As a owner of a 74 Carrera I would like to make a few comments that might be helpful in better understanding this model. For perspective, I have owned many Porsches through the years from 944 Turbos to 964's and have driven many of my friends 996's and 997's of many different iterations. With this in mind, like a lot of the earlier cars, the 74 Carrera is a raw example of how Porsches should be built. The 74 Carrera is much quicker than most people think because of it's extremely lite weight, just over 2300 lbs with power windows added to get it over the 2300 mark. Even though 74 was the first year for the impact bumpers, the 74 Carrera was within 30 lbs of the 73 rs touring. By changing the rear control arms from steel to aluminum, replacing with much lighter recaro seats than its predecessor, and going from two batteries to one, it was able to make up for the added weight of the impact bumpers. The 74 Carrera didn't have any emissions controls, but did retain the rs flares, rs ducktail, rs oil cooler, rs brakes, and was given a much improved suspension over the rs.. The engine is another misunderstood element of the car; it delivers around 175hp (not 165) with torque in the upper 180's. The torque of the 73 rs was not much more than that. Torque is very important and how a car delivers its power. The ring and pinion gear of 7:31 is unique to the 74 Carrera (not 911s) also makes it much quicker than the 175 hp figure leads on. I have spoken to many Carrera owners that have kept up and beaten rs's on the track. We all know that some of that account might have to due with the quality of the driver. According to some that have tracked these Carrera's the CIS is an advantage to the carb setup of the RS because of its ability to deliver power more efficiently coming out of the turns. Being that I am not an expert at the differences in CIS vs. the carb setup I think it is important to note that hp is not the only determinate of what makes a car a fast car on the track/road. I am not saying that the 74 Carrera is necessarily faster, but with the correct driver can give an RS fits. My point in making these comments is just to be helpful in sharing a perspective from a owner who has first hand driving experience. I am not in any way advocating that a 74 Carrera should be worth that of an 73 RS, I will leave that to the marketplace. I due think that they are a special car with a very limited build number. I also love my 944 Turbo and hope to add a 997 in the near future! I would love to hear from more 74 Carrera owners give their persectives, it might be helpful to all of us. Thanks guys for making this such a great forum. Cheers. Eric
