Porsche 935 - 935/78 "Moby Dick"

935/78 "Moby Dick"

For 1978, a third and final version of the 935 was developed, the 935/78, intended only for Le Mans. At this stage, the company leaders had decided to neglect the 15-year-old 911, Porsche had introduced the water-cooled front engine Porsche 928 and Porsche 924 models, similar to Volkswagen, which had replaced the Beetle with the Golf. Due to the head gasket failures of the 1977 biturbo, Porsche parted with their air cooling tradition and introduced water-cooled cylinder heads in the 1978 engine, and equipped them with four valves, too. The capacity was enlarged to 3.2 L, increasing its output to typically 750 hp. The weight, which was less important on the Le Mans straights, had to be 1030 kg now. As this track was run clockwise, the driver seat was moved over to the right side for better weight distribution and sight in right-hand corners, like Dunlop, Tertre Rouge and Mulsanne, another distinctive feature of the 1978 model.

The new car again took full advantage of a new loophole in the Group 5 rules, introduced for BMW, allowing to cut the floor to accommodate the exhaust of the front engine. As this rule applied also for the rear engine Porsche, the whole floor pan of the 911 was cut away, and the body was lowered by 10 cm (3.9 in). The gearbox was mounted upside down to reduce the angle of the drive shafts. As the rules did not limit the forward extension of the rear aerodynamic devices, Porsche even added fairings to the doors, bridging the gap between the front and rear fenders. These were shortened later, covering only the front third of the doors. Because of its white color and long tail shape optimised for low drag, the 935/78 was often nicknamed Moby-Dick.

With this version, Mass/Ickx won the test race, the 6h at the fast Silverstone Circuit, the pole (1:22,38) and fastest lap (1:23,98 or 202,519 km/h) being only 4 secs slower than the corresponding times of James Hunt in the 1977 British Grand Prix which covered only a quarter of the distance.

At the 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 935 qualified third, barely beaten by a Renault Alpine and a 936. Compared to 1976, lap times were 15 seconds quicker now. With its 3.2L engine, it was the fastest car on the straight in Le Mans at 235 mph, easily passing the prototypes of Renault Alpine as well as the teammate 936, as these Group 6 cars had 2.1L engines, equal to normal 3.0L. The engine had to be replaced before the race, though, and with ensuing problems early in the race, Moby Dick was no contender, finishing 8th behind three customer 935. In its third attempt, Renault finally managed to beat Porsche, and then went on to focus on F1. Two of the three 936 and another Alpine occupied the other three places, which meant that the best naturally aspirated sportscar finished only 9th. Before being retired to the museum, the Moby Dick was also entered at Vallelunga and at the Norisring, the annual highlight of the DRM series, but the twisty track around the Nuremberg Reichsparteitag grand stand is quite the opposite to the Le Mans circuit the car was made for, including being run counter-clockwise around two narrow lefthand turns. The car did not finish there.

Awaiting rule changes taking effect in 1982, Porsche did not officially enter in 1979 or 1980, granting only some limited support to customer efforts with the 935, 936 and even decade old 908 and 917, mainly in form of spare parts, engines and know-how which by then was rather dated, too. Factory racing was mainly done with the Porsche 924 turbo variants called Carrera GT, with few success.

Private non-factory built replica cars of the 1977 body style and the "Moby Dick" were entered in DRM and IMSA in following years by Joest Racing, Moretti racing & John Fitzpatrick Racing.