PORSCHE 935/78 GROUP 5

A whale of a time with Moby Dick

When Porsche lowered the latest – and, as it turned out, final – version of its 935 Group 5 concept onto its wheels in early 1978, there was an exclamation from the crowd of engineers and mechanics. “why, it’s Moby Dick!” was heard from the throng. No one remembers who said those words, but the name stuck. The German marque’s 935/78 is always referred to as a fictional monster of the deep.

The reasons why Porsche’s ultimate Group 5 silhouette racer was likened to an ocean-dwelling mammal were obvious. It was lower, longer and wider than its predecessor, and it helped that on that fateful day it was still in plain white.

Key to the concept of the car, as well as its unofficial name, was the 80mm that had been cut out of the bottom. Norbert Singer, who led the 935 programme at Porsche’s Weissach motorsport headquarters, was exploiting a rule that had been put in place for its rivals. BMW and Ford had argued that their Group 5 machinery was disadvantaged by front-engine layouts, which resulted in a rules change ahead of 1978 to allow for major modification to the floorpan to accommodate their exhaust systems.

“The words were there in the rules, even if they weren’t written for us,” says Singer. “our interpretation of the rules was that we could cut the floor by 80mm.” the rulemakers had to agree. The 935/78 was also 200mm longer than the previous iteration of the car, in the name of aerodynamic efficiency. Yet it would be incorrect to call Moby Dick a Le Mans special: it had just as much downforce as its predecessor.

Moby Dick did, however, prove its credentials on the second of only four race appearances in 1978 at Le Mans.

Rolf Stommelen put the car third on the grid behind the best of the Porsche 936 and Alpine-renault A442 Group 6 cars. The thing hit 227mph through the speed traps on the Mulsanne Straight, only a fraction slower than the best of the Renaults. Not bad for a production-based car.

Porsche had opted against a full programme with its new monster, deciding to leave its customers to chase glory in the world sportscar championship in the absence of opposition from another manufacturer. It would race only twice more after finishing a distant eighth at Le Mans in the hands of Stommelen and Manfred Schurti following a myriad of problems.

Moby Dick did, however, spawn imitations built by Joest, Kremer and a number of North American Porsche specialists, but none looked quite as much like a whale as the original in plain white.