Blasting up the hill in a Martini 911 Carrera RSR

This is one of the most significant racing Porsche 911s. R7, as it is known, drove to fourth place overall at the 1973 Le Mans 24 Hours. This weekend, Bonhams offers this very rare, Martini-liveried 911 3.0 Carrera RSR for sale at the Goodwood Revival. But before that, we were allowed to get behind the wheel. Full story now in Tazio 9.

In 1972, newly-appointed Porsche CEO Ernst Fuhrmann wasted no time in implementing his vision. The 917 was already out, the sanctioning body FIA having restricted sports prototypes to 3-litre engines. Fuhrmann refused to free budgets for a new 3-litre sports car, instead orienting Porsche’s competition efforts towards “cars we were selling”: the 911.

Singer

By 1972, the 911 had mainly established itself as a fierce competitor in rallying, and as a preferred tool for private clients in the GT classes on the circuits. With the RSR, things were about to go to a new level for the 911 in circuit racing. The engineer responsible for developing the works RSRs was Norbert Singer.

Daytona, Targa Florio and Le Mans

Singer’s development work led to a ‘saison extraordinaire’ for the 1973 factory RSRs. There was an overall win for Hurley Haywood and Peter Gregg in the Daytona 24, Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko triumphed in the Targa Florio, beating the prototypes. And this car, known as R7, came fourth overall in the Le Mans 24 Hours with van Lennep and Herbert Müller behind the wheel. You can see it in action here. All of a sudden, the 911 was no longer content with just class spoils, it became a contender for overall victories as well.

Up for auction

This weekend, Bonhams Cars brings R7 to auction during the Goodwood Revival. It is one of just nine factory RSRs – not to be confused with the RSRs Porsche sold to private customers to go racing – and one of just five built Martini Racing works RSRs. The car was at one part the subject of a lawsuit, two owners each claiming R7 was theirs. The lawsuit was settled out of court, with R7 now firmly confirmed as this car. More on that here.

Auction

Bonhams put an estimate on R7 that ranges between 4,398,156 and 6,743,840 euros (4.717 million – 7.234 million dollars). But before that, Bonhams invited us over to Goodwood for a  drive. Life does not get much better than this. Here is a little clip, for your enjoyment. You can read our full story on R7 in Issue 9 of Tazio Magazine. Available here.