1976 Porsche 936

Striving for a new World Championship win, Porsche created the 936 as proof of the elite standards in the manufacturing of thoroughbred racing. A delayed successor to the 3-liter Sportscar prototype 908, the Porsche 936 was a racing car that got its name from the Porsche 930's turbocharged engine and its competition in Group 6 racing. The 936 was designed specifically to compete in both the World Sportscar Championship and the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans under the Group 6 formula. Snatching both wins, Chassis 002 with #20 won with Jacky Ickx, while Gijs van Lennep won Le Mans. The relative Porsche 935 also won in Group 5.

Open top, the 936 was a two seater Spyder fueled by an air-cooled, two-valve 540 hp single-turbocharger flat-6 engine with 2140 cc, or the comparable of 3000 cc including the 1.4 handicap factor. The 936 featured the large inlet opening above the cockpit and the high tail fin. Many of the parts on the 935 came from the 917, along with the spaceframe chassis, which it was based on. The Martini Racing car was black during its first outings with the engine cover behind the roll bar remaining flat. Later on in the season the large hump and the air box above the engine was fitted on the car. These were mostly used for the intercooler, not for the air intake of the turbocharged engine or for cooling the air-cooled engine itself.

The Porsche 936 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times from 1976 to 1981 with Jack Ickx. In Le Mans it claimed the ultimate victory, the first win for a turbo-charged Porsche. All three of the original chassis won at least one time. In 1976 Porsche became 'double world champion' with the 935 and 936. The two earlier winning chassis in 1978, which had been revamped for 1977, placed second and third behind the Renault. The pole-setting new chassis 003 meanwhile crashed out. The Porsche 936 beat out the competition and won all of the races against the Renault Alpine works cars.

In 1979 luck wasn't on the side of the 936 as two different Porsche 936 models were entered at Le Mans with no success, and another crashed at Silverstone. Several good customers received unofficial support from engineers at Porsche. Joest succeeded in receiving a spare chassis (004) and parts to assemble a car in 1980 dubbed Porsche 908/80. He entered this model privately by Joest Racing. Also this year the Martini Racing Liqui Moly backed car stole second place at Le Mans. Two years later Kremer received blueprints to recreate an updated '81-spec car named chassis 005.

In 1982 the Porsche 956 was introduced to replace the 936. This was after brand new 2650 cc engine created for Indycar was tested in the 1981 winning chassis 003 which had been sponsored by Jules. The 956 was built for the opening year of the new Group C formula, and some teams likes Joest Racing and Kremer Racing were forced to wait until 1983 for their new 956. Wanting to adapt to the new Group C regulations, both of these privateer teams constructed new bodyshapes that incorporated a roof onto the 936-replicas. Kremer's car was dubbed the CK5 01 while Joest's car was known as 936C JR005.

Sources:
http://www.porsche.com/usa/eventsandracing/motorsport/philosophy/history/racingcars/1977-93677spyder/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_936

By Jessica Donaldson