Below is the story of an RS America, which started life at the factory as a regular RSA but was delivered to Brumos ..... who gave it a whole new lease of life!
The car was built in 06/92 as an RS America and sold by Brumos in Jacksonville, FL. Brumos installed a custom chip from Andial, (Porsche Motorsport NA at the time) installed a Cup Car exhaust system, lowered it with Euro RS springs, replaced the RSA wing with a ducktail, painted the wheels white, the mirrors black, and painted it like the Supercar Turbo with the classic Red and Blue Brumos stripes. Brumos had the car sitting on their showroom floor as a display during the time when they were racing in the IMSA Bridgestone Supercar series, which Hurley Haywood and Hans Stuck won. On the dash is a plaque that is signed by Hurley Haywood that reads “Brumos 20th Anniversary Carrera RS”. At that time they had a price tag of $90,000 on the car!
The car was first titled and driven by a guy who was I believe was a machinist at Brumos, he sold the car a year or so later with less that 1,800 miles on it to a guy in upstate New York that put another 5,000 or so miles on it in just a few months. The car was traded in at a Mercedes dealership at the end of the summer of '97. Martin Steger, owner of German Autohaus, bought it from the Mercedes dealership the same day it arrived for trade-in knowing that I was looking for an RSA. The first time I saw the car a photographer was shooting it for the 1998 “Porsches” calendar. It sat in Martin's showroom until late October, I didn't want a white car, or a street car with stripes, and the duck tail looked goofy to me. After making some phone calls to Brumos and learning more about the car I finally bought it, not because it was what I really wanted, but mainly because someone wanted to buy my C4, and all the other higher mileage RSAs were priced about the same or had been damaged. The Brumos car, had that Brumos mystique, low mileage, and for whatever reason was much quicker that any RSA I had driven! A friend of mine with a 3.8 in his RSA drove the Brumos car and thought it had more power than his car! SOLD!!
A week later I drove the car in a PCA driver Ed in its stock form (I added another 6,000 miles on the street in less than a month!) with an old set of R1's from my C4, the car was quicker than my friends highly modified 3.8 RSA, he sold his car that winter, while I set mine up for the track.
While most of the work was done that winter, there has been an extensive amount of development and change to the car to date. Initially I wanted to do everything right, (basically as close to an RSR as possible, but disguised as a Cup Car) and as a result I spent more money turning it into a racer than I did the day I bought it! From day one I wanted it to be a PCA C Prepared car rather than D Stock car, mainly because of the brakes, after driving another RSA with the “Big Reds” I had to have those on my car, even if I had to move up a class. At the first race I qualified on the pole and won the race. Most races since I've either qualified 1st or 2nd, and or won, or was on the podium, except once when I had a defective front wheel bearing installed, and had to stop after 2 laps. (Started last out of 50 and ended up second once also). I'd like to think it was all the driver, (maybe I've been watching too much F1!) but having a good car is a very large part of it.
Other than rolling backwards into a diesel fuel pump at the local general store and scraping the left rear bumper cover, (which is still on the car, but I have a painted spare) the car has had absolutely no damage. With the exception of some hard to see sandblasting on the hood and around the headlights, the car is spotless. The interior looks like any other 23,000 mile, nearly new RSA.
The car is 100% PCA Stock Prepared C Class legal, the case has never been opened, and there has never been any tricky valve train or cam work. The hot and cold leak downs are near excellent, it has a fresh gearbox, (LSD, clutch, axles, wheels bearings, too) new brakes, etc... Over each winters about $10,000 was spent on preventive maintenance, upgrades, and foolish replacement of perfectly good parts. Most of the work was done by Martin Steger, (ex-factory mechanic and racer) until this winter when he semi-retired, now most of the work has been performed by Rick Dobush at R & D Automotive, (www.bavarianrocketscience.com) was sent out, or I did myself. Many others where consulted in making this the fastest, best handling, PCA legal RSA or Cup Car ......... period!
The Brumos history is pretty cool too. I have a letter from Brumos' GM, Bob Snodgrass stating how ”it is part of our history...” and going on to say what a unique car it is. Whether or not you buy into the Brumos thing and long for IMSA's glory days, it's part of the car, so you either enjoy it, or repaint it, because there's a subculture of Brumos fans that follow this car like groupies. Just park the car in any paddock (it could even be next to a GT-3RS or 962!) and get ready to fend off questions, and gawkers.
The cars current specification list below contains some very generic names and descriptions for what in many cases, are custom made, or modified Porsche Motorsport parts, RSR/GT-2 hot rod parts, or parts optimized or designed simply by trial and error.
1993 PORSCHE RS America “Brumos 20th Anniversary Carrera RS”
WPOAB2963PS418231 now with 23,500 miles
G.P. White w/ Wed & Blue Brumos stripes, black mirrors, & head light rings
“Brumos 20th Anniversary Carrera RS” dash plaque signed by Hurley Haywood
Featured in 1998 “Porsches” calendar (April)
Factory rolled fenders, no sunroof, A/C, heat, radio, or rear seats (no gold crown air freshener either)
RS 3.8 rear wing w/wicker bill and ‘73 Carrera RS duck tail and Front extended lip spoiler
Solid RSR engine & transmission. mounts
Custom Andial DME chip
Bilstein '94 RSR racing struts & shocks (the real, fully threaded ones)
Eibach linear rate 650# front and 750# rear springs, and others
Motorsport monoball rear camber plates and adjustable front camber plates
RSR sway bars & custom adjustable drop links (24mm front / 22mm rear)
Porsche front strut tower brace
Porsche ”Big Red” calipers and RSR rotors with Hawk blue pads
DOT legal stainless steel brake lines
Front and rear emergency tow hooks
Custom mild steel equal length race headers and stainless straight pipes
Custom ”Lime Rock legal” (84db) dual inlet / dual outlet race muffler
Quaife limited slip differential
GT-2 solid clutch disk & lightweight single mass flywheel
K & N cone air filter
Recaro SPG race seat w/ Brey Krause seat back brace
Teamtech 6 point harness
2.5 lb. Halon fire extinguisher on Brey-Krause bracket
Lexan windshield
OMP aluminum pedals
Custom made full roll cage
RSR Battery cut off switch
Custom / modified shifter linkage
Steel lug nuts
Momo ”Supercup” steering wheel with extended hub
Factory Speedline 7x17 and 8x17 white w/ Yokohama AVS Intermediates (white)
Factory Speedline 7x17 and 8x17 silver with beat BFGoodrich R1‘s (silver)
Borbet 17x9 with beat BFGoodrich R1‘s (for rear)
Fikse FM-10 9x18 and 10x19 with new Hoosiers
All original parts, spares, workshop manuals, PCA log book, etc...
