Behold the second full factory one-off creation from Porsche’s boutique bespoke Sonderwunsch (special request) department, since becoming its own business unit in 2021. (Check out the car we pretend-ordered in 2024.) The first modern-era Sonderwunsch build was a 993-generation 911 Speedster creation (like this car it was also a Monterey Car Week debutante at The Quail in 2024), historically significant in that the 993 was the only 911 generation not to have a factory Speedster variant.
This second car seen here, dubbed Flachbau RS, cranks up the historical significance even further, not only by marrying Porsche’s iconic slant-nose 935 racecar design with modern GT2 RS racing hardware, but also by recalling the original Sonderwunsch project itself.
Flachbau “flat construction” History
You can trace the 935’s slant-nose look back to FIA rulemakers who drafted the Group 5 Special Production Cars category rules a bit too loosely. They required that a production centerline silhouette be retained, but they sought to allow substantially wider tires. To avoid the look of ugly add-on fender flares, they wrote “the shape of the fenders would be free.”
Porsche’s Norbert Singer exploited that rules oopsie, extending the hood’s slant right to the outer edges and moving the lights into the spoiler, dramatically improving aerodynamics to grab a few more mph on the Mulsanne Straight at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 935 became the most dominant customer-based GT race car ever built, and because of its increased width, white color, and whale tail, journalists of the day dubbed it Moby Dick.
In 1981, Mansour Ojjeh, then the head of TAG (an investment firm and F1 sponsor that had yet to purchase timepiece manufacturer Heuer) decided he wanted a 935 for the road, with luxury appointments. Porsche formed the Sonderwunsch department to oblige him and a few dozen others. It became a production option with pop-up headlamps, selling 948 examples between 1982 and 1989.
This owner’s dream was to build a car that could improve upon his 2018 991.2-generation GT2 RS with Weissach package—a car already known for a highly impressive Nürburgring time—but he wanted to improve only its aerodynamics and efficiency, without altering power and torque. Porsche obliged by channeling Norbert Singer’s aerodynamic instincts. Compliance with 50-centimeter headlamp height regulations meant retaining only the bumper lamp from the original car, adding low- and high-beam lighting in what look like louvers above the wheels (the rear-facing vents do exhaust high-pressure air from the wheelhouses).
