Tag Archives: 935

Ground Effect Silhouette – Porsche 935 JLP-4

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Born Hans Johan to Dutch parents who settled in Muncie, Indiana John Lee Paul won a Harvard Scholarship before making his fortune managing mutual funds.

From the early 60’s until 1976 John raced sporadically and showed a good turn of speed by taking several class victories driving a Porsche 550 RS and there after a Chevrolet Corvette.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

In 1977 John competed in the IMSA GTO class with a Porsche 911 Careera RS and a Dekon built Chevrolet Monza, the following season he moved up to competing in the IMSA GTX class with a Protofab built Corvette and later his first Porsche 935 which became JLP-1.

The of the highlights of his 1978 season was winning the Daytona Six Hour race for production cars driving a Mazda RX2 shared with Jim Downing another was a class win with Dick Barbour and Brian Redman at Le Mans in Dicks Porsche 935.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, John Fitzpatrick, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For 1979 John ran the ever more modified JLP-1 in both the IMSA and SCCA Trans=Am series winning 6 races in the latter.

The following year he split his time between, running in Preston Henn’s Porsche 935 K3 in the States and his own modified K3 which became JLP-2 in Europe, until after the Le Mans 24 Hours where he Guy Edwards and son John Paul Jnr finished 9th.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

JLP-2 then returned to the States for the remainder of the 1980 season where father and son recorded a win at Road America.

For 1982 JLP racing ran a new Gaaco built 935 JLP-3, in which Jnr won at Potland and Daytona at the season’s end, and a Chevy powered Lola T600 which finished only once, 3rd at Sears Point, from six starts.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

By now John Paul Snr had commissioned Lee Dykstra to design and Fabcar to build the ultimate no expense spared Porsche 935 silhouette race car seen in these photograph’s at Goodwood Festival of Speed with John Fitzpatrick at the wheel.

JLP-4, unlike all other Porsche 935’s, was built with a monocoque chassis and a subframe to hold the 840 hp twin turbo 3.2 litre / 195 cui flat six motor.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, John Fitzpatrick, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Lee Dykstra with the aid of the Lockheed wind tunnels managed to incorporate aerodynamic venturi into the chassis as first seen in a racing application on Colin Chapman’s 1978 Lotus 79.

Rolf Stommelen joined the Pauls in JPL-3 to win the 1982 Daytona 24 hour race before Jnr and Snr shared the same car to win the 12 Hour Sebring race.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Jnr then drove to a solo victory in JLP-3 at Road Atlanta, another in the T600 at Laguna Secca before jumping back into JLP-3 to share a victory with his Dad at Charlotte.

The $750,000 (US Dollars Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand) JLP-4 was ready for it’s debut at Brainerd and after qualifying 2nd Jnr came home first, 17 seconds ahead of Danny Ongias who was followed by team patron Ted Field both driving a Lola T600’s.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, John Fitzpatrick, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

At Portland, the cars second appearance, Jnr qualified on pole and won by 37 seconds from Ted Field, this turned out to be the last victory for the car which was damaged in testing.

The Pauls meanwhile notched up 2 more victories in JLP-3 in the 6 hour race at Watkins Glen and at Road Atlanta.

Porsche 935 JLP-4, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

At end of the season Jnr’s eight wins and his seasons other placings were enough for John Paul Jnr aged 22 to be crowned the youngest ever IMSA champion.

JLP-4 appeared twice in 1983 at Daytona for the 24 hours where Jnr and Phil Currin qualified 41st but withdrew and at Road Atlanta where Jnr shared the driving with Rene Rodriguez to come home 6th from 6th on the grid.

By now John Paul Snr was a wanted man, on the run in Switzerland, for shooting a federal drug informant, after serving six months in Switzerland for traveling with false documents he was extradited to the USA where he pleaded guilty to attempted murder for which he served 13 years, while on parole after being questioned about the disappearance of his girl friend John Paul Snr went on the run again, neither he or his girl friend have been seen since.

John Paul Jnr continued racing with some success until he too was imprisoned; for admitting to racketeering, preparing a boat to smuggle drugs from Colombia to Louisiana, three years later he was released and continued racing, winning an IRL race at Texas before being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Thanks for joining me on this “Ground Effect Silhouette” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Ferrari Friday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Anny-Charlotte Ralph And Bob – Porsche 935 K3/80 #009 00030

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It is quite perverse to try and write a comprehensive story about today’s featured Porsche 935 chassis #009 00030 which took part in 6 Daytona and 4 Le Mans 24 hour races, winning the former with Bob Garretson, Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman at the wheel in 1981 and hitting headlines around the world when Rolf Stommelen, Dick Barbour and a certain Paul Newman drove the car to a second place finish at Le Mans in 1979 in a single blog, so I will focus on some of the cars highlights, owners and star drivers for now.

Porsche 935 K3/80, Verney, Kent-Cooke, Garretson, Le Mans

Rolf, Dick and Paul proved their result at Le Mans was no fluke when they finished second on the cars second appearance in the ’79 Watkins Glen 6 Hour race.

French driver Anny-Charlotte Verney shared #009 00030 for the first timeApple, on it’s final appearance carrying customer Porsche 935/77A bodywork, with Bob Garretson and Skeeter McKitterick for a 9th place finish in the 1980 Daytona 24 hour race.

