Last of ten factory-built 1977 Porsche 934/5s heads to Amelia Island Auctions
Just as we were about to send this issue of Classic Porsche to print, leading international auction house, Gooding & Company, announced the inclusion of the last-ever factory-built 934/5 in its Amelia Island sale, scheduled to take place across the weekend of March 2nd/3rd. As the model’s name suggests, Porsche took key equipment from the 934 and 935 race cars to produce a new sports prototype for Group 4 of 1977’s International Motor Sport Association (IMSA) championship.
Among other components, the chassis, engine and wheels of the 934 were combined with the tyres and rear wing of the 935, but the resulting 934/5 was banned by IMSA’s governing body before its first scheduled race, leading Brumos owner and racing driver, Peter Gregg, to enter his 934/5 (chassis 9307700952) into the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA)’s rival Trans-Am series.
The 934/5’s flat-six was equipped with a single turbocharger, capable of pushing power to 590bhp, but partly due to the IMSA ban, the model was short-lived, resulting in only ten cars built. Even so, the 934/5 won all six of the SCCA Trans-Am rounds it entered in 1977.
PERFECT TEN
Pictured is the Gooding & Company sales car, delivered new to Czech racing river, Vasek Polak, and campaigned in Trans-Am by Ron Brown in mid-1977 before being paired with Clif Kearns, the driver most associated with the Porsche, which carries chassis number 9307700960. Kearns — supported by a cast of co-pilots, including Milt Minter, Stephen Behr and Gianpiero Moretti — raced the car in IMSA’s GT class in the latter part of 1977 and throughout 1978, taking in Sears Point, Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta, among other iconic circuits.
Under the Desperado Racing banner, Kearns earned numerous top ten finishes and a podium in the 1979 season, but didn’t have the resources to compete in a full calendar of IMSA racing. Consequently, Marty Hinze bought the car in 1980. His first race was in Group 5 at Watkins Glen, sharing the driving with Dale Whittington, winner of the previous year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Kremer K3-specification 935. Transmission failure at Watkins Glen encouraged Hinze to upgrade to K3 trim, at which point 9307700960 was treated to a 3.2-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six, inverse transmission, titanium driveshafts, 935 suspension and 935 brakes. Then, in November 1980, Hinze recruited Gary Belcher for the Daytona Finale. The pair finished fifth overall.
Hinze owned and raced 9307700960 for the rest of its IMSA career, including the 1981 12 Hours of Sebring, where Hinze, Minter and Bill Whittington finished third overall. T-Bird Swap Shop owner, Preston Henn, also drove the car, which he sponsored, hence Swap Shop’s famous livery decorating 9307700960’s bodywork during the 1982 and 1983 seasons. With the introduction of the GTP class, 935s were bundled with groundeffect prototypes, making it difficult to achieve a win. Hinze did, however, finish fifteenth at Sebring in 1985, when the car was painted yellow. Now fully restored to original specification and with Kearns’ famous Desperado graphics reinstated, 9307700960 is listed with an estimate of between $800k and $1.1m. To register for bidding and to find out more about this historically important Porsche, visit goodingco.com.