Catch That Whale!

No other manufacturer has proved as adept as Porsche at flexing its design to meet the ever-changing regulations of Sportscar racing in the post-war era.  With a low profile nose and huge "whale tail" hung out the back (which led to the car being Christened "Moby Dick") the Porsche 935 was a pragmatic response to yet another regulation change and, until the arrival of the controversial GT1 cars of the late 1990s, the ultimate evolution of the Porsche 911.  Here, in 1978 Moby Dick charges through the trees ahead of the Renaults of  Pironi/Jaussaud and Jarier/Bell and the Porsche 936 of Jacky Ickx.  Although the Renault of Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud took the honours on this occasion, a 935 won outright in 1979, one of the few cars to do so which could claim genuine mass-production lineage.