Type 7

It isn’t typically the “done thing” to sell a project car right as you finish it, but when a build goes on as long as this one did, some people have a hard time getting to grips with a journey’s end. For Brandon Bolling, finding the car for sale on a Pelican Parts forum was an opportunity too sweet to pass up, although the seller wasn’t going to give it up without some persuasion.

“He was a little hesitant at first. We ended up talking for two hours on the phone and after that he decided ‘okay, this guy gets it’. A few weeks later the car showed up and I’ve had it for 12 years now.”

The car had been built to resemble a 911 2.8 RSR, essentially the competition variant of the famous 1973 Carrera 2.7RS. With so few authentic RSRs around, plenty of evocations have been built, though often they’re based on later 964 or G body cars. Brandon’s car left the factory in 1970 as a long-hood 911E, making it much closer already to the finished article. It looks correct, but the bigger question is whether or not it drives like an RSR - the short answer is no.

When I take my 911 to car meets I know I have to park it and walk away, otherwise I get stuck talking about my own car and never get to see anything else. Sometimes it’s a lot.”

In more than a decade of ownership, there really aren’t limits to how Brandon uses his 1970 RSR bodied 3.5 litre Porsche 911. It is, as all good Porsche builds are, a workhorse, capable of sustained mileage in any environment Brandon might choose to throw it in. If you know anything about how original RSRs were treated in period, you’ll know that there really isn’t a more authentic way to drive one than that.

“I like taking the car to places people won’t expect it to be. I love this loop in NY, from Route 6 around the back of Bear Mountain, down Arden Valley Road, up through Harriman State Park and back through Route 17 and the 218 along the Hudson. That’s my go to. I also love the Catskills. I’m not scared of a dirt road, or of driving it through Manhattan. It makes me so happy, people are always blown away to see it.

It’s not perfect but that’s one of the things I like about it. It’s got rock chips but it’s a driver’s car, it’s used properly. I sold my G body when it was a fresh build, it was basically brand new and too nice. I needed a car I could just rip on, that I could pull the handbrake on and have a great time without worrying.

The best thing about the car is meeting other young Porsche enthusiasts. Stereotypes say that it’s all old white guys that don’t do anything with their cars but being younger and coming from a drift background and the import car space, I’m always interested in meeting like minded people. I was lucky enough to attend the F.A.T. Ice Race in Aspen where I met Ferdi Porsche and some of his friends. I love what he’s doing with F.A.T. and I think they really hit the nail on the head authentically, in terms of young Porsche enthusiasts.”