Walliser: New Porsche 935 Could Form Basis of Future GT2 Car

Photo: Hoch Zwei/Porsche

The technology behind the new Porsche 935 track day car could serve as the foundation of a future GT2 entry, according to Head of Porsche Motorsport Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser.

The German manufacturer took the wraps off the reinvented race car, based on the road-going 911 GT2 RS, during last weekend’s Rennsport Reunion VI at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

While set for a production run of 77 units, Porsche has no current plans to seek homologation for the “Moby Dick”-inspired 935, although Walliser said the car would fit, performance-wise, within SRO’s newly announced GT2 platform.

“This is a serious race car; we’re testing it in the wind tunnel… everything. So you could race it,” he told Sportscar365.

“But from my perspective, it’s over-stretching the idea of GT2 a little bit. We’ll see.”

Instead, Walliser indicated the chassis and powertrain components of the 700-horsepower beast could be utilized in a future GT2 race car.

The new 935 features the same 3.8-liter six-cylinder twin-turbo engine and many other components from the 911 GT2 RS road car.

“This is also part of testing the reaction to maybe a GT2 class [car] in the future,” Walliser said.

“It’s not so difficult to see the technology package of this car inside of a GT2 race car. Maybe that fits.”

Porsche is understood to have already been track testing a GT2 RS-based race car, which was again spotted at Monza earlier this week (pictured below).

SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel revealed that he has three manufacturers already committed to the GT2 platform, which is set to launch mid-next year.

Photo: Stefano Ciabattoni

“Unbelievable” Response to New 935

Walliser said they’ve received an “unbelievable” response since the surprise launch of the new Porsche 935, with around 200 purchase requests received in the first 48 hours.

“Now we have to sort out of everything,” he said. “I want to make a proper selection out of that.

“We expected it would be a big surprise but I didn’t expect it would go this crazy. But people are coming from all over the world saying, ‘We’ll order it.'”

The higher-than-anticipated interest level could spur on Porsche to create additional retro-inspired track day race cars in the future, although Walliser said it’s too early to commit. 

“We are on the way to really look on all these track day activities because there’s a high demand from customers on [whether] Porsche can do something,” he said.

“We are exploring that. For sure a car like this fits in the program.

“I never say no but the response has been so good it would be crazy if we do not, in five years, maybe consider another beast.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John