TIRES FRONT
165HR15
TIRES REAR
165HR15
CONSTRUCTION
Unitized welded steel
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, wishbones, MacPherson struts, longitudinal torsion bars, hydraulic double-action shock absorbers
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, light alloy semi-trailing arms, transverse torsion bars, hydraulic double-action shock absorbers
BRAKES
Discs, 2-piston cast iron fixed calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed OHV four-cylinder Typ 923/02
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
1971cc/120.3CID
BORE AND STROKE
94x71mm/3.70x2.80 inches
HORSEPOWER
86@4900rpm
TORQUE
98lb-ft@4000rpm
COMPRESSION
7.6:1
FUEL DELIVERY
Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
4.428:1
TOP SPEED
109mph
PRODUCTION
2,099 coupes
Porsche sold these race cars for 108,000DM, roughly $41,300 at the time. The racing department assembled 30 of the 934s in 1976.
Air-to-water intercoolers in the front air dam cooled the fuel-air mixture enough to develop 485 horsepower out of the 2,993cc (182.6-cubic-inch) Typ 930/25 engine at 7,000 rpm. Later in the 1976 season, these engines produced 580 horsepower.
This was the strictly business 911 Turbo for the racetrack: the Group 4 Typ 930. Wheel extensions added 50mm (1.97 inches) to front and rear track. The front air dam ventilated brakes, two intercooler radiators and an oil cooler in the center.
1976-1977 934 AND 935
This was a time of cross-pollination in series production and race car development. Wolfgang Berger worked with Norbert Singer to develop the “silhouette” 934 and 935 models, 930 Turbo–based race cars for FIA groups 4 and 5. Singer needed taller and wider wheels and tires on these cars, which brought 16-inch rubber to the street 930 for model year 1977. Singer’s engineers created the Typ 934, the Group 4 930. This uncompromised race car competed with electric window lifts, because Porsche’s series production models sold to enthusiastic European and American customers with these as an expected luxury item. Singer maintained that the electric lift mechanism weighed less than a manual crank and gears. The 934 sold for DM 97,000 ($40,000), complete with a 3.0-liter engine with K-Jetronic induction that developed 485 DIN horsepower. To wrench this much additional horsepower from the 930 engine, Porsche introduced air-to-water intercoolers, one for each bank of cylinders. (The 1974 show prototype had one intercooler only.) The 934 weighed 1,207 kilograms (2,655 pounds), compared to the street 930 at 1,266 kilograms, or 2,785 pounds. Porsche bolted on large fender flares to accommodate 23.5 x 10.5-16 front and 25.55 x 12.5-16 rear racing tires. A pair of 934s took first and second in the season points championship for the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am Challenge.
1977 911S Coupe
This was the final year for the legendary 911S model. U.S. cars suffered further emission controls with secondary air injection pumps, thermal reactors, and the first-generation catalytic converter.
Interiors received a few upgrades. New air vents appeared in the center of the dash. Door lock buttons disappeared into the doorsills when locked to thwart attempts to open cars with wire coat hangers.
Porsche’s Group 5 “special production car” entry, the Typ 935, was more extreme. Its 2.85-liter (173.9-cubic-inch) engine produced 590 horsepower within a 1,064-kilogram (2,340-pound) race car that Porsche sold for $75,000. Fiberglass panels replaced steel everywhere possible, except in the silhouette-holding roof. The single air-to-air intercooler filled a massive rear wing that satisfied Fuhrmann only when FIA regulators said its width had to fit within overall car dimensions. Creative reading of the other regulations led Singer and Berger to flatten the front fenders so that they barely cleared the front tires. They installed headlights in the low front spoiler and cut louvers over the tires to vent air pressure.
