Race Car Of The Day: Porsche 935, Apple Dick Barbour Racing

Before Bobby Rahal raced in the CART series and started Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (the team which builds and races the ALMS 90 and 92 BMW M3s), he drove a Porsche 935 sponsored by Apple Computers.

The Porsche 935 K3 was third in a line of 935 variants developed by Kremer Racing, the Kremer 3 (K3) had a twin-turbocharged, 3.2 litre flat six motor producing upwards of 740 to 800bhp.

But power alone would not be enough to battle the factory built 935’s so Kremer Racing focused on shedding weight. They replaced the factory fitted air-to-water intercooler with an air-to-air intercooler, replaced body panels with light weight composites, and made over 100 other upgrades. All these changes are thought to have only given the K3 935 a 1% performance increase over their factory built counterparts but thats all that was needed. The 935 finally had its worthy adversary.
This is is the Apple Computers car raced at the 1980 Le Mans 24hrs by Allan Moffat for Dick Barbour Racing. Driven by Bobby Rahal, Allan Moffet & Bob Garretson.
Unfortunately they retired after 11hrs with a melted piston. Later that year Rahal and Garretson, along with veteran Brian Redman won the Daytona 24 Hours. Allan Moffat later drove a Mazda RX 7 at Le Mans and finished 14th in 1982.

- Mr Fabulous