Monster 911s back on track

You could make a pretty good case for the Porsche 911 being the greatest competition car of all time. Over its first half-century, versions of the iconic German design have been successful in rallying, touring cars, rallycross and endurance racing.

Of course, to cover off some of the model's biggest wins, like the Le Mans 24 Hours, you do have to push the boundaries of what a 911 is.

But Porsche has continually developed the concept, sometimes moved the goalposts within its chosen sphere of competition, and kept engineering themes that have run throughout those 50 years.

To mark the anniversary AUTOSPORT and Porsche Cars GB got together to track test two of the more extreme iterations of the 911, the flame-spitting 935 and prototype-like GT1.

It also seemed appropriate to get factory Porsche ace and former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award finalist Nick Tandy, fresh from a GTE class win in the Petit Le Mans, to provide the pedal power.

Tandy arrives at Porsche's Experience Centre at Silverstone just after both cars have been fitted with wets and briefly fired up. In true old Le Mans style, the cars are then driven across to the National paddock ready for their runs.

Tandy prepares for his first run in the 935 © Kellow

Porsche nut Andy Prill, who looks after both cars, starts to talk Tandy through the 935, the silhouette turbocar that racked up countless victories in the 1970s and 1980s. "It's a pussycat but it's got a lot of poke," he warns. "Once the turbo starts to spool it's like a wave of energy. It's a helluva car this; 911s don't get better."

He has a point. The car's history is phenomenal and includes second place at Le Mans in 1979, driven by Paul Newman, Rolf Stommelen and Dick Barbour. It has raced in many forms, but is now back in the very spec in which it appeared at La Sarthe that year.

Tandy asks about the diff and gets told there isn't one. "No diff!" he exclaims with no little level of anxiety. "Oh my goodness..."

With 560bhp and a relatively rudimentary chassis in the wet, Tandy isn't keen to go for any lap records - "I would not want to crash in this, look at the rollcage!" - but appears more comfortable once he gets into the cockpit and sees the quality of the gear-selector mechanism, boost control and rollbar adjustment, not to mention the familiar shape of a 911 dash.

After a couple of laps for photos, the camera car peels off and Tandy howls away, though he is understandably cautious first time through a wet Copse. With nothing else on track the flat-six turbo can be heard around most of the lap as Tandy starts to wind things up.

"That is cool!" he shouts as soon as the door opens at the end of his run. "It's got a lot of power, a strong engine. I can understand why the car was so successful. The whole car is based around the engine, around going in a straight line very quickly.

"I expected it not to turn and when you get on the power, even a little bit and before the turbo spools up, it understeers.

"But when it gets going it really gets going. My lazy gearshifts were not helpful for the momentum of the car or the power - I think slow shifts could lose you a lot of time, it has the power to keep going."

In the rain, and with no diff - Tandy was understandably cautious, for one lap at least... © LAT

There's no time to download Tandy any further at this stage. It's straight out of the 935 and into the GT1. Another quick lesson on the controls and the 28-year-old heads down the pitlane.

"That's the sound of Le Mans," says Prill as he does so.

Tandy is visibly more comfortable in the later car and comes past the pits at a rate that excites the small crowd that's watching.

Less excited by the spectacle, however, are the Silverstone officials. That 'sound of Le Mans' turns out to be a bit too loud for them and Tandy is soon shown the red flag. It's a shame he has to stop early, but he's already made up his mind about the ex-works machine.

"With the 935 I was scared," he admits. "With the GT1 it's like a real racecar. You can go flat-out straight out of the pitlane."

After taking the opportunity to take some of his own shots of the cars, Tandy is now ready to give his thoughts on two 911 specials, separated by almost 20 years of development.

"It doesn't look much like a 911," he says as he ponders the 935. "It's certainly imposing and that wing on the back is huge. You don't get much view out of the mirror.

"It felt well put together. The gear linkage looked ever so good and it was perfectly precise to use. The car likes revs too - it has an appetite for them. The boost was strong all the way through the range.

"The brakes were very soft, softer than I'm used to - it was difficult to get a feel for them - but they were good enough. In these conditions it's down to tyre performance more than brakes."

He is not, however, such a fan of the seating position, surprising given that this car's raison d'etre was to win endurance events. "The pedal box is offset quite a lot, to the centre, because the wheelarch comes into the cabin," he says. "Your feet are offset and it twists your back, though you'd probably get used to it."

Tandy's run in the 1997 GT1 was cut short © LAT

More than that, though, it is the safety features - or lack thereof - that grab his attention: "I could see it had been well prepared, but it's an old car. Things like the rollcage, which is very primitive compared with nowadays, and the wheelarch was next to my leg.

"If you rip a front wheel off it could potentially wipe your legs out. I didn't feel safe.

"I can appreciate the history and the performance of the car when it was racing, but I much preferred the GT1.

"The size of the sill in that is huge. You really have to climb into the car, which makes you realise you're sat in the car with protection. With the 935 I felt like I was sitting on top of it. The GT1 felt like I was in a prototype."

That's perhaps not surprising given that the GT cars of the late-1990s were sophisticated sportscars that had fewer and fewer links to the road cars to which they were related.

Tandy is taken aback by just how sophisticated things are.

