Road-legal race cars are a powerful marketing tool – but this is the real thing!
Walter Wolf made a name for himself as an entrepreneurial oil magnate and later a Formula One owner throughout the 70s. And like all jet-setting 70s stars, was just as notorious for his wild recreational toys, mainly his cars.
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He was already known for his Lamborghini Countach LP400 S, but eventually grew tired of it. Whatever its replacement was, it had to be wilder, more exclusive, and faster.
He was drawn to the Porsche 935, one of the most celebrated racers ever, and the then-current winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Porsche couldn’t sell him one, and even so, he couldn’t make on road-legal.
Then he made contact with Kremer Racing, who built their own line of winning 935s through various iterations.
Kremer took on Walter Wolf’s project, and set off to build a race car for the road.
This was no kit-car however, but genuinely a one-off street-legal Kremer K3-spec Porsche 935.
According to Kremer, it was 98% identical to the 1979 Le Mans winner, and was powered by a 2.85lt twin-turbo Porsche flat-six, and mated to a four-speed Porsche 930 gearbox with Le Mans gearing. The powerplant was detuned to a more “street friendly” 552kW.
Furthermore, the body was built up of correct and original K3 Kevlar body panels with the only adjustment inclusive of side markers and indicators; with the car sitting over BBS Race wheels measuring 16×11 inches up front, and 19×14.75 inches out back. Bespoke Bilstein shocks suspended the car, at a more useable 10cm of ground clearance (over the race car’s 5cm).
Inside the cabin sees the stark departure from the bare-boned racers that dominated endurance racing throughout the late 70s. The speedometer was changed to kilometres with Recaro seats and interior trim lifted from a pedestrian Porsche 930 Turbo. The cabin was swathed in deep blue leather contrasted with red piping, and Walter Wolf’s signature logos. The car even bears a stereo system and air conditioning as per Wolf’s intent to use the car all over Europe.
Wolf ultimately used the 935 sparingly, and sold it in 1987 to Angelo Pallavicini, an ex-race car driver and collector who prominently displayed the car in his private museum. The car was sold to its current sellers – Cartique GmbH in 2013.
The car currently bears just 10,124 and presents as-delivered to Wolf in 1980. The car will come with its original European Vehicle Registration Certificate, and Swiss and EU Import documents.
We reckon it’ll pass a roady, someone take the plunge!
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