Conceived as an affront to the under-2.0-liter racing class, Porsche developed an ultra-light (and slightly shrunk) racer nicknamed “Baby.” Its 1,425cc (86.9-cubic-inch) turbo motor developed 370 horsepower in a 750-kilogram (1,650-pound) car. In its second race, it won by 52 seconds, and Porsche retired the car, having made its point. Photograph courtesy Porsche Archive
Road & Track magazine ran side-by-side tests, accelerating a 934 and a 935 from 0 to 60 and on to 100 miles per hour. The 934 reached 60 in 5.8 seconds. The 935 hit 60 in 3.3 seconds and 100 in 6.1—4 seconds ahead of the 934.
When Ernst Fuhrmann got to Porsche, the company’s products had invisible targets on their backsides. Worldwide regulations for safety and exhaust emissions threw into question the viability of rear-engine air-cooled sports cars in the future. Fuhrmann hedged his bets and shifted Porsche’s development efforts toward front-mounted engines with water cooling. The entry-level 924 reached markets in 1976. The 928, the company’s flagship, arrived as a 1978 model. Both of these looked, sounded, and performed radically differently from the 911. In Fuhrmann’s mind, these represented what the company products needed to be. He and the supervisory board put another mark on a calendar designating the end of the 911.
Throughout 1977 and early 1978, Fuhrmann fielded questions about the company’s product lineup. Porsche was assembling about 45 911s each day. To quiet his inquisitors, he explained his plan. He clarified it again in an interview in 1991.
Porsche adopted the air-to-water intercoolers used on 934s for this more aggressive Group 5 car. Its 2,856cc (174.2-cubic-inch) turbocharged Typ 930/72 engine developed 590 horsepower at 7,900 rpm at 1.5 bar boost, 22 psi.
The Jägermeister-sponsored 934, entered by Herve Poulain and prepared by the Kremer Brothers, was one of 55 starters at the June 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours Race.
The second-generation Typ 930/73 engines developed nearly 600 horsepower at 7,200 rpm, due to many internal changes. Engineers increased boost from 1.3 bar (18.5 psi) to 1.7 bar (24 psi).
In Cologne, brothers Erwin and Manfred Kremer had begun racing Porsches in 1971. By the time the 935 appeared in 1975, they were well established as drivers, car builders, and preparers.
“The car was still selling. We still made money from this car,” he said. “So I set a low limit at which we no longer make money. I told journalists if we ever go below twenty-five cars . . . six thousand a year, we stop. That quieted them.”
He didn’t explain that he already had suspended further development on 911s beyond meeting ongoing U.S. emission and safety regulations. America still absorbed half of 911 sales, so half its profit came from satisfying U.S. demand. The 924 brought in a younger audience that never believed it could own or drive a Porsche. The 928 reintroduced Porsche as a luxury carmaker. For 1978 the 911 G series introduced the Super Carrera, the SC. Few people outside Porsche knew that this model was born with an invisible target on its back.
With Bob Akin, Roy Woods, and Bobby Rahal at the wheel, the Hudson Wire–sponsored 935 started 19th on the grid for the 1980 Sebring 12 hours event and finished 5th.
Beginning with Porsche’s 1977 935/77 customer race cars, the Kremers made hundreds of small and large changes to produce dominating racers. By 1980, their engines, bored to 3.3 liters, 201 cubic inches, developed 800 horsepower at 8,000 rpm.
While the racing 934 carried a high minimum weight (1,120 kilograms—2,464 pounds), engineers simplified the instrument panel to just oil temperature and pressure, engine speed, and turbocharger boost.
