1992 Porsche 964 RS N/GT

This is a 1992 Porsche 911 RS. The RS version of the 964 generation of the Porsche 911 launched at the end of 1991, introduced by a distinctive new color, “Sternrubin”, or Rubystone in English. This car was delivered from the factory in that color, over a black leather interior. Three versions of the RS were available. This car is an M003 model, and as such could be registered for street use. It is powered by a 3.6 liter flat six making 256 hp, driving the rear wheels through a five speed manual transmission.

Of 2282 964 RS’, under 300 were the desirable lightweight ClubSport M003 version. Some sources quote 291 M003 cars, others 288. These M003 cars had a Matter safety cell welded in and painted body color during production. This made them homologated for the Group N/GT racing series. This example wears its factory correct original Rubystone (82N) paint and retains the signature Porsche boxer six it was born with, making it a “matching numbers” example. It was delivered new in Switzerland, where it remained until 2007. From then until 2013 it was in Spain, before returning to Germany where an extensive overhaul was carried out by Speyer, a noted Porsche Specialist. This 964 RS is supplied with a thorough service history, a value appraisal suggesting a grade of 1-, and its original magnesium wheels.

Car collecting is cyclical, with folks in middle age having the resources and stability in their lives to collect the vehicles they loved decades earlier, as boys, girls or teenagers. By this rubrick, 964 generation Porsches, which have only recently received the recognition and appreciation enjoyed by earlier 911s, may yet have far to grow in appreciation both financially and culturally.

Nineties collectible cars arguably sit at the perfect nexus. They are modern, that is to say they are reliable, have good power, brakes and steering, with wipers and lights which can cope with most inclement conditions. Typically performance models retain a traditional clutch-and-H-pattern manual transmission. While they may not have airbags, they do have seatbelts and laminated glass making them far better places in which to have a crash than older collectibles. Yet they remain analog, the car responding immediately and without question to the driver’s commands, in contrast to moderns, where digital aids - traction control, anti lock brakes and electronic stability programs - help a car with poor handling or a driver lacking in skill.

Collectors, valuing the purity of these analog machines, have begun to seek out the best examples of turn of the century super- and sports cars such as the Porsche 911. Illustrative of this trend is the way three pedal manual transmission examples of many cars of this era are now worth far more than otherwise-identical two pedal automatic versions of the same car.

It seems hard to believe in 2024, but in the early eighties the 911 was set to die. Infact, the 928 was launched as its replacement, but the 911 kept selling. There is a story about a new CEO at Porsche sitting in a product planning meeting. Seeing the timeline for 911 production stopping, he leapt up, seized a black permanent marker, and continued the line, off the side of the graph, off the side of the page, onto the whiteboard and the wall behind it. At this moment the 911 became Porsche's very identity. Even today, when Porsche builds thousands more four door, four wheel drive automatic transmission equipped SUVs than they do two door stick shift sports cars, we think of them as a sports car maker, because the brand is the 911.

Porsche’s 964 series has the lowest production number of any 911 generation. According to Porsche only fifteen percent of parts were carried over from the previous model, however visually the change was evolutionary, a gentle modernizing of a formula then two and half decades old. As in the early seventies, there were new bumpers, now deeper with improved aerodynamics and color coded to the body in the fashion of the times. Some other visual tweaks kept the exterior looking contemporary while still being instantly recognizable as a 911. There were some new creature comforts inside, and a larger capacity, more powerful version of the flat six.

One does not need to be a Porsche aficionado to recognize Porsche color 82N, “Sternrubin” as a special color. Introduced on the 964 RS, the color has become associated with this model. Prized by collectors, Sternrubin examples typically command a premium over other, more common colors. Porsche reintroduced color 82N as a special order color in 2019,  renaming it Rubystar in English. Many special Porsches do not stand out visually from their more humdrum Zuffenhausen brethren. Others make a statement to the cognoscenti; in this color, a 964 RS falls into the latter category.

Porsche’s RS - “RennSport” - designation refers to cars built by the factory to be sold to private customers to race. M001 versions of the 1992 RS were used in the inaugural Porsche SuperCup race series. Then, as now, this is the only support race preceding each Formula 1 Grand Prix. At that time an M003 964 RS was the most hardcore street legal Porsche you could buy from the factory. While the RS may lack the power of the Turbo, instead it has the purity and single sense of purpose that comes from a car built to race. The car offered here is fast, reliable and usable like modern car, but direct and visceral in the way which only analog cars from the last century can be. For an emerging generation of collectors this might be both peak analog and peak Porsche.