On Saturday, RM Auctions and Sotheby’s will be offering this gorgeous specimen up for sale. If you’ve always wanted a Carrera RS 2.7 M471 “Lightweight”, this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Book your tickets to Lake Como, Italy now, so you can get there just in time to bid. An extraordinarily well presented and rare numbers-matching Porsche like this is likely to go for top-dollar, and from what I can tell, it deserves it.
While this 911 wasn’t built in the more desirable Series 1 of Carrera RS production, the fact remains that this is a very rare lightweight version. It’s the 649th Carrera RS produced, and the iconic negative red stripes over Light Ivory is instantly recognizable as the classic RS style. While most RS Lightweight cars received a Porsche crest decal on the hood, this car was optioned with the beautiful metal crest. The lightweight rear lid has a pair of rubber hold-downs as well.
Inside, you’ve an original set of vintage Nylon Recaro lightweight competition bucket seats. The rest of the interior is trimmed in black leatherette. As in all lightweights, the radio and the clock were deleted to save some weight, however, this Porsche is one of only a few lightweights to have the glovebox compartment door retained. The auction listing states that there is a mix of original Glaverbel lightweight glass, and standard Sekurit glass, but does not say what is where. Chances are high that the original windshield is gone, as well as the rear window. Glaverbel lightweight windshields would crack in-period if you looked at them wrong, and the rear window shows to have heating elements, which would not have been a likely option on an M471 package car.
This chassis is numbered 600649, which documents it as having left the factory on February 1st of 1973 fitted with engine number 6630653 and transmission number 7830686. The 911 was originally shipped through Porsche’s Italian distributor to a dealership in Torino. For the majority of its life, the car was owned by only two enthusiastic locals. In the early 1990s, the Porsche was purchased by a company called ITALCLASSIC, which in turn was owned by the president of the ASI (Italian Historic Automotoclub), Vittorio Zanon. In 1995, it was acquired by the present owner, also in Italy, who treated the car to a recent full-boat restoration. Sending the car up to the Porsche specialists at Tirelli Motorsport, a completely ground-up strip-down-to-nothing job cost around €225,000. Fresh paint, a brand new interior, and a complete mechanical overhaul resulted, and the car looks almost perfect because of it. The restoration was fully photo-documented, and the 911’s odometer reads just over 67,000 kilometers (just over 41,.000 miles) which are believed to be original and correct.
The car does have a couple of notable deviations from original, including an aftermarket 4-spoke steering wheel, an added front strut brace, and the addition of a passenger’s side exterior mirror. I wouldn’t suspect that any of these would effect value much, as the original ‘batwing’ steering wheel is relatively inexpensive to source, a strut brace is easily reversible, and the passenger mirror probably makes a sizable difference in driving safety According to the auction catalog, “the car, including the undercarriage, is presented in immaculate condition inside and out. Not only would it be a perfect addition to any collection of fine high-performance sports cars, but it would also be a worthy candidate for both concours d’elegance and vintage rallies anywhere in the world.”
RM expects this lot to bid somewhere between 950,000 and 1.35 million euros ($1.08 million – $1.53 million US Dollars). Based on condition, and the fact that it’s an M471 package car, this price range is entirely possible. The fact that it’s a series 2 car, and that it’s been restored instead of left original, may hurt its value slightly, but we’ll have to wait and see.
[Photos provided by Sotheby’s/RM Auctions]