If you love classic cars, you’d have to be dead not to know about the forthcoming premier event, the RM Auctions Monaco Classic this coming weekend. There are some stunning lots under the hammer and no doubt you’re already aware of the amazing Ferrari Hydroplane, one of my personal favourites. However the car that would, without a doubt, have me reaching for the funding options is this truly wonderful Porsche 934 Turbo Group 4 from 1976.
Rare and original Porsche 934 RSR
The final car to be built in a production run of just 31, it’s quite probably the final example of a true, street legal race car. Just a reminder of the specification of these cars. 485 bhp, 2,993 cc turbo-charged SOHC fuel-injected air-cooled flat six-cylinder engine, four-speed manual gearbox, four-wheel independent suspension with coil springs and Bilstein shock absorbers, and four-wheel “917” type ventilated disc brakes. This car has been living in a museum for most of it’s life, having covered just over 16,000kms from new and is original, completely unrestored.
485 bhp single turbo, four speed gearbox
Normal race attrition took a heavy toll on Porsche’s 934s when campaigned in period. To address this and keep the model competitive, in 1977, Porsche produced ten more “934.5” versions to supplement those lost, as well as provide new teams and clients a means to continue competing. A fair number of the original 31 different 934s built in 1976 that survived the first few seasons of racing were steadily and heavily updated in the ensuing years. In doing so, many were fitted with larger, over-sized front fuel tanks that often necessitated the removal of the original stamped-in chassis boss. The fitting of front “tube-frames” and removable fibreglass front body work often led to the removal of the riveted-in chassis tag and the last visual means to identify an individual car by its born-with chassis number and unique identity. As such today, there are more than a handful of 934s with “mystery” histories, due to their born-with identities being removed as a result of racing and development over time. Whilst today, such a practice might seem strange, this was after all, simply “racing” and those who prepared and campaigned these machines never concerned themselves with what anyone might think twenty and thirty years later.
Original interior wth coacoa matting
This particular 934 never suffered such a fate. Its unique history, limited use and special treatment have ensured that its unique identity and purity are without question. This 934 was ordered new by Wolfgang Kauwertz, a German national racing privateer who was also a favoured Porsche client. It was ordered new in the stunning, but standard, production colour combination of Continental Orange over the race ready black interior. Kauwertz is believed to have campaigned this 934 in the 1976 season, as well as other 934s at numerous European venues in the 1977 through to the 1979 seasons. Sorting through which exact 934 he ran at individual races has proven quite difficult and as of yet, is unconfirmed.
Original plates, with matching numbers
In any case, this 934 was by all accounts remarkably well preserved and still essentially new when stored by Kauwertz in 1979, first in Germany and later in Austria. Not long thereafter, rumours of the existence of a miraculously original Porsche Turbo RSR buzzed about until this example was eventually pried loose and sold in 1991, to a private consortium of Japanese collectors who displayed the car in their personal museum outside Tokyo, where it remained sparingly used until late last year.
The current owner secured ownership after several years of negotiation, but quickly realised that the total originality of the car made it unsuitable for competition use. The car was sympathetically overhauled by Wayne Baker in California and found to be in excellent condition. Fresh from exhibition at the 2012 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, this brutish and handsome 934 Turbo RSR offers wonderful originality in authentic details like the Repa race harnesses, Coco floor mats and the original date-coded Heinzmann three-point fire suppression system. Indeed close inspection of the Continental Orange paintwork reveals it to be almost totally original.
Continental Orange paintwork all original
The chance to own a car like this comes along once in a lifetime. It’s the kind of sale you really don’t want to take your wife to, as once you start, you know you’d keep on going until you owned it. But once you own it, what then? The previous keeper appears to be selling it due to concerns that it will become ‘battle damaged’ in competition, so would you race it, if you owned it?
We would. Andy McKenna is of this view “Have a second car made, a rough approximation and become very proficient in it. That way, you can put this car on pole and disappear into the distance and nobody will get anywhere near you.”
Whatever the outcome of this weekend’s sale, we’ll be following the fortunes of this car very carefully. Just in case someone might just throw us the keys one day.