At the Sebring 12 Hour race #009 00030 was fitted with Kremer Brothers K3 bodywork which carried sponsorship from Apple Computer and was driven to a 7th place finish by Bob, Bobby Rahal and Canadian Kees Nierop.

At Le Mans in 1980 Bob and Bobby were joined by Australian Alan Moffat to qualify 14th on the grid but piston failure led to the cars only Le Mans retirement after it had completed 134 laps.

After winning the Daytona 24 hours in 1981 the same winning Bob, Bobby and Brian trio finished 17th from 4th on the grid in the 1981 Sebring 12 Hours.

Part owner Bob Garrettson, with Ralph Kent-Wood, stepped back from the driving seat to allow Bobby and Brian to share the wheel to finish 3rd and 4th at Riverside and Laguna Seca.

The #009 00030 was then shipped to Le Mans where owners Bob and Ralph teamed up with British Petrolium (BP) sponsored Anny-Charlotte Verney to set a qualifying time of 3 min 55.150, good enough for 33rd spot on the grid.

Anny-Charlotte sharing the car for the second time with Bob and Ralph drove the car, seen above 23 hours into the race, to 6th place finish.

The car remained competitive for the remainder of the 1981 IMSA season which included a 3rd place finish with Bob, Rick Mears and Johnny Rutherford in the 1981 Watkins Glen 6 hour race.

In 1982 Bob was joined at the wheel of #009 00030 by Columbian Mauricio DeNarvaez and Jeff Wood at Daytona where they finished 3rd in the season opening 24 hours race.

Bob teamed up with Anny-Charlotte for a third time in #009 00030 for the 1982 Le Mans 24 Hours and they were joined by Ray Ratcliff for the cars final Le Mans start, from 43rd on the grid they salvaged an 11th place finish.

Wayne Baker bought #009 00030 for the 1983 season and converted it from twin turbo 935 spec to single turbo 934 spec and ran it with a loose interpretation of 934 bodywork at Daytona where he drove the car with Bob and Jim Mullen to a 9th place finish and in the 1983 Sebring 12 hours where Kees replace Bob and with Wayne and Jim scored the cars second and final outright victory.

At the end of 1983 #009 00030 was returned to full twin turbo 935 K3 spec and on it’s fifth appearance in the Daytona 24 hours was driven by Wayne, Jim and Tom Blackaller to a 5th place finish from 12th on the grid, from the same position on the grid at Sebring the same trio finished a season high 4th.

#009 00030’s final appearance in the Daytona 24 hours was in 1985 when Jack Newsum, Chip Mead and Ren Tilton joined Wayne for a 9th place finish from 28th on the grid.

Midway through 1985 Chester Vincentz bought the car and converted it back to single turbo 934 spec and ran it IMSA GTO events with a 934 type body in 1985 and a hybrid 935 body in 1986 and ’87 as a 930 S.

On the October 4th 1987Chester drove #009 00030 to a 12th place finish from 12th on the grid on the cars 72nd and final known in period appearance.

Thanks for joining me on this Anny-Charlotte, Bob and Ralph edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when Ferrari Friday will be making a month long return. Don’t forget to come back now !

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1% Efficiency Gain – Porsche 935 K3 #00017

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The dominating sports car of the mid 70’s to early 1980’s was the Porsche 935, built for a set of regulations known as Group 5. The 935 was based around the Porsche 911, the works factory team developed three distinct versions in ‘76, ‘77 and ’78 when the Moby Dick version marked the high tide of factory 935 development. Porsche also built a customer version of the 935 the 935/77A.

Meanwhile the Kremer Brothers set about developing their own 935, the K1, based on the Porsche 934 model, that was available for the technically less demanding Group 4 regulations in 1976. In 1977 the Kremer brothers acquired a customer 935 and in 1978 followed their own development path based on the 935/77A to develop the K2.

Porsche 935 K3 #00017, Palo Alto

For 1979 their K3 model featured over 100 detail changes from the standard customer 935 ’77 which included a lighter air to air intercooler in place of the hitherto ubiquitous air to water sytem, composite carbon fibre panels which saved 30 kgs / 62 lbs. The DM 400,000 K3 was thought to have been 1% more efficient than the standard customer 935 ’77 which over an endurance distance of 6, 12 or 24 hours would accrue to a handy advantage.

The K3 scored the 935 models only win at Le Mans in the hands of the Klaus Ludwig and the Whittington Brothers Don and Bill and a string of customers were soon knocking on the Kremer Brothers door in Cologne asking for copies.

Porsche 935 K3 #00017, Palo Alto

It is believed the Kremer Brothers built 13 K3’s and supplied kits to update older 935 models. I have not managed to ascertain if this 935 K3 is one of the Kremer brothers built models or one built up from a kit around a donor car, it carries the paint work of a vehicle belonging to Ted Field that was raced by Ted, Danny Ongias and Milt Minter in the Daytona 24 hours that came in 3rd from 5th on the grid.

Canepa Design are known to have recently restored such a car and if as seems highly probable this is the same vehicle the chassis number of this vehicle is # 00017.

My thanks to URY914 at The Nostalgia Forum for confirming that this car may have been converted to Trans Am spec and entered by John Klug Racing in 1983 and to Geoffey Horton who kindly sent me these photos from Palo Alto Concours d’Elegance.

Thank you for joining me on this Interscope edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, wishing you all a happy bank holiday Monday, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to to come back now !

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