On September 27, Roland Kussmaul celebrated his 80th birthday. He became world-famous as a legendary Porsche racing engineer. He worked at Porsche for over 36 years. Kussmaul began his career in 1969 as a design engineer before being transferred to road testing in 1973. At the request of Peter Falk, Roland Kussmaul was transferred to the Porsche racing department in 1977, where he worked as a project manager for racing and rally operations, for example with the 911 SC/RS at the Safari Rally in 1983.

**Roland Kussmaul at the 1983 Paris-Dakar Rally in a 911 Carrera 3,2 4×4 Paris-Dakar (Type 953)**

As a race engineer, he helped the Porsche 959 to win the Paris-Dakar and, along the way, finished 6th with the tanker and support vehicle. He was head of development for racing and special vehicles and oversaw the Porsche 956 and 962 entries at Le Mans, among other events.

**Porsche 959 at the 1986 Paris Dakar Rally (copyright Porsche Archive)**

From 1989, Roland Kussmaul was responsible for the development of the Porsche 964 Cup vehicle. When the 964 Cup got off to a successful start, Kussmaul also developed the fascinating 964 RS in the Porsche racing department in Weissach Flacht.

**Roland Kussmaul in the Porsche 964 RS test vehicle “K47”.**

The trials for the 964 RS took place with the test vehicle “K47”. Roland Kussmaul was able to acquire the “forefather” of all 964 RSs in 1993 and still owns the vehicle today.

Exactly 1916 vehicles of the 964 RS were produced in the 1992 model year. The 911 Carrera RS of the generation 964 weighed 1220 KG and reached with its 260PS a top speed of 260 km/h.

**Roland Kussmaul in front of a 964 Carrera RS 3.8**

A touring version of the 964 RS was also offered, but only 76 vehicles were built.

In the book “Porsche Carrara RS – 50 Years,” Kussmaul reports in a separate chapter on the development of the first Carrera RS of the modern era.

In a detailed interview, he also explains why there was such a large time gap between the Carrera RS from 1972 and the 964 RS.

Porsche Carrera RS 50 YEARS 1972–2022

Der 911 Carrera RS 2.7 ist bereits heute eine Legende. Er gehört zu den begehrtesten Fahrzeugen unter den klassischen Baureihen des luftgekühlten Neunelfers.

Das Buch „Porsche Carrera RS 50 YEARS 1972–2022“ ist in einer limitierten Auflage von 500 Exemplaren erschienen.

Besonderheiten in diesem Buch

Ausführliche Kaufberatungen für die klassischen Baureihen
Carrera RS 2.7, 964 RS und 993 RS
Preisentwicklungen für die Jahre 2018 bis 2022
Alle Serien- und Sonderfarben mit Fahrzeug-Animationen
Umfangreiche Informationen zu Prototypen und Versuchsträgern
Pressemitteilungen und Prospekte für alle 911 Carrera RS