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Porsche 956/962 Engines – Group C Vs IMSA

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Porsche 956/962 Engines – Group C Vs IMSA www.porscheroadandrace.com Porsche 956/962 engines – Group C vs IMSA Published: 26th July 2019 By: Martin Raffauf Online version: https://www.porscheroadandrace.com/porsche-956-962-engines-group-c-vs-imsa/ Lined up for the photo shoot following scrutineering for the 1982 Le Mans 24 Hours are the three works Group C Porsche 956s – they would finish the race in the order of their racing numbers: the #1 finished first, the #2 was second and the #3 third In the early 1980’s there was a divergence in the rules for sports car racing world-wide. IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) in the USA proceeded with the GTP concept. The GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) was a prototype car using street car based engines. By 1982, the FIA was moving to a fuel based formula for sports cars. Porsche knew the 935 was no longer competitive and so they developed the 956 Group C car. It was highly successful, www.porscheroadandrace.com finishing 1-2-3 at its second race, the 1982 Le Mans. It was a ground effects prototype car with an engine type of 935/76. A flat six-cylinder, which was based on the earlier 936-engine (which in turn used the still-born Indianapolis race car engine). It featured a combination of water-cooled cylinder heads and air-cooled cylinders. The engine specifications were as follows: Type 935/76 (1982) Displacement 2.65 litre (2649 cc) Horsepower 620 bhp @ 8200 rpm; 1.2 bar boost (standard boost) Torque 630 Nm Turbochargers Twin turbo KKK K26 Cooling Water-cooled cylinder heads, air-cooled cylinders with fan Fuel feed Kugelfischer mechanical injection www.porscheroadandrace.com Exploded view 1982 Porsche 956 (© Porsche Werkfoto) www.porscheroadandrace.com Rothmans 956 with engine type 935/76 at Le Mans in 1982 www.porscheroadandrace.com Turbo and exhaust installation on factory 956 in 1982. KKK K26 turbos were used The factory ran these cars in Rothmans colours in 1982 but they only sold customer versions of the 956 in 1983. IMSA refused to allow the 956 in the Camel GT series as it did not meet the rules in several areas: (1) It was deemed to be unsafe with the driver’s feet in front of the front axle. For safety reasons, IMSA GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) rules specified the driver’s feet had to be behind the front axle centre line; (2) The 956 also used a ‘non- production’ based engine, which was not IMSA legal; (3) The 956 had an aluminium roll cage which IMSA was not happy with, and in fact banned completely in 1983; and (4) The 956 only had a 100-litre fuel tank, whereas IMSA GTP regulations called for 120 litres. www.porscheroadandrace.com As Group C progressed, fuel management and engine economy became more important. The FIA limited the amount of fuel a car could use during a race, so fuel management became critical. In 1983, this engine (935/76) was improved by moving from mechanical to electronic fuel injection. It was designated 935/79 and it used Bosch Motronic 1.2 engine management. The interesting thing was, the factory Rothmans cars ran this engine in 1983, but the customer cars were sold with the 935/76 engine. The displacement could be altered on this engine with bore and stroke changes to 2.8-litre, 3.0-litre and 3.2-litre. Because of fuel restrictions in the races, in the early days, only the 2.8-litre engine was utilised for races. However, Brun and others did build some larger 3.2-litre qualifying engines in later years. In the early years, the factory was always one step ahead of the customer cars. Ostensibly, they were testing the new developments prior to selling them, and the switch from mechanical to electronic injection was a big improvement, but required a lot of testing, and provided some early issues that had to be overcome. Type 935/79 (1983 – 1986) Displacement 2.65-litre (subsequently 2869 cc, 2994 cc and 3164 cc) Horsepower 620 bhp @ 8200 rpm; 1.2 bar boost (2.649-litre) Torque 630 Nm Turbochargers Twin turbo KKK K26 www.porscheroadandrace.com Cooling Water-cooled cylinder heads, air-cooled cylinders with fan ECU Bosch 1.2 Motronic engine management While the FIA was running sports car racing on a fuel limit basis (i.e. a given amount of fuel was allowed per race distance), IMSA in the USA went completely in the opposite direction. They had championed the introduction of IMSA GTP cars which had no fuel restrictions, other than a maximum on board capacity of 120 litres (Group C was 100 litres). The first approved Porsche GTP car was the March of Gianpiero Moretti. He approached ANDIAL in 1982 to install a Porsche engine in a March 