- The 1973 Porsche 911 “Turbo” concept will be unveiled at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace this summer.
- The silver coupe, based on a 2.4 S from 1973, celebrated its world premiere at the 1973 Frankfurt Motor Show.
- The turbo engine wasn’t ready for the 1973 show, so the unblown flat-six engine was fitted with a wooden turbo dummy.
This year, Porsche is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 911 Turbo, which was introduced at the end of 1974, went into production in February 1975 and has been an integral part of the model range ever since. But the Turbo story began a year earlier with two silver 911s. One was a narrow but turbo-equipped Carrera that was given to Ferdinand Porsche’s daughter Louise Piech and was still owned by Porsche, and the other was this stunning 911 Turbo concept.
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Fifty-one years after its unveiling at the 1973 Frankfurt Motor Show, the 911 Turbo concept car is on display again, this time at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace just outside London, England. These fresh images show the now restored car in silver paint with ‘Turbo’ graphics on the rear sides, ‘Porsche’ lettering on the doors and white Fuchs alloy wheels with Dunlop Racing rubber, the name highlighted in white on the side (hey). , it was the 1970s). Archive photos prove that this is exactly what it looked like in the fall of 1973.
Related: Watch each generation of the 911 Turbo compete against each other in a drag race
The concept with chassis number 9113300157, originally a 2.4 S, looks much more robust and less GT-like than the later production 911 Turbo, as at this point Porsche was still planning on building another raw race car for the road. With its fiberglass front and rear bumpers, first-ever whale tail, massive fenders and front-mounted oil cooler, it could easily be confused with Porsche’s 1974 RSR race car or its road-going sibling, the 3.0 RS, whose bodywork and aerodynamics prefigured the concept.
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And the concept had something in common with these cars beyond looks, because even though the original show car was touted as a turbo, it actually had a naturally aspirated engine. The real engine apparently wasn’t ready in time, so Porsche fitted an atmospheric six with a fake turbocharger made of painted wood, or so the story goes.
After the first round of exhibitions, the concept was used to test some RSR pre-production parts and was discovered at the factory in 1975 by Australian-based racing driver and Porsche importer Alan Hamilton, who was looking for an RSR himself. Hamilton drove the car for a few races in Oz before passing it on. The Turbo eventually made its way to the US and returned to Europe in 2016. The concept is now in display-worthy condition and equipped with a genuine turbo engine and will be on display at Hampton Court from August 30th to September 1st.
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