Porsche 911: Evolution of a Racing Icon - Special Report
Illustrations of the Porsche 911 race cars from 1964- 2010. With its strong body and eternal soul, the 911 had racing in its blood.
/ Illustrations by Paul Laguette
1964 911
More road car than racing car, Porsche’s first 911-based race car, essentially an off-the-assembly-line 1964 Type 901, was meant to test the 911’s capabilities as a racing car. With Porsche racing veteran Herbert Linge driving and legendary Porsche racing engineer Peter Falk navigating, this Signal Red 160-bhp coupe, which was fitted with Webers instead of the original Solex carburetors, finished 5th in the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally. Now painted gray, this historic 911 rally car resides in the Porsche Museum.
1967 911R
Porsche’s first full-blown 911-based race car, the 911R featured a lightweight steel unit body fitted with fiberglass doors, decklids and bumpers, Plexiglas side windows and other weight-paring components, which reduced the car’s weight to 1786 lb. A 210-bhp, Carrera 6-derived flat-6 powered the 20 customer cars, although a 4-cam 230-bhp engine was used in the factory’s four prototypes. Never homologated, the R raced against other one-offs and, save an overall win in the 1969 Tour de France, enjoyed little success.
1973 911 Carrera RSR
Zuffenhausen’s first wide-bodied 911 race car, the lightweight RSR, set the tempo for the generations of production-car-based 911s that followed. With its signature duck-tail rear spoiler, the 2.8-liter, 308-bhp first-generation RSR won the Daytona 24 Hours, just like its successor, the slot-fendered 3.0-liter, 330-bhp RSR 3.0, which won the 1975 Daytona enduro and became a GT mainstay until it was supplanted by the 934 and 935 Turbo. Fifteen identical 3.0 derivatives were used in the first International Race of Champions series.
1974 911 Turbo RSR
Utilizing the turbocharging technology of its Can-Am racing cars, Porsche’s first turbocharged 911 was essentially a lightweight (1810 lb.) RSR fitted with fiberglass bodywork including wider rear fenders and a full-body-width rear spoiler. A tubular aluminum subframe supported the rear suspension, the transaxle and the turbocharged 2.14-liter 500-bhp engine. The two Martini-sponsored factory cars competed in the prototype category of the 1974 World Championship for Makes, finishing 2nd at Le Mans and at Watkins Glen.
1977 935/77
After the Martini 935 prototypes flexed their muscles in 1976, Weissach’s wizards revised the bodywork and suspension of the first-generation racer, which evolved into the 935/77, a production Turbo race car. While the latest factory cars sported new noses and tails with integrated turbocharger air inlets, customer 935s were fitted with the older style bodywork. Although the 1977 works cars’ 2.8-liter flat-6s used twin turbos for quicker response, customer 935s were initially supplied with single-turbo engines, which developed the same 630 bhp as the twin turbos.
1978 937/78 Moby Dick
Its massive whale-like bodywork earned this unique 935/78 the nickname “Moby Dick.” Lower, wider and longer than a conventional 935, the car featured front and rear space frames that were grafted onto a steel 935 bodyshell to support the suspension, bodywork and engine—a 3.2-liter, twin-turbo 4-cammer with water-cooled heads. With 845 bhp on tap, Moby Dick, aided by an extended tail reminiscent of Porsche’s long-tail 917 Le Mans race car, hit 227 mph on the Mulsanne Straight. With only a single victory and some DNFs, the car was retired at season’s end.
1986 Type 959 Rally Car
The third racing variant of the 959, the 1986 rally car was a lightweight version of the 959 road car introduced at Frankfurt in 1985. Equipped with an all-wheel-drive system that allowed torque to be selectively split between the front and rear wheels, the rally 959 was powered by the road car’s 2.85-liter twin-turbo 4-cam 24-valve engine, which was detuned to 400 bhp to cope with the inferior fuel encountered in the 1986 Paris-Dakar rally in which the 959s finished an impressive 1-2-6.
1990 911 Carrera 2 Cup
Taking over after the demise of the 944 Turbo Cup in late 1989, the 911 Carrera 2 Cup race car was the first of the 911-based Cup cars, which set the stage for today’s GT3-based cars. A stripped Type 964 weighing 2470 lb., 507 lb. less than the road car, the race-prepped Cup car was fitted with a specially selected production engine that developed between 268 and 272 bhp. Fifty cars were sold to customers competing in the various European Cup series that began in 1990 with the German Carrera 2 Cup.
1994 911 Carrera RSR 3.8
Last of the air-cooled Porsches, the 1994 Carrera RSR 3.8 was based on the Carrera RS 3.8 road car, a 2515-lb. homologation special fitted with aluminum doors and front decklid, and a fiberglass rear decklid with spoiler. Tweaked for racing, the RSR’s 3746-cc powerplant developed between 365 and 370 bhp. After outright wins at Interlagos and Spa in 1993, the RSR 3.8s won their class at Daytona and Sebring, the IMSA GTU title in 1994, and remained successful into 1995.
1996 911 GT1/96
Outgunned by purpose-built cars such as the McLaren F1, Porsche engineers whipped up their own GT1 contender by modifying a 993 bodyshell and fitting supporting members that would allow the normally rear-mounted engine to be turned around to make the GT1 model, the first mid-engine 911. A modified MacPherson-strut front and 5-link rear suspension lurked beneath a lightweight carbon-fiber and Kevlar body, which also hid a turbocharged 3.2-liter water-cooled 4-cam flat-6 developing 600 bhp. The highlight of the car’s career was a class win and a 2nd overall at Le Mans in ’96.
2003 911 GT3 RS
One of many variants based on the 911 GT3 RS road car, the ultra-light, ultra-fast racing RS sported carbon-fiber body parts (front fenders, nose, doors and rear decklid) that pared its overall weight to 2420 lb. Powered by a 3.6-liter 435-bhp dohc flat-6, an RS entered by The Racers Group outlasted the much faster Daytona Prototypes and finished 1st overall at the Rolex 24, marking the first time since 1977 that a Porsche GT car took overall honors at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
2010 911 GT3 R Hybrid
Offering the racing world a glimpse of the future, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid uses Porsche’s 4.0-liter 400-plus-bhp flat-6 as well as an energy-storing flywheel-cum-generator (housed in a safety cell on the passenger floor) that powers a pair of 75-kilowatt (100-hp) electric motors driving the car’s front wheels. Although power distribution is now computer controlled based on demand, the driver can send power to the front wheels via a paddle on the steering wheel. Combined, the Hybrid puts out more than 600 hp.
