FULL FRONTAL
The 968 Club Sport is a fabulous driver’s car, but add a turbocharger and, in 1994, you had a contender for the GT2 class at Le Mans. Porsche produced just four examples of the Turbo RS, making it the rarest model in the 968 line-up…
Porsche’s Weissach skunkworks has produced amazing competition cars over the years and was particularly adept at recycling redundant componentry to build cars like the twenty-two examples of the 964 C4 Leichtbau, as well as the 924 Carrera GTRS that raced at Le Mans in 1980. A decade later, between late 1992 and early 1994, those same Weissach boffins were creating a similar racing evolution from the 968 Turbo S homologation special. There were two versions of the resulting 968 Turbo RS, both powered by the three-litre turbocharged inline-four: one trim was specified for Porsche’s customer teams to contest the German ADAC GT Cup, while the other was built to meet 1993’s Le Mans GT regulations. Extraordinary cars by any standards, just fourteen examples of the 968 Turbo S were assembled, while only four 968 Turbo RSS saw the light of day.
Let’s place the 968 Turbo RS in context. Setting the scene for the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans, the demise of the World Sportscar Championship a year earlier (due to spiralling development costs, which deterred even the Mercedes and Peugeot works teams from competing) thrust GT racing to the limelight. Typically, Le Mans organising body, Automobile Club de l’ouest, with its unfathomable Indices of Performance and Thermal Efficiency, were not slow in devising an equivalency formula
that allowed production-based GTS to compete directly against LMP prototypes and IMSA WSC cars. The corresponding regulations called for twenty-five units of each competing car to have been built in order to qualify for GT1. The number rose to two-hundred units for GT2. While the Seikel Motorsport 968 Turbo RS (we’ll come to this particular Porsche shortly) was a shoo-in for the GT2 class, Porsche shrewdly revived a pair of 962s and entered them in GT1 under the auspices of German fashion magnate, Jochen Dauer. Much to the dismay of Toyota’s LMP1 team, the Dauer 962s ended up finishing in first and third place. The 968 Turbo RS, on the other hand, crashed out after eighty-four laps when its driver, Sir Lindsay Owen-jones (a successful gentleman racer, former boss of L’oréal and currently serving as President of the FIA’S Endurance Commission), tried too hard at Tertre Rouge corner during the night. He later admitted to overcompensating for the extra drag imposed on the car with its headlights erect, which slowed nocturnal progress.
BACK TO FRONT
On the whole, front-engined Porsches never played much of a front-line role in top-line motorsport. Sure, the 924 Carrera GT, GTP and GTR tackled Le Mans, a single 928 raced at Sarthe in 1983 and, of course, we shouldn’t forget the significance of the 944 Turbo Cup, which laid the foundations for Carrera Cup and ran from 1986 to 1989. Even so, along with discontinuation of the 928, production of the 968 was slated to end in 1995. This was a last roll of the dice.
Weissach based the full-fat 968 Turbo RS on the 968 Turbo S for customer race teams. As noted at the start of this article, there were two different specifications available: a build in accordance with national ADAC GT regulations, ballasted by 150kg to match the 1,350kg minimum weight limit and developing 337bhp using the K27 turbo from the Turbo S, while the lighter 350bhp Turbo RS employed a KKK L41 turbocharger, developing 369lbft torque at 3000rpm, weighing in at 1,212kg and was aimed at a wider variety of racing applications, including Le Mans. As well as the weight differences between these specifications, the ADAC GT trim’s fifth and sixth gears were shorter, while the endurance cars featured a larger fuel tank with fast-acting refuelling valves and air-jacks. Chassis numbers of the four 968 Turbo RSS built were WPOZZZ96ZNS820065 (Guards Red), WPOZZZ96ZPS896061 (Speed Yellow), WPOZZZ96ZPS896062 (Black) and WPOZZZ96ZPS896063 (White).
Why only four? I asked the maestro
himself, Jürgen Barth. “Yes,” he attests, “at the same time as assembly of the 964 RSR 3.8, these cars were built in my Customer Sports Department in Weissach for ADAC GT and other GT championships, including BPR, but only four examples of the 968 Turbo RS were produced because, simply put, the 911 was in far higher demand. Personally, I liked the 968 very much, but in the end, the success of the Turbo RS was decided by our customers — not enough people wanted it.”
