Porsche's back catalog is among the most successful, cherished, and valuable in the entire automotive world. But of all of the great cars from Stuttgart, few can rival the on-track dominance of the 935. Porsche celebrated the racing icon back in 2018 to mark 70 years of the brand's racing heritage, crafting a limited number of track-only specials based on the contemporary GT2 RS. On Friday, with Monterey Car Week underway, the automaker has just pulled the cover off of another 935-inspired project: the one-off Porsche Flachbau RS.
The Flachbau RS is a very special customer commission, built in collaboration with the automaker's Sonderwunsch department, Porsche Motorsport, the engineers at Weissach, Style Porsche, and Manthey. The partners worked together for three full years to design and develop a car worthy of the 935's style, and even spent time with a development mule, turning laps at the Nurburgring and their own test track.
Former Porsche designer Grant Larson was tapped to pen the car, having been responsible for the beautifully done 991-based 935 project, and the famed 935/78 known as 'Moby Dick' served as the design brief. Unlike that car, however, the owner of this particular machine wanted a fully road-legal ride. As such, the project was centered around a 'like-new' 991.2 GT2 RS model already in the buyer's stable.
View Price on AmazonAny 935 impersonation needs to start with a flat nose, or 'Flachbau,' setup. While born from racing, the Flachbau setup was offered on 911 road cars from 1982 and 1989, the reworked front end ditching the 911's traditional headlight-and-fender shape for better high-speed aerodynamics. Only 948 cars ever left the factory with the setup, and now are among the rarest of series production 911s, but conversions have also found a niche in the aftermarket.
The fenders on this particular new RS are entirely bespoke, having different requirements than the previous 935 builds. The lighting elements are also unique, comprising three small LED strips in a stack; when the lights are off, the car mirrors the headlight-less appearance of the vintage racers. The rear end is dominated by the new wing setup, which is inspired by the unit found of the current 911 GT3 R Rennsport but sits two inches higher than the track car. When combined with the other aero adjustments around the car, Porsche says the Flachbau RS will generate 1221 pounds of downforce on the rear axle at 211 mph in the high-downforce configuration. Other aero adjustments come by way of a front splitter, rear diffuser, a new underfloor via Manthey, and aero disc wheels. Overall, it's a striking-looking car.
No one-off Porsche would be complete without a paint job to match. This particular car is finished in a coat of Grand Prix White that was color-matched from a period-correct example in the brand's collection. The black elements are made up of a mix of black-painted elements and naked carbon, paying homage to the Moby Dick livery. The interior leans heavily into the race car experience, with tons of exposed metal and no creature comforts to speak of. The owner even had the brand remove the stereo and Porsche Communication Management (PCM) systems, in the name of weight savings. Porsche managed to shave an additional 70 pounds out of the car, which is impressive, given the Weissach package roots of this 991.2.
Source: roadandtrack.com
