Kremer 935 K4

The Kremer brothers’ K4 represents the final chapter of Porsche’s indomitable 935 race car. Total 911 documents the history and provenance of chassis 01, one half of the K4’s legacy

Get up close to the most extreme iteration of the Kremer brothers’ famous endurance racer

It was the 2.7 Carrera RS of 1973 that Porsche first homologated to go racing. Its mightier RSR sibling went on to record notable achievements at the 24-Hours of Daytona, 12-Hours of Sebring, Targa Florio and six of nine rounds in the 1973 European GT Championship. However, Porsche had unveiled its 911 Turbo road car by 1974, its motorsport division at Werk I realising forced induction unlocked another quantum of performance that its naturally aspirated RSRS simply couldn’t reach.

In racing terms, it was the 934 that reared its head as the first turbocharged Porsche production race car in 1976. The 934, though, was a mere precursor to the 935, developed by the legendary Norbert Singer as a liberal interpretation of FIA Group 5 rules, intended for special cars based on homologated production vehicles. As such, Singer’s efforts resulted in a car retaining elements of the 911’s make up, but otherwise deviated significantly from that homologated road car.

And so an era of dominance ensued, the 935 being the car to have if you had serious racing ambitions in the late 1970s. Works and customer teams brought home considerable success for the 935, which enjoyed unprecedented success on both sides of the Atlantic at Le Mans, the Nürburgring, Daytona and Sebring.

While the 935 was sweeping aside all before it on the racetrack, Singer was already moving on to bigger and better things deep inside Porsche’s test and research facility at Weissach. Development of the 936 prototype, itself a precursor for the unrivalled 956 and 962 prototypes that would decimate all before it at Le Mans and other major events, meant Porsche ceased production of its 935 race car in 1979. However, there was still demand among customer teams for this indomitable 911-derived racer, and so the 935 would continue to compete, thanks largely to privateer teams whom Porsche had sold key 935 componentry to in the preceeding years.

One such concern was Kremer, the eponymously named company formed in 1970 by brothers Erwin and Manfred. Their close relationship with Porsche meant the Kremers were given blessing to independently develop the 935, building their first variant, the K1, in 1976, and a K2 version in 1977. However, it is Kremer’s K3 which will forever remain written in the history books. Its 1979 Le Mans triumph – finishing ahead of a Porsche factory-backed effort from Dick Barbour Racing – was the final outright Le Mans winner to be based on a mass production car. Incidentally, Kremer’s other K3 placed third, ensuring 935s locked out the entire Le Mans podium.

“Only the roof and windshield on Kremer’s K4 is supplied by the Porsche factory”