This Porsche 911 Prototype Was So Brightly Painted That It Needed Special Permission To Be Driven On The Road

Porsche’s 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is one of the more famous versions of the classic 911. It combined real power (over 200 horsepower) with light weight, complete with optics such as the iconic ducktail spoiler, large and staggered 15-inch Fuchs wheels and the Carrera name brought back to decorate the sides. It was the first 911 with wider rear fenders, a visual that would mark performance models in the future.

Some development cars from the Carrera RS program have survived to the present day. A good example is this incredibly brightly colored 1972 example, which was offered at RM Sotheby’s Arizona auction last month, but didn’t sell (it can’t be the color, so maybe it was the $700k-900k estimate).

The yellow car was born a 911 2.4 in the summer of 1972. The experimental 2.7-liter engine was fitted by the development team later on, but the fluorescent yellow color (TAGESLEUCHTFARBE) was specified already in the order form, as was the prototype ducktail spoiler.

And the yellow carried such significance that a special permit from the Regional Council of Stuttgart was required to allow a car in that color to be used on German roads. The reason for that is that such hues were traditionally reserved for official use, such as the fluorescent FEUERWEHR (Fire department) text on fire engines.

German authorities were not joking: when the car was sold to an acquaintance of Porsche’s development department head in 1973, the next owner ended up repainting the car in regular red when the permit for the neon yellow ran out in March 1977. It’s likely that Chrysler didn’t have to ask for an exemption to be able to paint Neons in Nitro Yellow Green in the ‘90s.

The car’s long-time second owner, Franz Sussner, didn’t mollycoddle the car when he got it. Having moved to Algeria, he had the car shipped there and drove it regularly, with Porsche engineers visiting him during tests in North Africa. All in all, he kept the car for over four decades, finally letting it go in 2016. There’s a photo of him in the accompanying history file, taken when the car left on a flatbed trailer, and one can only imagine the emotions that went through his mind when parting with an old friend.

Next, the Porsche’s new owner had it painstakingly restored by specialists. Rather than keep it red, he chose to have the paint completely redone from bare metal, with traces of the original fluorescent yellow paint discovered in nooks and crannies of the shell, including under the tail lights. Presumably, this was a good occasion of paint-to-sample Porsche color selection.

Buttoned up and with the engine rebuilt by a racing shop, the Porsche was finished with the Carrera side decal of production cars, as well as the sort of extra instruments it would have had during its development testing days.

As it stands, the Carrera RS is a curious example of a development car presented in perfect condition: test mules usually end up in completely different shape, given that most are scrapped.

Top graphic image: RM Sotheby’s