73 Carrera RS lightweight detail

[Scott A]

Anyone know more about this knob on the front cowel?
It's on a 1973 RS, at Canepa.
I think it's a fire extinguisher pull knob.
Were these very common? Owner or factory installed?

I see them on race cars all the time.

I hope for now, in the showroom, that it's disconnected... Be a bummer if someone couldn't resist to pull it to see what happened.

[patrick911]

yes, that's the external activation for the fire-extinguisher. The was also one for the driver to use, either where the ashtray would be, or sometimes it was on a bracket in between the two seats.
Here's a picture of the (restored) R6 Martini RSR with the same pull knob. I assume that one could order this from the factory, just like a rollbar, as the position of the outside pull is always the same.

(Picture courtesy of Maxted-Page - from their website)

[stretch]

The fire system fitted to these cars was the automatic Heinzmann fire bottle system. They were marketed by Heinzmann of Koln Germany but they were not German made. Here is a link to one of the originals i have sold on the board. There is plenty of information on this forum if you do a search.

https://www.early911sregistry.org/fo...ight=Heinzmann

Dave

[recarno]

in germany, the racing cars must have an ignition-off switch that can be reached from outside. you can see the version for the inside on the dashboard in the second picture. I suspect that it is this external switch. if you had a picture of the entire car, you could see whether there might be two outside switches, then the second one could be for the extinguishing system.
but am not an expert for such things.

regards uwe

[911MRP]

This below is the Daytona winning M491 the electrical cutout can be seen on the scuttle and in area where speaker would be.

Related to the questin: There also appears to be an extinguisher trigger for the what looks to be Heinzmann fire system in similar area to the M471 Sport on the OP.
Attachment 564907. Other photos at Canepa show an extinguisher system.

The external pull and system is not part of the Base Carrera RS paid conversion to M471 or M472 The fire extinguisher system (the RS literature called “sprinkler system”) was an item that was part of the M491 conversion done to the base Carrera RS after being weighed and counted for homologation on first series like this one claims to be. Presumably could be done as part of the work to equip a 911 (not just the RS) if intended for use on track. Unless there is a record of it fitted new as a special request on 0284 likely a later item

There wasn’t just one way of doing this. If memory serves me the M471 Sport and the M472 Touring (both lightweight chassis) as used by Nick Faure in 73 had the external battery cutout in the driver’s side horn grille. They were prepared by the U.K. importer for the RAC (FIA sanctioned) production sports car championship that year which the RS won convincingly. I’ve seen others on the scuttle like pictures; this is the more common way it was done I believe. Position might vary RHD vs LHD?

Don’t believe the full external trigger sprinkler extinguisher system like Heinzmann or similar was a requirement in all race series?

A few details in pictures provided probably aren’t quite to as new factory spec of an early first series RS but generally looks to be a nicely restored example of an M471 Sport that was actually a “lightweight” chassis when brand new in calendar 1972. This chassis would’ve been weighed and tallied foe homologation. Assembled the same week as the factory 73/74 East Africa safari RS car(s) I suppose at least based on proximity of Vin (although assembly wasn’t always done in Vin sequence abs the safari cars had extra prep for the event ). Ordered early October 1972 at time of launch; it’s Vin preceded Vin of Daytona winning car if memory serves me well so its first owner (like all who ordered first originally only planned series) he wasn’t jumping on the bandwagon of that well publicised success.


Steve