"I was quite surprised about the dash display," he continues. "I didn't realise they had that kind of technology 15 or so years ago.

"It had all the information we have now from the digital display. The only thing it didn't have was all the steering wheel controls, like the map switches, but they were still to hand on the dash or central console."

The factory's focus on, and experience at, winning long-distance events comes through with the transmission too. "It has a very light, easy-to-manage clutch, which would be very good for endurance racing," says Tandy.

Tandy was impressed the level of technology on the GT1 © LAT

"It's been a while since I've driven an H-pattern gearbox, but I thought it was excellent, even going across the gates.

"I wasn't worried about putting it in the wrong gear. It was precise and you could feel exactly what you were doing with the gearbox.

"When I came out of the pitlane the car felt soft so I had some sort of feeling for what the car was going to do before it started to slide. Immediately it gave me more feedback.

"Because I was in a comfortable position - I could heel-and-toe easily - I was happy to get straight on it and feel that lovely engine. Inside you mainly hear the turbo, which is great, schoolboy stuff."

And even in typical Silverstone-in-October conditions, the downforce levels impress Tandy.

"The handling was very nice and you could feel the aero," he says. "Turning into Brooklands you think you've got a lot of grip, but you'd lose it as the speed came down. To feel that in the wet makes me think the car produces a lot of downforce.

"Our GTE cars are so restricted on engine power - this is easily faster in a straight line and we were running on 'showroom map'. You could feel the boost. It was really strong anything above about 3500rpm. I imagine it would be quicker than the GTE over a lap."

So, can he see the family resemblances to his current GTE and GT3 911 racers? "You can see why Porsche has won so many races, with their level of engineering over the years," he says. "You can see the family lineage, especially from the inside."

Porsche's current focus may now be on LMP1, but it would be a surprise if we didn't see some more successful variations of one of motorsport's greatest themes.

AUTOSPORT would like to thank Porsche Cars GB, Silverstone, James Haithwaite and Nick Tandy.

PORSCHE 911 GT1 Evo '993-GT1-004'

The BPR Global GT series revitalised GT racing in the 1990s and initially became the home of rich privateers and road-based cars like the McLaren F1 and Ferrari F40.

Not for the first time, though, Porsche moved the goalposts with the 911 GT1 in 1996. Within the letter, if not the spirit, of the regulations, the car dominated the three BPR rounds it contested in 1996 and finished two-three at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The series morphed into the FIA GT Championship for 1997 and included a full-house Mercedes effort as well as updated, long-tailed McLarens.

The business end of the 911 GT1 © LAT

Having changed the game, Porsche fell behind for much of the 1997 season, though with Mercedes absent, the evolution versions of the car came to the fore.

Hans Stuck told AUTOSPORT at the time that the Evo was a big step forward over the 1996 machine: "The car was a bit nervous to drive, but that is gone now. The car gives us more confidence."

Our test car qualified second at Le Mans and led into the early hours of Sunday morning, driven by Stuck, Bob Wollek and Thierry Boutsen until Wollek had a mysterious crash at the Porsche Curves.

The car's best result thus came at the Laguna Seca FIA GT finale, with Allan McNish and Ralf Kelleners taking third place.

It was subsequently retained by Porsche for tyre testing before being campaigned in minor Canadian events.

PORSCHE 935/79 'THE OLD WARHORSE'

There were many successful 935s, but the test example is probably the one with the most remarkable record. And convoluted history!

The car started life as the last 935/77 built and was delivered to Dick Barbour for the 1978 IMSA season. Second at Daytona driven by Barbour/Manfred Schurti/Johnny Rutherford was the highlight of a strong season before Bob Garretson destroyed the car in a huge crash on the Mulsanne at Le Mans.

Using an updated 935/79 chassis (0090030), the car was rebuilt in America and, now in twin-turbo form, finished second at the 1979 Le Mans in the hands of Rolf Stommelen, Paul Newman and Barbour.

Garretson bought the car for 1980 and soon updated it to K3 specification, with even more outrageous aero. Results were modest, but more work on the body and engine paid dividends for 1981.

The season started well, with Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman helping Garretson to victory at the Daytona 24 Hours. After using a variety of co-drivers, Garretson finished second (with Rahal) at the Brands Hatch 1000Km in September to become the inaugural world sportscar champion.

In K3 form, 'our' 935 won the 1981 Daytona 24 Hours © LAT

The Garretson Developments-run car had a quieter 1982, though still managed a third at Daytona and 11th at Le Mans before being sold to Wayne Baker. He converted it to the more standard, single-turbo 934 specification to contest the IMSA GTO class.

Remarkably, not only did Baker go on to win the 1983 championship, he, Kees Nierop and Jim Mullen outlasted the opposition to take outright victory in the Sebring 12 Hours.

Baker converted the championship-winner back to 935 configuration at the end of the season and this time it took fifth at Daytona at the start of 1984.

Almost unbelievably, the next owner - Chet Vincentz - changed the Porsche to 934 spec again in 1985, then added 935-style bodywork when IMSA GTO rules changed for 1986.

The car was finally outclassed by 1987 and Vincentz retired it. In all, 'warhorse' had won two championship, two major races, finished on the podium at Le Mans, and covered more than 70,000 racing miles.