1958 Porsche 718 RSK

background

Porsche built the first 718 RSK prototype in 1957. It was an evolution of their first tube-framed race car, the 550A RS, gaining its name from the K-shaped arrangement of the front torsion bar tubes on the prototype car.

The factory team entered RSKs in the major international sports car races of 1958 and 1959 where they were dominant in their class, as well as often beating much larger-engined Ferraris, Aston Martins and Jaguars.

The Works cars differed significantly from the customer model. They were continually revised as the factory sought to extract maximum performance and have many distinguishing features including an attractive longer nose, external air duct and red trim.

this car’s history

718-004 was built in May 1958 and was used by the Works team at the Le Mans 24 hours race.  

It was a hugely significant race for Porsche, with one of the other Works cars finishing in third place overall, Porsche’s first ever overall podium at la Sarthe.  004 failed to finish the race after an incident with a Ferrari.  

The factory used the car for the rest of the season in various high profile events before selling it in January 1959 to Anton von Dory, Porsche’s representative in Argentina and a successful amateur racer.

Von Dory would race the car at the Sebring 12 Hours before going on to achieve an outright win at the inaugural international sports car race at Daytona, the 1,000km, the predecessor to the Daytona 24 Hours.

Von Dory continued to race the car before selling it to Daniel de Magalhaes, a wealthy Portuguese amateur, at the 1960 Cuban Grand Prix.  De Magaelhaes raced the car internationally for several years before selling it to his friend Carlos Faustino.

The car ended its racing career with Faustino in Portugal around 1967 and was discovered still wearing its original number plates in a Portuguese garage in the late 1970s.  It then found its way via Jean-Francois Dumontant to the renowned Rosso Bianco collection.  When the Rosso Bianco collection was broken up in 2008, 718-004 was sold with a large number of other cars to the Louwman Museum and from there it passed to the current owner in 2009.

By 2013, the car was fully restored by German specialists whence the current owner used it sparingly, on the road and in a selection of events, alongside his two Porsche 550 Spyders.

condition today

The car is in excellent, race ready condition now.

The spaceframe chassis is original and fitted with the correct type of engine (547/2), one of only 74 built by the factory.  The gearbox is the correct type for an RSK, with the unusual dog leg first gear to the left and forwards.

The car retains the surface oil cooling bonnet design (albeit unconnected) that denoted the Works cars. The car has many other original RSK components, such as the main suspension, brakes and fuel tank.