83G chassis. Initial fitting work involved a bell housing and some cooling improvements for the engine bay. ANDIAL, along with help from Porsche Weissach and March Cars (Porsche-March), built this car in late 1982. The 1983 Porsche March of Al Holbert which subsequently won the Daytona 24 in 1984 sits at Porsche Rennsport 2018 next to a 956 of John Fitzpatrick Racing www.porscheroadandrace.com ANDIAL was the Porsche repair and service company started in the early 1970s in Southern California by Arnold Wagner (AN); Dieter Inzenhofer (DI), and Alwin Springer (AL). They originally looked at using the two characters of their first names, but decided to go with AN for Arnold, as ANDIAL sounded better. They had a lot of experience in the late 1970s building and developing 935 engines, and in fact built a whole car, the ANDIAL 935-L, which won the Daytona 24 Hour race in 1983. In 1983 ANDIAL also built all the engines for Al Holbert’s Porsche-March 83G, Adrian Newey’s first March car (the earlier 82G was not a Newey designed car), which won the IMSA championship. This early GTP March engine was very similar to the late 935-engine using a single turbo and Kugelfischer mechanical injection. www.porscheroadandrace.com The Porsche-March 83G used by Al Holbert to win the IMSA championship in 1983. A lot of the early, eventual 962 engine development was done by Andial and Weissach on this car. It also won the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours with the Kreepy Krauly team For 1984 Porsche finally decided to build an IMSA legal car with a slightly longer wheelbase, which resulted in the driver’s feet being behind the front axle. This car was the type 962, and it raced for the first time at Daytona in 1984. Although Mario and Michael Andretti put it on the pole, it failed to finish due to engine and gearbox issues. The Porsche- March, now under the auspices of the Kreepy-Krauly team won the race, running the ANDIAL single turbo engine with mechanical injection that Holbert had used in 1983. www.porscheroadandrace.com Daytona 24 Hours, 4-5 February 1984: The #1 Porsche 962 driven by Mario and Michael Andretti was powered by a 2869 cc boxer engine developing 650 bhp and fitted with a K36 turbocharger. The car retired after 127 laps with a failed gearbox www.porscheroadandrace.com 1984 Porsche 962-IMSA schematic – engine type 962/70 (© Porsche Werkfoto) www.porscheroadandrace.com Porsche 962-001, the first 962 ran at Daytona in 1984 and was then put in the Museum Along with the chassis regulations, IMSA decreed that only ‘production car-based engines’ could be used. Therefore, the IMSA 962 could not use the Group C water-cooled heads, as there were no street cars sold at the time with such an engine. The single turbo, single spark plug per cylinder, air-cooled engine based on the 930 street turbo could be used (in effect the same engine as the 934). Porsche put the 2.8-litre 962/70 engine in the car in 1984, so all 1984 IMSA 962 cars were sold with this engine. Specifications as follows: Type 962/70 (1984) www.porscheroadandrace.com Displacement 2.8-litre (2869 cc) Horsepower 680 bhp @ 8200 rpm Torque 660 Nm Turbocharger Single turbo KKK K36 Cooling Air-cooled cylinder heads and cylinders with fan ECU Bosch Motronic 1.2 engine management www.porscheroadandrace.com Porsche 962/70 engine schematic showing the exhaust, turbo and intercooler layout of the original factory cars sold in 1984 (© Porsche www.porscheroadandrace.com Werkfoto) www.porscheroadandrace.com 1984 IMSA 962 engine layout with exhaust, turbo and waste gates. Original cars came with side mounted intercoolers (© Porsche Werkfoto) Porsche 962-109, one of the early IMSA cars with a long tail and side intercoolers www.porscheroadandrace.com Porsche 962-102, a 1984 IMSA car with long tail and side intercoolers and fitted with a 2.8- litre engine (© Martin Raffauf) In the IMSA series, the 2.8-litre engine quickly proved insufficient for the type of racing in the USA. The IMSA races tended to be shorter, with a lot of sprint races as compared to the Group C races which were longer fuel economy runs. The tracks were much rougher in the USA than in Europe. Group C races were all fuel limited, i.e. you got a specified amount of fuel for a specific race distance, so fuel, mileage and the weight of the car were critical. Probably one of the reasons that the factory originally went with the 2.8-litre engine for the IMSA car, was because they thought it would be more efficient than a larger capacity engine. However, IMSA had no fuel limits per race, the race tracks were different in design (from Europe), and the way the races were run put a premium on torque, not necessarily www.porscheroadandrace.com horsepower.
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