FIRST OF FOUR
The original 968 Turbo RS — the car pictured on these pages, carrying chassis number 820065 and the example to compete at Le Mans in 1994 — was completed at the end of 1992 and served as a Weissach development mule. Porsche loaned it to Reinhold Jöst’s
Joest Racing outfit while the team was waiting for its own 968 Turbo RS (the fourth build) to be finished. Retaining its red bodywork, but sporting a yellow front panel, Turbo RS number one was entered into the first ADAC GT race of 1993, driven by Manuel Reuter at Avus and finishing in fourth place behind a pair of BMW E36 M3 GTRS and Seikel Motorsport’s Honda NSX, but ahead of all participating 911s, including the 964 RSR 3.8s in attendance. After a retirement at Zolder, the turbocharged transaxle remained in the custody of the Porsche factory for the rest of the year, but was farmed out to Seikel Motorsport for the aforementioned appearance at the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans. For this race, the car was repainted yellow.
Seikel Motorsport was founded in 1968 by and was active in touring car and GT racing until 2007. Highlights include winning the 1980 manufacturers’ title in the European Touring Car Championship, as well as running an NSX in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) series. From 1994, Seikel espoused Porsches, and that’s where the 968 Turbo RS comes in. The team’s driver line-up for the year’s outing at Sarthe was banker and semi-pro driver, Dr Thomas Bscher, 1990 Le Mans winner, Dane John Nielson and, as mentioned earlier, Sir Lindsay Owen-jones. Nielson was at the top of his game, as demonstrated when, the following year, both he and Bscher won the BPR Global GT Series in a Dave Price Racing Mclaren F1 GTR-BMW. As we now know, however, our 968 Turbo RS feature car didn’t make a great impression at Sarthe. Thereafter, still in its Seikel-ran yellow colour scheme, it was sold to Porsche racing stalwart, Lloyd Hawkins,
an American who, along with co-drivers David Murry and Shawn Hendriks, placed his new toy in eighteenth place at the close of 1995’s 12 Hours of Sebring. The well-travelled 968 participated in other IMSA races and could have won its last race at Road Atlanta in 1996 but for a busted turbocharger. The car has since been restored in Guards Red — as we see it here — and was subsequently sold at Gooding & Company’s 2012 Amelia Island auction for $346,500. Considering the same auction house shifted a 968 Turbo S for $729,000 just as this issue of 911 & Porsche World went to press, it’s safe to say the asking price of any of the four 968 Turbo RSS is likely to be considerably more in the here and now.
In the present, 968 Turbo RS number one resides in Louisiana and is a popular sight at Porsche events and club meetings across the USA. Car number two, finished in Speed Yellow, was sold to Bruce Joelson, a South African motorsport aficionado and friend of Gerd Schmid, Jürgen Barth’s colleague in the Weissach Customer Racing Department.
Joelson was able to specify the colour and commission water-cooling for the frontal intercooler, as well as the wiper blade fairing, central bonnet duct and a bigger rear wing. The body modifications were carried out by Porsche tuning specialist, Techart, in collaboration with Barth’s team, and thereafter applied to the street-legal 968 Turbo S. Joelson, along with Chevron and Porsche racer, Peter Gough, campaigned his Turbo RS in his home country.
After its first season of action, the car was sent via Lufthansa airfreight to Weissach for servicing. Not unreasonably, Joelson expected his rare Porsche to land in Germany a day after despatch. Alarmed it didn’t arrive when anticipated, and growing more anxious with each passing day, he tracked the car to Saudi Arabia, where it had taken up residence after being taken off the aircraft at Nairobi in favour of perishable goods. It was eventually returned to him in perfect order. Phew! Ownership then passed to former factory test driver, Robert Reister, who used the forcefed transaxle to compete in the South African Porsche Challenge series. He retained ownership until 2001, when the car was housed in the Apex collection of Porsche GTS on the Weltevreden Estate near Stellenbosch. Later, the car would be road registered and imported into Great Britain, both actions enabling me to get behind the wheel, of which, more later.
968 Turbo RS number three remains black, but now wears striking pink and purple blobs, affording it the nickname, Bubbles. This car employs all the endurance racing modifications outlined earlier, including a 120-litre fuel tank, air jacks and a series of lightweight components. Raced by owner, Erik Hendriksen, and Justin Bell (son of Porsche and Le Mans legend, Derek Bell) in five rounds of the 1994 BPR GT Championship, it most notably finished the 4 Hours of Dijon in sixth place overall and the 4 Hours of Jarama in eighth. It’s
MIGHTY THREE-PIECE, CENTRE-LOCK SPEEDLINE STAGGERED EIGHTEEN-INCH WHEELS, SHOD WITH PIRELLI P-ZEROS ALMOST SCRAPING THE BODYWORK
thought to be the last of the four 968 Turbo RSS to be completed, making it the last front-engined, four-cylinder race car built by Porsche, despite being third in the series of 968 Turbo RS builds.
