1977 Porsche 935 Pilots: C. Haldi, H.Loewe, R. Terran Team: Claude Haldi Race: 11th overall (3rd in Group 5) at Le Mans in 1979 Spark - S3432 (resin)
Published 07/21/18
For the victories at La Sarthe in 1970 and 1971, Porsche had abandoned the principle that their racing cars should at least be related to their road cars. As a comeback to that principle, Porsche developed the Carrera RSR 2.1 turbo prototype of 1974, and the 935 was its direct descendant. Introduced in 1976, the 935 was developed for Group 5 racing. Under Group 5 rules (also known as “silhouette rules”) significant modifications were possible to the car as long as the basic silhouette of the car remained unchanged when viewed from the front. The chosen engine was a development of the unit from the 936 prototype, the 930/72. It was a boxer-6 with 12 valves and SOHC with 2856 cm³ of displacement, turbocharged by a KKK unit. Depending on tune, the engine could produce a massive 630 hp of power.
The first time Swiss racing driver Claude Haldi raced at La Sarthe was in 1968. After that, he was back another 21 (!) times until 1993, almost always racing a Porsche. This 935 #43 is chassis #930 770 0904 that he used in the 1979 24 Heures du Mans. Together with fellow pilots Herbert Loewe and Rodrigo Terran, he managed to finish in 11th place and 3rd in Group 5, his best result ever at Le Mans. Sadly, he passed away in November of 2017.
In 1:43 terms this 935 #43 is a gem – Spark did a fantastic job. They even went the extra mile replicating the rear wheel-arches air intakes different from one another. The left hand side doesn’t have a protection screen, while the right hand side does. That’s because early customer 935s had a single turbo. That being so, the right hand side air intake was the turbo air inlet, and had to be protected from road debris. On the left was the intake for a small transmission cooler, and that didn’t need any protection. For that reason, only one side had a mesh, and Spark recreated that in scale.
Details like that make me love Spark. So far, it’s been really hard to find faults with Spark’s models. Moreover, they go the extra mile to make their cars shine. And for a (demanding) collector like me, that is just awesome 😎.