The following are a combined set of excerpts from the thread to get you excited. Paul has done a gone job at making the thread not only educational but entertaining as well:
Despite a production span of 50 years and countless versions there’s unanimous agreement that the finest 911 of all time is the RS of 1973. It presented a simple design, light weight, with precise steering feedback and a taut and athletic chassis matched with a fabulous power plant. The engine in the greatest road going Porsche was the legendary 2.7 litre, mechanically injected, flat-six. With ample torque from low revs, generous power at high-revs and a sound like no other, the engine helped cement the reputation of the ‘Renn Sport’ car.
That cars 210bhp engine was also found in the 1974 Carrera coupe (and – yes Sam – the targa). It was mechanically identical to the previous year’s 2.7 RS touring. The Carrera continued with the same RS specification powertrain, cloaked in the new impact bumper body style.
The ’74 Carrera coupe is the only G-body 911 that retains the same engine and gearing as the 1973 RS and shares with it an identical power to weight ratio. Dr. Georg Konradsheim (author of the definitive book ‘Carrera RS’) agrees: “The 1974 Euro Carrera is a very nice machine and drives very similarly to the RS, just due to the new seats & steering wheel, it does feel a bit different”.
Back in the mid-seventies, legislation in the United States and the requirement to comply with newly introduced state-federal 5mph impact tests meant Porsche were compelled to develop an answer and that manifested itself in the form of the ‘impact bumpers’. Whilst the new styling initially seemed a little compromised compared to the earlier cars, it’s fair to say that Porsche made an excellent job of incorporating the new safety requirements into the design of the 911. The impact bumper styling lasted – unchanged – for 15 years, it proved to be a very successful re-design. Many other manufacturers were panicked into hasty and unsightly add-ons in order to comply with the enhanced crash protection legislation but Porsche considered their revisions carefully and the new car integrated the bulkier bumpers very well. Impact bumper mounts on USA Porsche cars can compress in a low speed parking style nudge. They were fitted with a hydraulic type absorber. Euro models were fitted with a much simpler ‘crush’ tube style that did not compress - and hence are markedly lighter.
Any extra weight incurred by the implementation of the bigger bumper blades and associated hardware was offset by other savings (like the introduction of aluminium trailing arms). The trailing arms alone are reckoned to save approx 4kg. There were other numerous revisions that helped save weight such as the switch to just one battery, lighter front indicators, oh, and, the bonnet was shorter....
Many people think the IB cars are heavy but that weight was slowly put on over many years (another decade and a half, right up to ’89). Yet the 1974 car retained the magnesium engine cases and very little – aside from the cosmetics of the bumpers – was different to the long hoods before. The official weight claimed by Porsche was 1,075kg, exactly as per the ’73 RS touring. The same weight, the same engine, the same gearing.
They made just 1,025 Carrera coupes in ’74 (with a further 518 in 1975). I’m not sure how many were imported into the UK in RHD form but it wasn’t many. It’s a rare car these days after 40 years in the unforgiving British climate. And sadly for the ’74 IB coupe the identical mechanical spec made the car a prime candidate for the many RS replicas produced in subsequent decades. Not many survived this indignity and it’s only in very recent years that the value of an original car has exceeded that of a good, back-dated, RS replica. Sadly most shells were discarded after stripping the drivetrain. The cars were deemed beyond economic repair in those days, the only value lay in the engine. It makes finding a matching numbers car even more difficult.
Personally I really look forward to seeing Paul's restoration progress as well as seeing another one of these rare Carrera restored.
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