We wanted to improve traction and handling with wide tires on the rear axle because the greatest weight is found on the rear axle," recalls Falk. It obviously worked, because for the first time at Porsche, a series production car featured different tire sizes across the axles. Fuchs forged 15x6-inch wheels with 185/70 rubber fitted to the front, with 15x7-inch wheels and 215/60 rubber at the back. To make those larger rears fit, the body was widened by 42 millimeters at the rear, near the arches. "When this worked well in development, production, and sales, all subsequent models were fitted with this combination," says Falk.

Let's Go Racing!

The racing debut of the 911 Carrera RSR (racing-sport-racing) occurred at the Tour de Corse in November 1972, and in February 1973, an RSR driven by Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood crossed the finish line at the 24 Hours of Daytona with an astonishing 22-lap lead. Herbert Muller and Gijs van Lennep won at the Targa Florio in May, and in its first season, the Carrera RSR amassed three international and seven national championships. A legend in the making, Roger Penske recognized the potential of the car in racing and, in October 1973 at the International Race of Champions (IROC), he fielded 12 identical 911 Carrera RSR 3.0 cars in which drivers from different racing classes competed against one another.

Following a change in regulations for sports prototypes that prevented further development due to the new 3.0-liter displacement limit, Porsche ended a very successful chapter of racing.

Another notable trend set by the 1973 RS 2.7 was the 'Carrera' script adorning the side profile of the car between the arches. As you may know, carrera is Spanish for race, and the RS on the rear spoiler stands for rennsport, the German for racing. As you're about to learn, the name was used before 1973, and "according to statements made at the time, Carrera was also understood to be a 'quality predicate for a technical delicacy that had proven itself on racetracks and rally circuits.'"

This means that Porsche had basically redefined the name, and the RS moniker simply indicated a racing-focused version of a car that was already a proficient sports car in its own right. You couldn't think of racing or the Carrera name without thinking of a fast Porsche.

Porsche had ties to the Carrera name already. In 1953, it claimed its first class victory at the Carrera Panamericana endurance race with the 550 Spyder. Inspirationally, in 1954, Carrera was applied to the most powerful vehicles with the four-camshaft/Fuhrmann engine, including the 356 A 1500 GS Carrera and 356 2000 GS Carrera GT. It was also on the back of the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS from 1963 and on the 906 Carrera 6 from 1965. More recently, it was applied to the Carrera GT from 2004, and the name is a constant reminder of Porsche's racing and engineering prowess.

Customization Is Nothing New

Another special footnote is that 29 paint colors were offered, and 27 were produced. Among them, Bright Yellow, Red, and Blood Orange. Porsche also allowed further customization by color-matching the wheels to either the body of the car or the Carrera script on the sides, "for example, white vehicles with red, blue, or green lettering."

To this day, the Carrera name signifies Porsche's greatest offering, RS stands for ultimate performance, and Porsche continues to offer myriad choices in customization. And it all started with a little car that produced just 207 hp. What an icon. What an innovation. What a legend.