1967 Porsche 911 R
Spark - S0911 (resin)
Published 06/03/17
Customers all around were very happy with the use of the 911 S in races. With those encouraging results, Zuffenhausen got the idea that a specially-prepared 911 could be a hit in GT racing. And that’s how the 911 R came to be, the first high-performance 911 ever produced. The engine chosen was the 901/22, a boxer-6 very similar to the one used in the Porsche 906 Carrera 6. Air-cooled and displacing 1991 cm³, it had large triple carburetors, producing 210 hp at 8000 rpm.
The engine was good, but for the car to be good, it couldn’t be heavy. Consequently, the chassis got drilled and everything non-essential was removed or substituted by the lightest part possible. That’s why the 911 R is the only 911 with those small round tail lights. With all that effort, the 911 R weighed only 800 kg! To illustrate, the regular 911S weighed 1030 kg, so that’s an impressive diet. To this day the 911 R is still the lightest 911 ever to come out of the factory. And on race tracks it did IMPRESSIVELY well. However it had a big problem: it was almost twice as expensive as the 911S. With such a tall sticker price, the marketing department wasn’t confident it was a money-maker. So in the end Porsche produced and sold only 20 cars.
So here we have Spark’s version of one of the rarest 911s ever made. I think the model is quite the nice one (though a bit rough at the rear), even though it’s an oldie. If I recall correctly, Spark released it in 2008, without the Porsche stripe on the side. However, that kind of bothered me – it looked a bit naked. But, speaking to the Earl of Northumberland about this, he discovered in one of his books that the Porsche on the side was an optional decal set. He also told me that the car could also be ordered in any color other than the traditional white. I was a bit worried about that because the majority of the pictures I found of a real 911 R were of a white car.
And being the great pal that he is, some time later he sourced me a Porsche decal for my 911R. A pretty easy decal job, but now I think the car looks MUCH better. Besides, race stripes makes a car go faster, right?