LAST OF ITS KIND
As mentioned earlier, car number four was originally bought by Joest Racing to compete in the 1993 German ADAC GT series. At the car’s highly anticipated Nürburgring debut, Manuel Reuter qualified on pole, but in the Esses, soon after the start, he was bumped out of contention by an RS 3.8. The 968 was returned to Weissach for repair and was then acquired by Michael Roock’s Leverkusen-based Roock Racing Team. The original Grand Prix White paint scheme was enhanced with Roock’s trademark blue front-end and Mobil 1 graphics, and the car was driven by 911 racing veteran, Dieter Köll, in the 1994 ADAC GT series, finishing fifth at Zandvoort. Subsequently, the car was exhibited in the showroom of a Volkswagen dealership in Germany and, in 1999, new owner, Bruce Corwin, shipped the front-engined, water-cooled wonder to the USA, using it to compete in a few autocross events and taking part in regular trackdays, before passing custody to Jason Burkett (CEO of Texas-based BMW and Porsche spares specialist, Paragon Products) in 2003. Unlike its trio of siblings, 968 Turbo RS number four’s bodyshell contained a sophisticated roll cage attached to all four suspension points, plus it featured a Halon fire extinguisher system, air jacks, an adjustable rear wing, front splitter and a 43-litre fuel cell.
The Customer Racing Department within Weissach made several spare 968 Turbo RS chassis in anticipation of further commissions. Indeed, some have been used as the basis for non-factory Turbo RS builds by teams including Hendrick, Paragon, Freisinger, Fitzgerald, Autohaus and Milledge. Contemplating the stance and guise, it’s clear to see we’re looking at a full-on race car. It’s positively bristling with amendments and additions: the fairing over the windscreen wipers to assist aero, the aggressive front splitter, the absent headlamps, the duct on the bonnet for dissipating heat from the intercooler, the pair of inlet ducts, tow-eye, rear wing-spoiler, special catches for rear hatch and bonnet. Then there’s the mighty three-piece, centrelock Speedline staggered eighteen-inch wheels, shod with Pirelli P-zeros almost scraping the bodywork — the Turbo RS sits twenty millimetres lower than the 968 Club Sport, already dropped twenty
millimetres over standard. Try to shake the body and you’ll discover it’s rock solid.
The driving lights have been converted to headlights, complete with plastic lens protectors. The sills and side skirts are unique to the Turbo S and Turbo RS, too. Under the bonnet, the turbocharger is set at a different angle to that of the 924 progenitor, and there’s a huge intercooler in the front of the engine bay. The engine itself is straddled by a carbon strut-brace, flat of profile to clear the bonnet lid. A comprehensive assemblage of scaffold poles within the cabin constitutes the Matter rollcage, probably constructed within the shell and then the roof-welded in place over the top. The plumbed-in fire extinguisher system emanates from cylinders in the rear footwells, and the pipes run reassuringly around the interior of the cabin. Investigate more minutely, and the fasteners that run around the body panels also have waterproof washers — you don’t get them on a conventional road car. Meanwhile, the modules of the Bosch Motronic engine management system sit at the front of the passenger footwell. A crude plastic tube emerges beside the driver’s side A-pillar delivering cool air, rather like one of those speaker tubes on the bridge of a ship. Conversely, the gearshift is topped neatly by the knob from a 962.
Interestingly, the engine’s intake system and top end are derived from the 944 Turbo, but mounted on a 968 crankcase. There is no restrictor on the engine, though two of the four finished Turbo RSS were obliged to be equipped with one when contesting the ADAC GT Cup, dropping power from 350bhp to 337bhp in this format. The yellow car (that’s number, two, in case you need reminding) was further modified with a single-nozzle Sobek water spray system to help keep intercooler and oil cooler temperatures in check, the latter mounted within the front air intakes. The water tank that feeds the Sobek system is mounted at the back of the boot and is operated by a press-button on the centre console on an ad hoc basis, as if you were washing the windscreen. It’s not a thermostatically controlled setup, so a bit primitive by today’s standards. A range of different rear spoilers enabled competitors to decide how radical they needed downforce to be.
The 968 Turbo RS exhaust consists of two pipes: one from the manifold and the other running straight to the turbocharger and then from the end of the torquetube back, as if a black anaconda has attached itself to the underside of the car. There is no silencer, no catalyst, just a single three-inch pipe and a large void where the silencer would live on a 968 road car.
