The 911 SC/RS (or Super Carrera/RennSport) is truly the Holy Grail of the Porsche ‘RS’ lineage. And the rarest of all street-legal RSs, with only 20 cars produced. Built as a Homologation special for Rothmans and the Porsche factory using some of the vast sponsorship package released for the factory Group C/Le Mans program, it remains Porsche’s last ever factory rally car.
To conform to the FIA Gruppe “B” Rally Homologation rules, 20 examples of the SC/RS were to be build – with chassis numbering from 001 to 0020.
With the use of a lightweight version of the SC shell, plus lightweight bonnet, wings, boot-lid/’whale-tail’, doors, thin gauge glass, racing seats and Kevlar bumpers, the overall weight was reduced by over 1000lbs. The SC/RS also incorporates parts from some of the all-time great Porsche racers. The brakes were 917 and from the 911 RSR and 935 the SC/RS gained suspension components, fabricated exhaust headers, clutch, gears, mechanical fuel-injection, dry sump, front anti-roll bar, and limited slip differential.
At the time of production, the SC/RS was the fastest normally-aspirated production Porsche in existence.
Below is a list of parts and modifications within the SC/RS Homologation ‘special’ road car:
- Lightweight body shell
- Aluminium bonnet, boot-lid/wail-tail and doors, door panels, and front hood prop.
- Aluminium six-point “Matter” safety roll-cage with removable door bars.
- Type 935 Recaro Racing seats
- “Glaverbal” lightweight glass
- Fibreglass/Kevlar front and rear bumpers
- Front aluminium skid plate (removable)
- Rear aluminium skid plate (removable)
- Full belly pan
- Fabricated aluminium gas heater protective cover
- Factory 3-point passenger seat belt with a 5-point racing belt for the driver
- FIA rear-wheel gravel guards
- Factory front tower strut brace
- 80-litre fuel tank with mini-spare inclusion
- 917/930 turbo derived brakes
- RSR-type hand fabricated exhaust system
- 7 & 8 inch Alloy Fuchs road wheels
- Adjustable Bilstein coil-over shock absorbers
- Front brake cold air system
- Hydraulic hand brake system with control valve
- Eberspacher fuel heater
- 180mph (300 km/hr) speedometer
- External & internal “battery off” master switches
- Pair of “Oscar” hood-mounted rally lights (optional)
- Turbo 930 rear wing
- Heavy duty torsion and anti-roll bars
- 0-litre 290bhp engine with 10.3:1 compression-ratio with Bosh/Kugelfisher mechanical injection and dry-sump lubrication
- Engine oil cooler system
- Custom rally air cleaner system with central port conical filter housing
- 915/71 Transaxle with cooler, RSR clutch, close ratio gears and 40% limited slip deferential
Whilst 20 Homologation ‘specials’ were built in road specification, just 6 of these would be plucked from the factory line-up, destined to become fully-fledged international rally cars for the works Rothmans Porsche Team.
The Porsche factory entrusted Prodrive (David Richards Autosport) to carry out the necessary modifications, which were numerous. From front to back the SC/RS Group B rally cars were thoroughbred competition cars, and there was no shortage of funding from Rothmans. With further weight removed from the now strengthened shell, even more sophisticated suspension, and the howling flat-six now producing around 300bhp, Porsche would go about securing some of the great names in international rallying to drive their new car – names like Henri Toivonen, Juha Kankkunen, and Saeed Al Hajiri. Whilst the works rally cars were certainly based on the homologation road car, the differences between the two are too numerous to list.
This particular SC/RS, chassis #007 competed in 13 international rallies for the Rothmans Porsche team, winning 4 outright, 2 with Henri Toivonen and 2 with Billy Coleman. The full list of results is below. Whilst the car is chassis #007 and ran the registration A974 BRX, it was always known as ‘Car 3’ within the team. This numbering lived with the car its whole competition life and is still identifiable on the car today – and still correlates with the original Prodrive records from the day.
Following #007’s retirement, it was purchased by Peter Livanos and made its way to America where it remained in his storage for many years. Upon being sold to a British collector based in the States, it was sympathetically restored to concours standard, retaining all of its original works rally parts – including engine and gearbox, whose individual histories are identified using their numbers. On display in his stunning collection for over a decade, #007 subsequently came back to the UK where it was reunited with its original registration of A974 BRX. It also benefitted from a thorough authenticity inspection by Prodrive Legends. Today the car is still in concours condition and has only seen the light of day when invited to events such as Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Heveningham Concours or to be the cover feature of Octane Magazine (October 2021)
Whilst the SC/RS might not have the wide-reaching fame of the 2.7 RS, it is without doubt the rarest and most specialised RS derivative ever built by Porsche. And the works rally cars even more so. An air cooled, high-revving, naturally aspirated factory competition Porsche in the greatest livery in the manufacturer’s history, built at a time when Rothmans Porsche ruled the world.
