1973 Carrera RS Discussion Thread

[sithot]

If it only has one up front it won't be much of an air conditioner. Some of the best ones (aftermarket) from the era used big panels mounted to the pan protected by a "cage" of sorts which was similar to what came on the front smaller condenser. Surface area is what you need and the Porsches from this era didn't have enough much less good leak free hoses and fittings.

OT; the Griffith's system is a slick variation which houses the extra condensors in the wheel wells. These are very effective.

[mike curnow]

Is the group saying that all 1973 RS, and RSR's have KG plates, no matter when they were produced, or delivered?
I believe the change date for the type of corporation was late 1972 or close to that date? Of course Porsche liked to use up old stock. Are most 1973 street cars using the KG aluminum plate?

Interesting way of looking at that Bryce, never dawned on me.

Looks like Tom has it displayed well to see the differences. One of the better ones I have seen, but I think the tell tale is the 'AG', instead of 'KG' on the plate. I have not seen a Jan. '73 produced car with an original 'AG' plate. Anyone seen this?

[RSTarga]

My 73S has an AG plate May production. Are the Rs's different?

[HughH]

My 73E (June 73 production) has an AG plate as well.
However both the E in the top left hand box and the model year letter F in the box next to it have been hand stamped onto the blank plate. This is the same for all production cars that i have seen. So they start with a blank plate and type the car type (T E S) and year letter and chassis number. On all of these i have seen a change over to AG on the pre stamped plate early in 1973 calendar year production.

However with RS plates it seems to me that both the TYPE in the top left box "SC" and the year letter "F" may be pre done when the plate is made, leaving only the chassis number to be stamped in. I dont know this for sure but they are all a bit to neat - unlike mine and other cars i have seen where they are obviously stamped at production time.

IF that were the case you could expect the KG plates to last longer with the RS's than with other cars.
HOWEVER

Not all RS's have KG plates. Here is the plate from a very late RS that was sold by elevenparts some time ago. It was said to be a very original 85000km car with one owner for the past 32 years and was owned by E Strahle before that (till 77). It is clearly AG but also when you look at the "SC" and the "F" they also look like they were made when the plate was made not stamped later. I have seen other AG plates on late cars as well - indeed 1402 and 1364 have AG and earlier cars may as well but 1354 and 1349 have KG (1349 on a mangled plate that looks original). 1349 was a May production as was 1402.

[NorthernThrux]

My Feb 1973 S build date US delivery car has original KG stickers and plate. So while most web sites including Wikipedia say the corporate change occurred in 1972, clearly the factory didn't catch up right away.

[wgm]

Hugh,

#1354, -> KG & SC and F pre stamped
#1402, #1470, #1534, #1551, #1556 -> AG & SC and F pre stamped

regards
Wolf

[69Sman]

1248 KG plate.

[davep]

Thanks Wolfgang. 1354 and 1402 span the KG<>AG change-over; that is as close as I have it for the RS.
The date of change is a bit difficult, but I have the compliance decals (for North America) with both KG & AG in May 1973; so I guess the change was mid month. I find it strange that the various T models have an E chassis, while all other models have an F chassis.

[HughH]

Dave

I have 1364 as a AG plate so i think the changeover is in the 1354 to 1364 area (assuming of course they stamped the chassis numbers consecutively and the 1364 plate is authentic) Agree at least according to the RS book all these were made in May 1973 so that seems to be the changeover time.

[davep]

Thanks Hugh; that really narrows it down. If we can locate more cars in that range and a little outside we can pretty much nail it for the RS.