In October of 1973, Roger Penske took delivery 15 of special 1974 cars in Riverside California, which had been built to his order. He acquired the cars to participate in the first ever International Race of Champions (IROC), which was actually a series of four races, three at Riverside in late October and the final race at Daytona in February of 1974. The cars would be driven by a dozen of the best racing drivers in the world, hailing from different racing disciplines including Indy, Can-Am, NASCAR, and Formula 1. The Riverside races each consisted of a dozen cars while three cars would sit out as practice cars.

The mechanical specification of the IROC cars was a hybrid of the 1974 Carrera RS 3.0 road car and that car’s racing variant, the RSR. The cars used bolt-on Fuchs alloy wheels, 9” in the front and 11” in the rear, like the 1973 RSR, rather than the even wider center-lock wheels used on the 1974 RSR. The remainder of the chassis, in addition to the engine, was consistent with the 1974 RSR specification.

This particular car bears serial number 0124 and raced in two of the four 1974 IROC races, both of which it won. Its first victory was in the hands of George Follmer at Riverside, and its second win was with Mark Donohue the following day, also at Riverside. Seven of the 15 cars were put up for sale, while the other eight returned to Germany for additional fettling and adjustments in anticipation of the final race at Daytona on Valentine’s Day of 1974. When the cars arrived in Florida, Al Holbert and Peter Gregg spent about a week shaking the cars down before the race.

At Daytona, this car did not compete; it was initially built as a spare but raced twice at Riverside when other cars dropped out for various reasons. Upon the conclusion of the final IROC race at Daytona in February of 1974, this car was sold to Al Holbert and repainted blue. This was an especially important car for Holbert because it represented one of his earliest turns at professional racing, having started as a mechanic working for Roger Penske, including on George Follmer’s Lola T70. Although Holbert would go on to win the IMSA Camel GT championship five times and also won the “triple crown of endurance racing” (Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans) twice, none of that had happened yet when he acquired this car.

He raced it for the remainder of 1974, winning at Road Atlanta in April, Lime Rock in May, and Mid-Ohio in June. At the Daytona finale in December, he got second overall in the car. In total, he raced the car nine times in the 1974 season. While testing in Michigan in December of 1974, it was substantially damaged when he rolled the car. The mechanical parts that could be used were removed and installed in a new body shell ordered from Porsche (together with the components from a 1973 RSR Holbert’s co-driver Milt Mintner had crashed the previous year) and this became the car that Holbert campaigned in the 1975 season.

The remains of this car, 0124, were set aside at Forest Grove Autobody in Warrington, Pennsylvania for decades until they were purchased, together with the documentation and rights for the serial number, in 2008 by a German collector who used it as the basis to restore the car. This colorful history is typical of vintage race cars and critically, this car has clear and unambiguous history and there are no alternate claims to this serial number.

The car has been extremely correctly restored and is in beautiful condition. It runs and drives extremely well, having been recently serviced by Retro Sport in Richmond, California. A new set of Michelin TB15 tires was fitted at this time. The car is very exciting but fully streetable. The engine is in a sensible state of tune suited to road use, but absolutely rips when summoned. The clutch is sporty but manageable and the entire experience is thrilling. An on board fire system is installed and the car could be prepared to race relatively easily (a list of required work is available).

This is an exceptional opportunity to acquire one of the most exciting Porsches ever made. Perfectly streetable but also quite significant from a motorsports perspective, this exceptional 911 is a thrilling but usable artifact from one of the marque’s most exciting periods.