Looking very much like a Porsche Kremer 935 racer, this road car came by its appearance honestly. Ekkehard Zimmerman, founder of dp designed the car bodies for Kremer racing. Photograph © 2011 Steve Mraovic
The car was manufactured for a German buyer in 1977, and in the early 1980s, O’Gara Coachworks of Beverly Hills, California,
imported it and sold it to rock singer Rod Stewart, who enjoyed it for many years. Photograph © 2011 Steve Mraovic
YEAR
1976-1977
DESIGNATION
934 and 935
SPECIFICATIONS
MODEL AVAILABILITY
Coupe
WHEELBASE
2268mm/89.3 inches
LENGTH
4235mm/166.7 inches
WIDTH
1775mm/69.9 inches
HEIGHT
1320mm/52.0 inches
WEIGHT
1120kg/2470 pounds
BASE PRICE
$41,300 coupe at factory for 1976
TRACK FRONT
1481mm/58.3 inches
TRACK REAR
1496mm/58.9 inches
WHEELS FRONT
10.5Jx16
WHEELS REAR
12.5Jx16 (up to 17.0Jx16 for 1979/1980)
TIRES FRONT
275/600-16
TIRES REAR
325/625-16
CONSTRUCTION
Unitized welded steel
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, wishbones, MacPherson struts, longitudinal torsion bars, hydraulic double-action shock absorbers
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, semi-trailing arms, transverse torsion bars, gas-filled double-action shock absorbers
BRAKES
Ventilated discs from Typ 917, 4-piston aluminum calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed DOHC six-cylinder Typ 930/25
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
2994cc/182.7CID
BORE AND STROKE
95x70.4mm/3.74x2.77 inches
HORSEPOWER
485@7000rpm; 580@7000 for 1977
TORQUE
475lb-ft@5400rpm
COMPRESSION
6.5:1
FUEL DELIVERY
Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, turbocharger, intercooler
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
various
TOP SPEED
190mph
PRODUCTION
32 coupes in 1976; 10 coupes in 1977
With close to 500 horsepower on tap, the car had the performance to match its looks. Each of the dp 935s was commissioned and personalized for its initial buyer. Photograph © 2011 Steve Mraovic
CHAPTER 3
THE SECOND GENERATION 1978–1983
1978-1979 911SC
1978-1979 911SC
1978 935-78 “MOBY DICK”
1978-1979 911 TURBO
1980-1983 911SC AND 1980-1985 911 TURBO
Five years after management planned to kill it, Porsche introduced the next final 911. The company commingled nomenclature from the discontinued—and lamented—benchmark S with the more recent benchmark-setting Carreras. The result was a hybrid designation, the SC. Whatever the abbreviation meant to the marketing staff in Ludwigsburg—Super Carrera, Special Carrera, or Sport Carrera—it signified to 911 enthusiasts that Porsche had saved the car. It was still here, and it was better.
The company put its efforts into the existing 2,993cc flat six introduced in the 1976 Carrera. Weissach dedicated itself to increasing torque. While horsepower ratings from the earlier Carrera dropped (from 210 DIN to 180, or 172 SAE net, due to mandatory emissions-controlling air pumps), the torque rose above either of the car’s predecessors, going from 188 DIN to 195 DIN at 4,200 rpm (and 189 lb-ft SAE net for U.S. customers). Engineers stretched the useful range with a new crankshaft and larger rod and main bearings. They adopted a breakerless ignition and programmed it to run smoothly on regular unleaded gasoline. The same Bosch system that controlled spark also guided a more accurate and effective rev limiter. Porsche abandoned its 5-blade cooling fan and returned to the more efficient (and quieter) 11-blade version. The company offered the coupe and Targa with a five-speed manual transmission or the three-speed Sportomatic. The 930 Turbo was available only with the four-speed gearbox.
All U.S. 1978 SC models ran Typ 930/04 engines with an air pump (at far left in the engine compartment) to meet emissions standards. All cars for all markets developed 180 horsepower at 5,500 rpm, good to get the cars from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 7.0 seconds.
As one means of launching the new model, Porsche revisited the East Africa Safari. Roland Kussmaul entered two heavily reinforced 911SCs for 1978. The event covered 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers), little of it paved, through deserts and rain forests. The preparation paid off, and despite brutal terrain that battered and broke suspensions, Porsche finished second and fourth.
Porsche entered two cars in the 26th Safari Rally that started and ended in Kenya. Lightened but heavily reinforced, the cars weighed 1,180 kilograms, 2,596 pounds, with all equipment, and were geared to run as fast as 228 kilometers (142 miles) per hour.