I was fortunate enough to encounter 968 Turbo RS number two, during which, I drove it on demanding upland backroads. I accept we’re hardly talking the Mulsanne Straight, but arduous enough to provide a real workout. Accessing the 968 Turbo RS cockpit requires the dexterity of a contortionist, as illustrated when I squeezed between
I WAS IN CHARGE OF AN EXTREME, ROAD-GOING RACING PORSCHE RELISHING FORWARD PROGRESS AND ABHORRING ANY KIND OF INTERRUPTION
the diagonal door bar and snuggled down into the Recaro bucket seat. There’s no carpet or headlining; the armrests/door-pulls are bisected by roll cage diagonals, and there’s a steel plate in the driver’s footwell. It’s plain, rather than diamond or chequer pattern, but pretty uncompromising. I was in an unquestionably race-orientated cabin, bare yellow with a matching leather MOMO steering wheel, but surprisingly comfortable and not especially austere. There was a passenger seat, which wouldn’t have been fitted when the car was raced. Both Recaros featured Kevlar backs and were enmeshed with four-point OMP harnesses, while the handbrake was where it should be, to the left of the driver’s seat. Ahead of the passenger, the glove locker was a façade concealing a section of rollover tubing.
The odometer read 15,442km, tickover was just over 1,000rpm and, on the move, the car whizzed around to 4,500rpm as a matter of course, the boost gauge registering 1.5bar. An overboost control made itself known on the steering column stalk. The car was loud and it was raw, and I felt even the tiniest undulations in the road surface through my backside. This sensation became less all-encompassing as other factors came into play: the directness of the power-assisted steering, the slickness of the six-speed shift, the powerful muscle-building clutch, the wheelspin in first gear, the eagerness of the engine to rev right round to 6,000rpm. Sure, I was bouncing up and down due to the rock-hardness of the suspension and the bumpiness of moorland roads, with consequent inadvertent modulation of the throttle. Each surge of acceleration evoked a blare from the exhaust, accompanied by the rasping, popping and banging on overrun. I was in charge of an extreme, road-going racing Porsche relishing forward progress and abhorring any kind of interruption. Stones rattled on the underside of the un-sound-deadened wheel arches. Slick, six-speed gearshift, and during braking, it was totally assured, though with each downshift, the aggressive four-piece racing clutch grabbed on the transmission.
ANGLE OF ATTACK
Power delivery was wonderfully linear at low revs, sweet as a pussycat, but at 4,000rpm, the turbocharger kicked in and the car really took off with staggering acceleration out of bends and on the long, undulating straights. It’s got its own aural repertoire, this 968: I will never forget the deep, sonorous baritone boom echoing off dry-stone walls, or the machine-gun backfire. I’ve never heard anything quite like the snarl on overrun — more a deep, mournful bellow. There was no need for wrestling with the wheel because of the power-assisted steering, though there was a certain amount of torque-steer under full power, drawing slightly to the right. Even so, this rare beast was actually very compliant, civilised even, with sharp turn-in into the corners where it tracked absolutely true. The brakes were extremely efficient, they didn’t grab and there was no drama as they hauled the car up. The ride, of course, was hard, but not horrendous, though it did bang on the bumps and I was bounced around like hell. But this was very much a fun ride, and the 968 Turbo RS an extremely nice car to drive. A lovely one to race as well, I imagine.
In the final analysis, the Turbo RS is essentially a 968 Club Sport treated to steroids and surgery to transform it into a track monster. All the trappings of a race car are present, and the Turbo RS boasts its aggression accordingly, though once in motion, it’s a hoot to drive. All modifications have been tastefully applied. It’s poised, purposeful, functional and aesthetically pleasing. Even the rear wing isn’t too big or dynamically insane — this is a very attractive car. It’s comparable with a 964 RSR in respect of its rawness, and remains the rarest RS Porsche ever assembled, but what does the future hold for such a 968 now? It’s too amazing to be a mere trackday warrior and, in any case, you’d need to fit a silencer to avoid exceeding the decibel meter. This is no concours queen, either. The 968 Turbo RS could be eligible for one of the Porsche Club GB Championships, Britcar, the German VLN and the USA C-production class in SCCA events. Masters Endurance Legends? Too many LMP1 cars for it to be competitive, but Peter Auto runs great historic series, and the 968 Turbo RS would be a great fit in Endurance Racing Legends. Own one of the fantastic four? Let’s front up!