Porsche unleashes 521kW 'Gentleman's Racer'

The sixth annual ‘Rennsport Reunion’ historic race meeting for classic Porsches at the Laguna Seca circuit was an appropriate setting for the debut of the new 935 Clubsport race car, channelling as it does the legendary long-tailed 935/78 ‘Moby Dick’ Le Mans-winning endurance racer.

Just 77 of these 521kW ‘gentleman’s racers’, based on the 911 GT2 RS, will be built, echoing Porsche’s racing heritage in their detail work: the 18 inch dished aerodynamic wheels come from the 935/78, the LED lights on the rear wing endplates from the 919 Hybrid LMP1 race car, the side mirrors come from the current Le Mans-winning 911 RSR, and the exposed titanium tailpipes are modelled on the Porsche 908 from 1968.

The distinctive wheel arch air vents on the front fenders, also a feature of the 911 GT3 R customer racing vehicle, increase downforce at the front axle, balanced by a dramatic, 1909mm wide and 400mm deep, adjustable rear wing.

There are more historical references in the cockpit: the laminated wood knob on the gearshift lever was inspired by classic racers such as the 917 and the 909 Bergspyder as well as the street-legal Carrera GT super sports car, as was the vintage-finished instrument cluster, featuring a Cosworth display with integrated data logger, analogue clock and boost gauge.

But the carbon-fibre CFK multifunction steering wheel with pit speed limiter and quick-release coupling, and the colour display behind it, have been lifted straight from the 2019 911 GT3 R, along with the roll cage, six-point harness and Recaro racing bucket seat (just one – the passenger seat is an extra-cost option, although air conditioning is standard).

The new 935’s 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat six is a slightly tweaked version of the production engine in the street-legal GT2 RS, driving the 310mm rear wheels via a rigidly mounted seven-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission with paddle shift and a limited-slip differential.

Braking is entrusted to 390mm internally ventilated and grooved cast-iron front brake discs with six-piston monobloc aluminium racing callipers, and 355m discs with four-piston callipers at the rear. The suspension is MacPherson struts in front and multi-link at the rear, with fully adjustable racing dampers, forged suspension links all round, Rose joints in place of the road car’s rubber bushings and centre-lock wheel nuts.

Stability management with traction control is standard, although these, as well as the ABS, can be individually adjusted or switched off completely, depending on the track situation, driver ability and gonad dimensions – bearing in mind that with mixed steel and aluminium construction and Kevlar-reinforced carbon fibre aero kit, the whole car weighs just 1380kg ready to go, giving it the power to weight ratio of almost 380kW per ton.