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  Porsche 935 JLP-4      

  Article Image gallery (19) JLP-4 Specifications  
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Built in:Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Produced in:1982
Numbers built:1
Price new:$750,000
Internal name:930
Designed by:Lee Dykstra for Fabcar
Predecessor:Porsche 935 JLP-3
Author:Wouter Melissen
Last updated:July 14, 2014
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Click here to download printer friendly versionHalfway through the 1981 season, American privateer racer John Paul Sr. commissioned Dave Klym's Fabcar Engineering to build him the fastest Porsche 935 possible for his son to race, regardless of the price. Since Porsche had ceased production of the 935 at the end of 1979, building up additional cars from factory supplied components, which even included complete shells, had been common practice. The car Fabcar would go on to build for John Paul Jr. would take this practice to the extreme with only the roof, greenhouse dimensions and engine location carried over from the production car.

Dubbed the 935 JLP-4, this was Paul's fourth bespoke 935. One of the main reasons to explore the rules to the maximum was the arrival of the purpose-built, ground-effect GTP cars, which had raised the bar considerably. Fabcar's solution to bring the 935 up to the speed of the GTP racers was to effectively build a GTP car, incorporating the bare minimum components and layout of the production car for homologation purposes. Tasked with the design of the new 935 was Lee Dykstra, who, at the time, was best known for the DeKon Monza silhouette racers and later penned the Group 44 Jaguar GTP cars.

Whereas all other purpose-built 935s featured tubular space frame chassis, the new JLP-4 was built around an aluminium monocoque with a steel tubular frame at the rear to house the engine and suspension. Using the monocoque design allowed Dykstra to include ground-effect tunnels. At the front, the rocker-actuated springs and dampers were mounted in-board for a clean airflow through the tunnels. At the rear, wishbones, links and trailing arms were used with the springs mounted on top of the top wishbones. The largest available ventilated disc brakes were fitted on all four corners.

Mounted as far forward as possible, but still behind the rear axle, was the latest evolution of the 935 engine, dubbed the 930/80. Displacing just under 3.2 litres, the all-aluminium unit featured a single overhead camshaft and two valves per cylinder. Hanging out the back of the car were two KKK turbochargers, while a large intercooler lay flat on top of the air-cooled engine. With a boost of 1.4 bar, the mighty engine produced around 840 bhp. This power fed to the rear wheels through a sturdy Porsche four-speed gearbox, which was mounted upside down to allow for a lower ride-height.

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  Article Image gallery (19) JLP-4 Specifications