Porsche 911 SC RS: King of the Stage
A mixture of childish excitement and trepidation fills me as I arrive at Curborough Sprint Course to the sight of a Rothmans-liveried Porsche 911 SC RS being unloaded from Prodrive’s unassuming box trailer.
The gorgeous white and blue colour scheme, with its red and gold pinstripes, has entralled me since reading about the partnership’s halcyon days, winning Le Mans with the 956 and 962 sports prototypes.
Driving a Rothmans Porsche has always been high on my ‘I wish’ list and now, on a (thankfully) dry autumnal day, that wish is about to come true. However, while it was Weissach’s Group C offerings that sparked my love affair with the Rothmans livery, this particular Porsche isn’t designed for the track.
Instead, this is a Group B rally car, designed to take the Stuttgart manufacturer back to world’s special stages.
The SC RS came about after David Richards, the man behind the Rothmans Porsche sponsorship deal, went to Weissach to talk about his real passion, rallying. Richards had co-driven Ari Vatanen to the 1981 World Rally Championship and was intent on setting up his own rally team.
With Porsche developing the 959 four-wheel drive car for Group B, an alliance with Stuttgart was a logical plan but the 959 project was suffering from delays, leading Porsche to suggest an interim programme with the new SC RS.
For the 1984 season, Weissach built 20 examples to satisfy the FIA’s competition homologation proces, passing five cars onto Richard’s fledgling Prodrive outfit to be run as part of the works-assisted Rothmans Porsche Rally Team.
To read more about the history of the Porsche 911 SC RS, Prodrive’s formative years on the rallying scene, and an incredible test drive in this Group B brute, pick up your copy of Total 911 issue 109, available in store, online at the Imagine Shop, and to download to your digital device at Great Digital Mags.
You can also check out these quick fire stats on the Group B SC RS, and you can watch a short clip of it in action when we took it for a test drive.
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