What is an RS America?
The RS America is a lightened, limited edition, performance version of the venerable Porsche® 911 Carrera® made for the 1993 model year which according to Porsche® both “commemorates the 20th Anniversary of”, and “captures the spirit of” the original 1973 Carrera® RS
The original 1973 Carrera® RS was available in Europe but unfortunately not in the USA. Porsche® decided to build the 1993 Carrera® RS both to European spec and a limited number in compliance with US regulations. These US spec cars were assigned the name “RS America”. The intent was to create a basic lightweight, no frills 911 with minimal luxury options. Fitting the RS America with the M030 sport suspension package, which included the use of much of the running gear from the 911 C2 Turbo, led to higher performance limits. The Turbo’s progressively wound coil springs, larger diameter front stabilizer bar, and upgraded shock absorbers were standard equipment for the RS America, as were 17” diameter C2 Turbo wheels. The RSA rims were 7” wide on the front and 8” wide on the rear (as opposed to the 7” wide front and 9” wide rear wheels of the C2 Turbo).
According to Porsche Cars North America, as published in the Porsche fact book for 1993:
“The RS America is a new derivative of the Carrera® 2 for drivers who demand an even higher level of feedback – feedback so detailed, so precise that it usually is found only in racing cars. Indeed the designator “RS” – German for “Renn Sport” or “Race Sport,” is traditionally reserved for the highest performance Porsches. In a Porsche RS model, refinements in the suspension, steering, wheels and tires all work in combination with perfectly coordinated weight reduction to create a dramatically different driving feel.”
Due to larger than expected customer orders, Porsche® continued building the RS America through August 1993 and therefore, 84 of these “1993 model year only” cars were not released until 1994. Interestingly enough, the 1994 models all differed from the 1993’s by having “RS” in their Vin number (as opposed to the “PS” of the 1993 models) [show me] and by having rear seats fitted in place of the dual storage bins that were standard on ’93 RSAs.
Fred Schwab – President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America (PCNA) during his speech at the concours banquet at the 1992 PCA Parade in San Diego, when he announced the introduction of the RS America as a one year only model for 1993, said
“If you like to autocross, this is your car. If you are a time-trialer, you need this car. If driving is for fun, this is your car – the car that the Porsche Club of America built.”
Unlike the regular 1993/1994 911’s (C2’s & C4’s) which had an extensive list of 48 factory options to select from, in the spirit of being a no-frills lighter-weight 911, the RS America had only four. These were:
| Option code | Description | Option Price |
| 220 | Limited Slip Differential | $ 913 |
| 331 | Porsche CR-1 AM/FM digital display stereo cassette with 2 speakers | $ 986 |
| 573 | Air Conditioning with automatic temperature control | $2,805 |
| 650 | Electric sunroof | $1,952 |
| A8/F8 | Metallic Paint | $1,036 |
| 98/99 | Paint to Sample | $2,498 |
To find out which of the four options an RSA was fitted with when it left the factory, you need to check the cars ID label which has the three-digit codes for each option as listed above printed on it. The ID label is located in two places; one is on the underside of the front hood behind the latch and the other is on the first page of the Maintenance manual.
The option codes are at the bottom of the ID label and usually start with “C02” US Delivery, “C03” US Model California (see sample ID label shown below). Occasionally option code “C36” is present and this indicates that the car was originally delivered to Canadian spec with the speedometer graduated in kilometers per hour and labels on the car were in liters rather than gallons.
Although the description of option “331” states “Cassette radio with 2 speakers” all RSA’s were fitted with two door speakers, a windshield antenna, antenna signal amplifier and associated wiring – for this option it was actually only the Porsche CR-1 radio/cassette in-dash unit that was added.
Exterior Colors
The RS America was available in three, no-charge, non-metallic colors: Guards Red, Black, and Grand Prix White. Two Metallic shades were offered for an additional $1,036: Polar Silver Metallic and Midnight Blue Metallic. Additionally, it was possible to order your RSA in any color you specified – this was referred to as “color to sample” for an additional $2,498 irrespective of whether the color you specified was metallic or non-metallic.
| Color-Non-Metallic | Code |
| Guards Red | G1G1 |
| Black | A1A1 |
| Grand Prix White | P5P5 |
| Color-Metallic | Code |
| Polar Silver Metallic | A8A8 |
| Midnight Blue Metallic | F8F8 |
Interior
All interiors were black with black cord fabric covered sports seats as standard. It was possible to order the seatbelts and door pull-straps in either Black, Red or Blue. The interior door panels comply with the weight saving theme in that they were devoid of the armrest and door pockets that were standard on the regular 964. Instead of a complex opening mechanism the RS America simply had a webbing strap in a loop that you pull to open the door. In order to meet type US certification requirements, the RS America came with electric windows
The significantly lighter manually cranked windows were not used because the car would need to be re-certified in this configuration which would involve embarking on an expensive and time consuming crash test campaign.