Porsche's First "Exclusive Department" 935 Street Racer

July 10, 2015
Story By
John Brooks

The '80s are generally treated kindly when considered in retrospect, much progress was made in that decade or so we believe. The internet became a reality, though there are those who would question this being regarded as a benefit, including, no doubt, some who read my contributions to the world wide web. Economically things were generally positive and some of this wealth creation found its expression in automobiles. Porsche recognized this trend towards personalizing cars to the wishes of individual customers with the formation of their Porsche Exclusive Department at their factory. Of course all this came at a price and a profit.

Indeed their first customer and their special car was on display at the Techno Classica recently. The customer was Mansour Ojjeh, who was, and is, a partner of Ron Dennis at McLaren. At that time Porsche were building engines for McLaren's Formula One Team, the finances for the 1.5-liter V6 turbo coming from an alliance between McLaren and TAG, the Ojjeh family firm. The project was a great success with Drivers' World Championship titles going to Niki Lauda in 1984 and Alain Prost in 1985.

The task for the new department was to take a 930 from the production line and turn it into a Porsche 935, one that was legal for the public highway and that had the normal creature comforts that a customer would expect when buying a top of the range Porsche.

The engine was the place to start in this transformation, so out went the 3.0-liter flat-6 and in went a 3.3-liter turbocharged of course, this was lifted out of the 934, a GT race car. Power was quoted at 380bhp, so there was no shortage of horses. The internals of the unit were upgraded with various 935 racing parts. The suspension and drivetrain were also completely revised to 935 specifications.

The bodywork was heavily modified to resemble the 935, including the famous slant-nose of the original 935/001.

The front wings were steel, with cooling vents and pop-up headlights and at the rear there were air intakes to help keep the turbocharged engine temperatures under control.

The interior was upgraded to the highest specification with white leather Recaro seats and wood veneer, air conditioning and a state of the art sound system.

The whole package was rounded off with an unique Brilliant Red paint scheme.

Porsche Exclusive had got off to a great start with this 935, Mansour Ojjeh had acquired an instant classic.

Porsche's First "Exclusive Department" 935 Street Racer

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