A surprise return for Porsche’s iconic white whale.
Stealing the show at the Rennsport Reunion last September was the remarkable new 935, a highly specialised derivative of Porsche’s latest 911 GT2 RS. A track-only, quasi-race car created as the ultimate evocation of Weissach’s past and present, it has been both styled after and named after the 935, with particular homage to the iconic Moby Dick.
“This spectacular car is a birthday present from Porsche Motorsport to fans all over the world,” Frank-Steffen Walliser explained at Rennsport. “Because the car isn’t homologated, engineers and designers didn’t have to follow the usual rules and thus had freedom in the development.”
The 935 utilises the extraordinary 991.2 RS chassis and 690bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat six, but has clothed it in a retro-futuristic reinterpretation of the infamous 935/78. Even the period Martini livery seen here will be available as an option.
This is no pastiche, however, but a highly technical restyling that includes the flatnose front end and low-drag longtail rear that enabled the original to achieve such astonishing speeds on the Mulsanne straight in 1978.
“We wanted to keep the aero balance of a Cup car,” Dr Walliser explained, “so we had to design that. It was a hell of a lot of work in the wind tunnel and with computer simulation to achieve the right aerodynamics.”
The new 935 is a deft blend of old and new then. Its tail measures a massive 1.9 metres wide by 400mm deep and has been made of the latest weight-saving carbon-fibre reinforced plastic. Another nod to the ’78 car is the aerodynamic wheel trim treatment, while the LED lights on the rear wing have been lifted from the 919 Hybrid and the wing mirrors from the current 911 RSR.
Inside the new 935 is an exclusively contemporary affair, with a carbon fibre steering wheel and high-tech instrumentation from the 2019 911 GT3 R customer racer. And because the car has been designed specifically for serious track use, it comes with a fully welded roll cage and single lightweight racing seat with six-point harness as standard, with the option of adding a second seat should you so desire.
Further evidence of just how seriously the GT department has taken this project can be found within the few stats currently available. Despite measuring 4.87 metres in length and 2.03 metres in width, the stripped out 935 weighs just 1380kg. For some context, that’s 90kg less than the much shorter and narrower GT2 RS. And it means the 935 hits the hallowed 500bhp/tonne, suggesting that its performance will be nothing short of staggering.
Power is delivered to the rear wheels only, and only via Porsche’s seven-speed PDK gearbox. And despite its uncompromising attention to lightness and race craft, the 935 still comes equipped with all the bells and whistles of the road-going GT2 including PSM stability management with traction control and ABS braking, a tyre pressure monitor and air conditioning.
Thanks to a map switch, however, the assistance systems can all be adjusted separately or switched off completely, depending on driving conditions and available talent. A long list of other concessions to serious track work include internal and external kill switches, a triple air jack system, full electric fire extinguisher system, a 115-litre FT3 safety fuel cell and, slightly ominously, an FIA-compliant removable escape hatch in the roof.
Although no performance figures have been made available, a mildly disguised prototype has been seen hammering around the fast and unforgiving GP circuit at Monza, so we can rest easy in the knowledge that Porsche means for this clearly very collectible car to be driven in the way that its forbear would have wanted.
Worthy of the 935 name then? With deliveries not starting until June 2019, only time will tell, but the initial reaction, in Walliser’s own words, has been more than encouraging. “The feedback we’ve had from the fans at Rennsport was unbelievable. My phone is ringing all the time with potential customers. People are overwhelmed.” Only 77 cars will ever be built and they are expected to retail at around £750,000.