1976 Porsche 935 K1 Pilots: J. C. Bolanos, E. L. Negrete, B. Sprowls, H. Heyers Team: Porsche Kremer Racing Race: DNF (Group 5) at Le Mans in 1976 Spark - S3452 (resin)
Published: 07/19/18
FIA initially created the Group 5 racing class in 1966. Consistently under revision, for the 1976 season FIA introduced a new Group 5 “Special Production Car” category. These new rules allowed extensive modifications to production based vehicles. However, there was a limit to the car width. In addition, bonnet, roof, doors and rail panel had to be unmodified. Since the race cars had to look like production cars, these cars were called silhouette cars – visualized from the side, the race car looked a lot like the production car.
For this new category Porsche needed a new car, and the 1975 911 Turbo would be the base car. But FIA also determined a limit of 2857 cm³ for a turbo-charged engine, so the 911’s 3.0 engine was revised. The new engine was a flat-6 with 12 valves and SOHC, displacing 2856 cm³. Turbo-charged by one single KKK turbo, it could deliver up to 600 hp.
Founded by brothers Manfred and Erwin Kremer in 1962, Kremer Racing has an almost exclusive partnership with Porsche from the beginning. The company started out preparing Porsche cars for private customers, but soon created a racing team. During the 70’s Porsche always encouraged privateers to use their cars. When the 935 came, privateer racing teams could buy chassis directly from Stuttgart. Chassis #006-00019-K1 was one of these cars. It was the first Kremer 935, a Porsche chassis and body not build by Porsche but by Kremer, and therefore, called the 935 K1. For the 1976 24 Heures du Mans Kremer had two cars in the race, a 934 (#65) and a 935 (#47). Though the 934 #65 managed to finish in 20th place, Kremer’s #47 had to abandon after 272 laps when a fire broke out in the engine bay.
This was a model that I was excited to get. The 935 has always been a favorite of mine. Furthermore, I was also eager to have one of the original cars, with the 934 looks. Not much to say about Spark’s effort but that, as always, the model looks terrific. It’s a HTF model, but for a Porsche race car enthusiast it’s definitely something to look for.