A 50-year-old Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7, one out of only two cars modified by the manufacturer itself to participate in East African Safari, will cross the auction block in mid-August.
Having been painstakingly restored to its original specification, the car is expected to bring home between 2.5 and 3 million USD.
The base vehicle is a Carrera RS 2.7 Sport Lightweight, which itself was limited to 600 production units. Compared to the standard Porsche 911, this edition had a lighter body, revised suspension, broader wheels, and a redesigned body kit with a ducktail spoiler. The engine was stroked out to 2.7 liters of displacement and produced 210 PS (207 hp / 154 kW).
Out of these 600 cars, Porsche modified two with various suspension reinforcements and a clearance increase to 250 mm (approximately 10 inches). The body was given a rugged protective kit complete with handles next to the rear window for dragging it out of ditches. Auxiliary lighting was added at the front and protective plating at the bottom.
Despite all the tuning effort that went into it, the rally racer ultimately proved no match for the East African roads. It had an oil pipe breakdown and dropped out of the rally. Later in the same year 1973, piloted by Leo Kinnunen, it came third in the overall standing of the 1000 Lakes Rally now known as Rally Finland.
The team that worked on the car rebuilt it with the past mistakes in mind for the 1974 rally in Kenya, but it once again stopped short of the finish line – this time around due to a suspension defect. Its twin sibling still won the silver award of that year’s East African Safari.
Following that race, the exotic Porsche stayed in Kenya, where a local representative of the brand bought it out for himself. The car proceeded to change multiple owners until someone brought it to Germany in the early 2000s and gave it a complete restoration. Judging by the photos, the new owner kept actively using it even after the overhaul. Still, all the bits inside correspond to their original counterparts and the exterior wears the same livery that adorned it in Africa in 1974.