1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Struggled to Keep Factory Guise, Now Worth $2 Million

The beginning of the month is when an impressive sale of Porsche sports and race cars will be held. Organized by auction house RM Sotheby's, it will see a fleet of no less than 56 white Porsches, all from the same collection, looking for new owners. The collective price for all of them is about $30 million.

The cars will sell separately, of course, as not even the richest and most diehard fan of the German brand probably doesn't want to spend that much on cars. And for us to get a better idea of what's on the table we've started covering earlier this week the finest examples in the so-called White Collection.

We've already had a look at three of the impressive Porsches being offered, namely the 2015 Porsche 918 Weissach Spyder, the 1993 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.8 RSR, and the 1997 Porsche 911 GT2. Each of them is valued at over $2 million and can prove to be the perfect Christmas gift for the true fan.

And so will today's treat, the 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 seen here. It's not just any Porsche of this breed, but one of just 200 to have been made that year with the lightweight Sport (M471) package.

Unlike the Japan-spec 911 GT2, this is a vehicle that has been intended from the get-go for the American market. It too, however, retains the numbers-matching chassis, engine, and transmission, comes in the original exterior color, and has the correct production number.

Although a quick look at it might have one believe the 911 had an easy time retaining its factory originality over the years, a glance at the documents that accompany it reveals an entire story altogether.

It all starts with the first owner, who as soon as they got their hands on the car in 1974 they changed the original Grand Prix White color into Albert Blue. A year later, its original seats were replaced with Recaros.

The Porsche was kept unchanged in other respects and spent 25 years of its life in the company of its first owner. The second one, a collector named Otis Chandler, started bringing the car back to its original form, repainting the 911 in its original hue, but also restoring the red lettering seen on key parts of the body. The original seats were brought back as well.

After going through the hands of a third owner, the Porsche ended up, looking as it had when it rolled off the factory doors, in the White Collection in 2011. While there, it spent its time largely unused but started on a monthly basis and ran to operating temperature.

There is one important aspect about the car we didn't mention. Despite all the back and forth with its paint job, and the removal of the original seats at one point, the Porsche has always had the lightweight Sport package.

A combination of removed items and careful fittings, it was meant to bring the weight of the car down by 200 pounds (91 kg) compared to the Touring version it was based on.

Accompanying all that are a series of factory-specified fittings that make the car even more unique: it comes with things like headrests on both sides, a heated windscreen at the rear, three-point safety belts, and leatherette throughout the interior.

At the time it was originally sold, in 1974, the Porsche had a total price of $15,500, including the initial repaint. That would be close to $100,000 in today's money – which is quite the sum, but not nearly close to the $2 million the seller hopes to get for it under the perfect circumstances (the lowest they seem to hope to get is $1,750,000, but that's still a hell of an increase in value).

The 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight is going under the hammer with the minimum of related documentation, but with a complete ownership history: copy of the original Porsche vehicle order form, original sales invoice, and Porsche Certificate of Authenticity.

The odometer of the car reads 42,000 miles (67.600 km) of use, 32,000 of which were added by the first owner alone. As a dose of extra cool, there's a sticker on one of its windows reading 1 Gewinnt Can-Am & Interserie 1972, a reference to the car breed's successes in racing competitions, and further proof, if such a thing was still needed, of the car's pedigree.

We'll follow this story to see how much the 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 manages to sell for, and update our info accordingly.