During development of Porsche’s relaunch of the 935 racer, secrecy was key. Vehicle tests were only performed at the final stage and works at Weissach were well hidden. Not even other departments knew about Project Flatnose.
The 935 race car, which was based on the Porsche 911 model 930, was active between 1976 and 1986. The 935 was used by Porsche works teams as well as private racing teams, and won the FIA World Championship for Makes four times in a row.
“Taking on the heir of such a legendary Porsche filled each and every one of us with pride from the first moment,” said Grant Larson, designer of the relaunched Porsche 935. “Looking back on the tense development period. We essentially didn’t have a lot of time to make our vision a reality. At least the exterior design had to be created in three to four days, which meant that there was just one attempt – and it needed to stick.
“This project was special because of all the freedom we had. There wasn’t going to be any homologation, so both we and the engineers were free to design as we wished,” added Larson. “My team and I were extremely motivated from the beginning – it’s not every day that you get an opportunity like this.”
He was accompanied by Matthias Scholz and Kay-Alexander Breitbach, the overall project manager and the project manager for GT customer racing, as well as the entire 935 team.
“Of course, the plan was not for every employee to go to the USA première, so most of us took extra holidays,” noted Breitbach. “To have worked on the new 935 is special to each of us. The Porsche brought us just a little bit closer together,” he continued. “The fact that it was presented at the Rennsport Reunion – and in an anniversary year to boot – that’s just huge.”
The Porsche engineers were involved unusually early in the vehicle development phase. “We normally join the process in the wind tunnel stage at the latest, but with the new 935 we were already included at the design studio phase – it created a special group dynamic,” said Scholz.
The new Porsche 935 will be used for club sport events and for private racetrack training sessions. Based on the 911 GT2 RS, and taking inspiration from its historical role model, extensive body parts were replaced with carbon-fiber elements. The base color is white, just like its predecessor. With a total length of 4.87m (16ft), the elongated rear shields the Porsche 911 hidden deep underneath.