Porsche gave the car nearly 280mm (11 inches) of ground clearance. Even with shielding, suspension arms were vulnerable, and a rear arm failed on this car while Preston’s car suffered delays repairing broken half shafts. Waldegård finished fourth.
Porsche fitted modified production Typ 911/77 engines, prepared and tuned to develop 250 horsepower at 6,800 rpm. Previous Safari winner (and Monte Carlo winner) Björn Waldegård had driving duties, while Vic Preston drove the other car.
To create the new SC, Porsche combined the best features of the earlier S and Carrera models, including the Carrera’s wider flares. The Targa sold for 42,700DM at the factory and $20,775 at U.S. dealers.
Sometime during the 1978 model year production run, the company switched over to 1979-style body color headlight bezels and black-painted Targa bars. The interiors were largely unchanged.
YEAR
1978-1979
DESIGNATION
911SC
SPECIFICATIONS
MODEL AVAILABILITY
Africa Safari
WHEELBASE
2272mm/89.4 inches
LENGTH
4291mm/168.9 inches
WIDTH
1652mm/65.0 inches
HEIGHT
1450mm/57.1 inches
WEIGHT
1180kg/2601 pounds
BASE PRICE
Not available
TRACK FRONT
1369mm/53.9 inches
TRACK REAR
1379mm/54.3 inches
WHEELS FRONT
9.0Jx15
WHEELS REAR
11.0Jx15
TIRES FRONT
215/60VR15
TIRES REAR
235/60VR15
CONSTRUCTION
Unitized welded steel
SUSPENSION FRONT
Independent, wishbones, MacPherson struts, longitudinal torsion bars, hydraulic double-action shock absorbers
SUSPENSION REAR
Independent, light alloy semi-trailing arms, transverse torsion bars, hydraulic double-action shock absorbers
BRAKES
Ventilated discs, 2-piston cast iron fixed calipers
ENGINE TYPE
Horizontally opposed DOHC six-cylinder Typ 911/77
ENGINE DISPLACEMENT
2994cc/183.2CID
BORE AND STROKE
95x70.4mm/3.74x2.77 inches
HORSEPOWER
250@6800rpm
TORQUE
217lb-ft@5500rpm
COMPRESSION
9.1:1
FUEL DELIVERY
Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection
FINAL DRIVE AXLE RATIO
3.875:1
TOP SPEED
142.5mph
PRODUCTION
4
1978 935-78 “MOBY DICK”
While racing in Africa was grueling, the cars were not extraordinarily different from series production models. However, they were completely unlike another competition vehicle that emerged from Porsche’s racing shops for 1978. Norbert Singer, the racing engineer with a talent for reading FIA competition rule books, designated the car as the 935/78. But when he first rolled it out
for racing journalists to photograph late in the winter, it earned the nickname Moby Dick.
It was radical. There was a resemblance to the 911, but this was longer, lower, wider, and much wilder than anything out of the racing—or the styling—department yet. It came to life because Singer read not only what the FIA had written but what it had forgotten to include.
Helmuth Bott had his doubts. “Are you sure you can do this?” he asked.
“Well, by the letter, I am quite sure,” Singer replied.
FIA “letters” dictated that “the original body shape must be retained, doors, and roof.” It went on, “Fenders are free,” meaning constructors could redesign them as they desired. That had been the loophole that allowed Singer to flatten the 911’s characteristic stovepipe fenders into louvered slabs for the 935, leaving the race car’s headlights inches above the track. These newest regulations invited Singer to widen fenders to accommodate fatter tires, to add a second door skin flush with the broader fender lines, and to fit a new, flatter fiberglass roof above the original steel panel that directed airflow smoothly to the longest tail yet seen on a 911. Singer sliced off the doorsills, dropping the car 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) closer to the ground. He substituted the floor pan with a thin layer of fiberglass attached to a new aluminum tube frame.
The Complete Book of Porsche 911 Page 9
