The White Whale
I've loved 60s-80s motorsport since I was a 12-year old kid tearing pages out of old Road&Track magazines and hanging them on my bedroom wall. There's something about that time period that captured my imagination back then and still does to this day. One of the cars at the top of my "all-time" list is the Porsche 935/78, affectionately known as "Moby Dick".
There are a ton of really cool behind the scenes stories out of Stuttgart from back in the day regarding the development of their cars, especially the motorsport program. Real fly by the seat of the pants type stuff that doesn't happen anymore. The 935/78 was developed primarily for an assault on Le Mans in 1978, and seen as a last hurrah of sorts for air-cooled racing 911s at the time, due to the introduction of the water-cooled 928 and 944. We all know how that ended up, but it remains an interesting asterisk in Porsche history. The car qualified third for Le Mans, and lead the field with a 235mph top speed on the Mulsanne straight. Unfortunately, the engine had to be replaced prior to the race and the ensuing mechanical difficulties resulted in a disappointing 8th place finish. 935/78s made a few scattered appearances after that, but were retired quietly without the fanfare of their older brother 935s.
What it lacks in racing provenance is made up in cool factor, tenfold. From the loopholes that allowed the floor of the car to be cut away and the body lowered 4", to the upside-down mounted gearbox and its cartoonish appearance (and awesome name), it would be hard to argue that Moby Dick isn't one of the most noteworthy Porsche racecars ever, which is truly saying something.
It was kind of a no-brainer making it the first 8380 Unbesiegt Porsche design. (Available for purchase in the Shop as we speak).
Enjoy!
-Ethan
