Advertisement
BBC TopGear
BBC TopGear
We're changing how you comment on TopGear.com
Find out more
Motorsport

The £750k Porsche 935 is a modern-day Moby Dick

Fancy a track-only 911 GT2 RS made to look like a classic Le Mans car? Porsche has got you

Published: 28 Sep 2018

Thought Porsche must be working at full capacity on the new 911 and Taycan? So did we. We certainly weren’t expecting this.

It’s the Porsche 935, and it takes only a small amount of historic motorsport knowledge to understand it riffs off the gobsmacking 935/78 racecar, better known as Moby Dick.

Advertisement - Page continues below

The modern-day 935 has been revealed at Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca as another 70th birthday present from Porsche to, well, itself. Though this one you can actually buy – providing you have around £750,000 and you’re one of the first 77 people in the queue, for this is a very limited-run car.

A very limited-use car, too. It’s track-only, so you won’t be rocking up to your local cars and coffee meeting in it. But being non-homologated, you might also be struggling to find a race series for it. Instead, Porsche says it’s “geared towards clubsport events and private training on racetracks”.

Yet it’s not a brutal racecar beneath. In fact, it’s the current-gen 911 GT2 RS, with its 690bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six engine driving the rear wheels via a seven-speed PDK paddleshift gearbox. Which makes it about 150bhp shy of Moby Dick.

Making it look altogether different to the GT2 RS is the carbon-reinforced plastic bodykit, which apes the swooping shapes of the 935/78 and lengthens the car significantly at the rear. You can’t miss the new wing, either, which makes its base 911’s spoiler look – for the first time – rather meek. The 935’s even has LED lights incorporated into it, like the Porsche 919 Le Mans car’s.

Advertisement - Page continues below

There are nerdy racing nods all over the 935, in fact. A wooden gear knob is a knowing wink at the 917. The side mirrors are nicked wholesale from the current 911 RSR endurance racer. The protruding tailpipes are inspired by the 908.

The interior is vastly different to the one you’ll find in a GT2 RS, with just the one seat (below a handy escape hatch), a welded-in cage, a Cosworth-supplied data logger and a complex motorsport wheel. But if all of that makes it seem intimidating, there’s still comforting things like stability control, ABS and air conditioning fitted.

Which also means the 935 weighs 1380kg. That may be 150kg less than the GT2 RS, but it’s almost 200kg more than a McLaren Senna, about the only car that presents itself as a potential rival in terms of price, power and intention. There’s less personalisation here, mind; all 935s come in Agate Grey with the Martini livery optional. You’d probably be a fool to not tick that box.

So, what do you reckon? As this generation of 911 shuffles towards replacement, has Porsche played a blinder with its parts bin?

Top Gear
Newsletter

Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.

More from Top Gear

Loading
See more on Porsche

Subscribe to the Top Gear Newsletter

Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, you agree to receive news, promotions and offers by email from Top Gear and BBC Studios. Your information will be used in accordance with our privacy policy.

BBC TopGear

Try BBC Top Gear Magazine

subscribe