The No. 41 Porsche K3 To Serve as Centerpiece for 935 Class and Semi

Considering just how many podium finishes the iconic Porsche 935 has accumulated–including 12 wins at both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring–it’s fitting that the car gets its own concours class and the opportunity to serve as a centerpiece for the 2021 Amelia island Concours d’Elegance, May 20-23.

Out of the field of a dozen 935s, the No. 41 K3 that finished first overall at the 1979 race at Le Mans will head off the 935 class for this year's concours, as well as a Saturday seminar titled “The All-Conquering 935.” The seminar highlights “the men who made the 935 a winner and a legend” and includes Alwin Springer, Jack Atkinson, Hurley Haywood and Brian Redman.

For more information about the 2021 Amelia island Concours d’Elegance, as well as the 935 class and the seminar, visit ameliaconcours.org or read the full press release below:

Jacksonville, FL – A fleet of a dozen of Porsche’s legendary 935 racers will join the 2021 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on Sunday May 23rd. The 935 enjoyed a long reign from 1976 through their final victory in a bleu riband enduro, an upset win in the 1984 12 Hours of Sebring.

The 935’s deep inventory of race victories include 12 victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 1979 the 935 entered the ranks of the immortals winning the most important endurance race of all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That car, the Whittington/Ludwig LeMans-winning #41, will be the historical centerpiece of the Amelia’s 935 class on Sunday May 23rd.

The 1970s started with Porsche’s first overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and a feature film about the 24 Hours entitled, simply, LE MANS.

The movie was ramrodded by Steve McQueen who had been seduced by endurance racing and even finished second — first in class – in the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring in his own Porsche 908!

The Seventies ended as they began with another Le Mans victory for Porsche – their fifth — and another blood link between Stuttgart and Hollywood.

This time it was Paul Newman and he was playing himself. Newman became just as besotted with motorsport as McQueen while making Winning a year earlier. Newman even managed to win the SCCA’s 1976 D Production national championship in his Group 44 TR6 and followed up with the national C Production title in a Datsun 280ZX.

He made his Le Mans debut in 1979 in a much more powerful IMSA-spec Porsche 935. It went well. He came close, earning an excellent second place overall and a class victory in the IMSA category, albeit seven laps —nearly 60 miles – behind the winning #41 Kremer Porsche K3 935 of Klaus Ludwig and the monied Florida-based Whittington brothers.

One chronicler of the 24 Hours of Le Mans called the 800-horsepower 1979 winner “the last production-based Le Mans winner.”

The 1979 Le Mans-winning Kremer K3 Porsche will make its first trip to The Amelia on May 23, 2021 as the reigning star of a fleet of successful, significant and accomplished Porsche 935s assembled to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the turbocharged breed.

Descended from the Porsche Turbo Carrera, the 935 is the racing version of the 911, a sort of road racing Funny Car that over its long and productive life has driven through a catalog of rule loopholes in several different languages.

“The 935 is a glorious mutant and it may well be the ultimate Porsche because it has the silhouette of a 911 and the speed of a 917,” said Bill Warner, founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

Victories came not only at Le Mans but in American’s marquee endurance races – the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring — 12 times from 1978 through 1984.

In its freshman year the 935 took Porsche to victory in four of seven the FIA’s World Championship of Makes rounds clinching the title. It was a good year: Porsche turbo power won double world titles also taking home first place points in six of seven rounds of the World Championship for Sports Cars plus winning the European Grand Touring Championship.

It made further history as the first privately entered car to win Le Mans since the 1965 victory of the North American Racing Team’s Ferrari 275LM.

The California-based 1979 Le Mans winner will share the Amelia’s field with other heavily credentialed Porsche 935 legends. Peter Gregg’s 1979 IMSA Winston GT-winning #59 set records winning eight straight pole positions en route to victory in eight races clinching the 1979 IMSA Winston GT title: his 6th IMSA crown. “Peter Perfect’s” ’79 champ will appear at Amelia in original unrestored condition, just as it raced in 1979 – with Gregg’s signature Black Watch tartan seat and custom machined aluminum billet shift knob — courtesy of the Brumos Collection of Jacksonville, FL.

As Amelia’s Porsche 935 legends go, none is as complex and entertaining (and profane) as the story of the Andial 935L that won the 1983 24 Hours of Daytona in the hands of “brilliant” Bob Wollek, Preston Henn, Claude Ballot-Lena and last minute substitution AJ Foyt. “Super Tex” was added to the team midrace when his Nimrod GTP prototype retired. Car owner Henn was unenthused about racing his 935 on Daytona’s high banks in the gloom and rain. That touched off a tirade from Wollek who had worked hard to put the Swap Shop-sponsored Andial-built 935 into a solid lead. It was Foyt’s first drive in a 935 and the fast Frenchman feared the worst and said so in a burst of four-letter invective that went out live over the TBS TV network. It didn’t take long for the 1967 Le Mans, 1972 Daytona 500 and four-time Indy 500 winner to master both the 935L and the Daytona rain. The Henn Swap Shop-sponsored 935 took a six-lap victory over one of the new GTP Prototypes and the legend of the 935 took on an even greater –if somewhat profane – luster.

The K3 version was the most successful of the 935s winning Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona and the IMSA championship. Charles Nearburg’s K3/80 won at Portland and Road Atlanta winning the 1980 title for 935 ace – and 1980 Sebring winner – John Fitzpatrick.

"We want to thank long-time friend of The Amelia, Bruce Meyer of Beverly Hills, California, for sharing the 1979 Porsche 935 K3 with us," continued Warner. "Without the graciousness of our entrants, The Amelia simply wouldn't exist."

The All-Conquering 935 Seminar Presented by Grundy Insurance —On Saturday May 21nd at 3:30 PM Grundy insurance presents The -Conquering 935 Seminar in the Ritz-Carlton‘s Talbot ballroom.

The panel features the men who made the 935 a winner and a legend; Andial’s Alwin Springer, Brumos’ Jack Atkinson, World Sports Car Champion Bob Garrettson, Mark Ruffauf, IMSA VP of Competition, Gunnar Racing’s Kevin Jeannette, double IMSA GT Champion, 5-time Daytona 24 winner and three-time Le Mans winner Hurley Haywood and three-time Daytona 24 Hour winner Brian Redman. Tickets are $40.

“This is a chance to go inside the story of the 935,” said Warner. “Amelia’s seminars have earned a reputation as platinum-plated back stage passes and for exposing the deep inside stuff that never made print or broadcast. Secrets get told, confessions are made. It’s like being in the back room at Watkins Glen’s Seneca Lodge or in the old Buck’s Tavern at Mid-Ohio. Priceless.”