It was based on the Carrera Cup competition car and specifically conceived as a homologation special in a great enough quantity (at least 50 units) to qualify it for the BPR GT3 and GT4 categories as the RSR 3.8. It was offered only to the European market and appeared after the original 3.6-litre engine RS of 1992 had gone out of production. The standard 3.6-litre engine of the Carrera RS was bumped up to 3,746 cubic centimetres by an increase in its bore to 102 millimetres, but it still retained the RS’s standard 76.4-millimetre stroke.

This engine, the Type M64/20, was fitted with Porsche’s innovative Varioram variable-length intake system and produced a very healthy 300 brake horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 262 foot-pounds of torque at 5,400 rpm. The latest version (2.10) of the Bosch Motronic engine-management system kept tight control over both the twin-plug ignition and the fuel delivery through individual port throttle bodies. A new hot-film sensor replaced the previous flapper-valve arrangement, and at the exhaust end of the equation, waste gasses were fed through a pair of catalytic converters and out the twin tailpipes.