1997 Porsche 911 Factory 3.8 RSR (1 of 30) The perfect weapon for Rennsport Reunion V (SOLD)

This goes down as another adventure buying cars. Our friend Chis in sunny southern California had a few Porsches he wanted to sell. For years we had tried to buy one of his Porsches, and every time we made an offer, we fell short. He would tell us, “you can’t buy the best for the same price of all the other crap out there,” and he’s right. All of his cars are exceptional, detailed to the max, serviced to the max and, generally speaking, the finest on the planet.

While trying to buy one of his cars from him we ended up buying four. It’s really hard to buy a fantastic race car, since 99.9% have been rode hard, put up wet and generally trashed, re-tubbed, beat and banged. Race cars are generally just rehabbed to get hammered again. To make one exceptional after the fact costs as much or more than any other Porsche restoration or more because of the parts.

This factory RSR was in the corner and looked killer.  This is the last of the air-cooled Porsche factory race cars and is a true RSR, not a fluffed-up cup car. One of only 13 (30 total in 1997) RSR’s delivered to the U.S., of which maybe half haven’t been re-bodied at least once, our RSR represents the cream of the crop. The body is super clean, straight and the paint is exceptional – rare for a war horse.

Chris proceeded to tell us the car was campaigned the first year, then relegated to club racing for the next few years. The car hadn’t been damaged and lived a great life. The 3.8 liter engine is fresh and rebuilt to sprint specifications with full Motec. If you ever wanted a true, air cooled factory Porsche race car, this is it.

Porsche AG build sheet confirming WP0ZZZ99VS398072 as a real deal factory RSR included in the picture slide deck.

Four owners since new:

• Mark Schoeppner
• Simon Sobrero
• Steven Frankel
• Chris O’Donnell

Of the four owners, only Sobrero did any significant competing in the car. Otherwise this RSR was used for open track days.

This RSR has received a new paint freshening in the factory livery white, Firnweiss (Z1Z1).

The motor was rebuilt by Precision Motorwerks, Anaheim, CA. This was done by Mr. Frankel. The Motec engine logging shows approximately 10 hours of running time.

The car retains the original aluminum hood. It has a fuel cell, fiberglass doors, set up for radio communications and camera recording. There is no radio or video recorder in the car.

• Motec engine management system and dash.
• Air jacks and includes 1 air jack wand.
• A Recaro upgraded Hans seat has been added.
• The shocks have been upgrade to Moton gas adjustable.
• An on board fire system and cool shirt cooler has been installed.
• The gearbox has been rebuilt shifts smoothly in all six gears.
• The clutch disc would have been replaced at the time of the engine rebuild. It performs as intended.