PORSCHE RALLY LEGEND FOR SALE WITH H&H CLASSICS

PORSCHE RALLY LEGEND FOR SALE WITH H&H CLASSICS

       "The Most Successful Porsche Carrera Of All Time"

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The most successful race rallying Porsche of all time according to Classic 911 Magazine, a right- hand-drive Carrera 2.7 litre lightweight, AUI 1500, will be sold privately by H&H Classics.

It has recently undergone a total restoration and it will be on display at the H&H Classics showroom in Hindhead, Surrey. This remarkable car is a living legend and its success has turned it into something of a media star featured on film and with a song dedicated to it and numerous mentions in leading motor racing magazines. This August it has featured in an eight-page spread in Classic Porsche Magazine.

Dominic Lyncker, MD of H&H Classics, says: "We are delighted and honoured to be chosen to sell this legendary race car. This car is the stuff of motor racing history and is one of the greatest Porsche Carrera 2.7 RS of all time." Research confirms that 9113601501 competed in over 40 rallies, 14 of which were International.

Truly this car is a star. Its exploits were captured on rare period film by the BBC of the 1973 RS rallying and is available today on several DVD's containing this footage. Sponsors Dunlop and Porsche have used its mage in period advertising campaigns. A pop song was written about the car and it's driver by Eurovision song contest winner Phil Coulter and released in single and album formats on vinyl in 1974. The title of the song "Hey CB" is named after it's driver Cathal Brendon Curley. The car was filmed earlier this year for a National TV program “Posh Pawn” in relation to raising finance for the development of the owner’s pioneering Classic Car Forensic business. The Brands Hatch Circuit in Kent was booked exclusively for the purpose and the program will be broadcast on Sunday 21st August at 7pm on Channel 4.

The car was one of 17 RHD Porsche 2.7 Carrera RSs supplied with Sport "Lightweight" equipment in 1973 and the last one imported to the UK. It therefore had all the new homologation features of the later cars that included RSR short trailing arms. Of the 17 supplied 15 have known to have survived.

In 1973 9113601501 entered the RAC Rally, round eight of the World Rally Championship and finished as the highest placed Porsche, wining the Team Prize. It is one of only 11 RSs known to have entered the RAC Rally during a period in which only six finished this gruelling event.

In 1974 it won three International Rallies outright against the toughest opposition found anywhere in the world - 14 other RSs. Nowhere else in the world was there such intense competition from 14 of the same car. The events were also diverse: one five-day two-night event, a three-day event and finally a two-day format with night driving. Porsche never won an International Rally in their works backed 2.7 RSs, managing only a 2nd place.

The wins broke the domination of the works backed Ford Escorts in the 1970's beating their best driver Roger Clarke in the process, starting a period of intense competition between the two companies that lasted for six years.

Number 9113601501 is the only surviving 911 RS that has won the Circuit of Ireland International Rally, the third oldest rally in the world. It finished with a record breaking 5m 48s, a time that can never be beaten by an RS now that it has changed into a three-day event. No other surviving RS has won a five-day two-night rally.

As a result of it's success the car featured on the front cover of a specialised book on Porsches in Rallying. The car was sponsored by official Porsche importers, Porsche Cars Great Britain and Porsche AG Stuttgart that sent a cheque to the driver for the equivalent of approximately £1,000 after he won the Circuit of Ireland.

In a return to the RAC Rally in 1978 it was one of two cars used to develop a new rally aid, an electronic trip meter, invented by navigator John Cartwright named the Terratrip.

When homologation ran out in 1979 for the use of an RS as a Rally car it was exported to South Africa where it was converted with parts supplied by the Porsche factory into a 3.4 Litre RSR. Competing in the Rolo Motors Historic Championship and Porsche Club SA events sponsored by Lindsay Sakers, the official Porsche importers at the time for South Africa.

Following an accident after achieving pole position at the old Kyalami F1 Race Circuit in 1987 it was stored for 23 years until 2010 when it was purchased by RS specialist Mark Waring and restored.

The restoration of the car set a new standard for doing so as each panel was carefully unpicked to facilitate preserving as many factory welds as possible. It was on a factory jig for two years.

Back in the UK and fully restored it is the only Porsche ever to return 40 years later and celebrate its wins by being photographed on the Start/Finish ramp of every Rally it won in 1974 and in the livery that it won each event in.

When attending a charity event at the Loughgall Festival of Motorsport in Armagh in 2014 Cathal Curley and the two navigators that accompanied him on the winning events, Austin Frazer and Terry Harryman were in attendance. All three signed the bonnet of the car. The navigator Terry Harryman partnered Finnish driver Ari Vatanen through his greatest years of rallying.

The car has been reissued a missing ID Plate by Porsche AG Germany confirming in writing all criteria were met in full during the process and the current Managing Director of Porsche Cars Great Britain wrote a personal letter and the Register Secretary of the Porsche Club Great Britain to the DVLA supporting the reallocation of its Irish number AUI 1500 when it won the rallies in 1974.

The car has been on display at Porsche OPC's Guildford and Mid Sussex since 2014.

The PCGB Brands Hatch Festival of motorsport was attended by Porsche AG and their museum cars and 9113601501 was included as the only RS in two sessions of display laps. Derek Bell in his Le Mans winning 962 and Richard Atwood in a 917 were in attendance.

The car recently returned to a special "Circuit Deja Vu" reunion event in 2016 with 172 Circuit of Ireland rally cars and took pride of place in a display outside the Hotel headquarters for the event. Cathal Curley and Austin Frazer drove in the car, reliving the Ireland's infamous Mols Gap Stage and Cathal Curley was filmed driving the Healy Pass from inside the car.

Probably one of the most comprehensive collections of research material and memorabilia has been assembled to accompany this unique car.

SOURCE: H&H AUCTIONS

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