www.porscheroadandrace.com Kremer’s Uber 935 – the ultra-rare K4 Published: 5th June 2020 By: Glen Smale Online version: https://www.porscheroadandrace.com/kremers-uber-935-the-ultra-rare-k4/ 1981 Porsche Kremer 935 K4 – chassis #K4-01 In the mid-1970s, Porsche developed the 911 for racing, and in the process, it created the all-conquering 935. In 1978, Norbert Singer was responsible for building the ultimate factory 935, the Moby Dick 935/78, and although this race car had a very short active racing life, it has gone down in history as one of the most iconic 935s of all time. Despite winning only one race, the Silverstone 6 Hours on 14 May 1978, Porsche’s Moby Dick became one of the most copied 911s of its era. www.porscheroadandrace.com 1981 Porsche Kremer 935 K4 – chassis #K4-01 After the Moby Dick 935/78 had raced at Silverstone and in the Le Mans 24 Hours that year, the car was retired, as the factory’s attention turned to the next generation of race cars. However, Porsche allowed some private teams with close ties to the factory, to continue purchasing components and drivetrains for the 935, but they were left to design and produce their own upgraded chassis and bodywork. One of those privateer teams, Kremer Racing, did a particularly good job during the late ‘70s, creating the 935 K1 (1976), K2 (1977) and K3 (1979). Kremer Racing, based in Cologne, Germany, didn’t restrict their work to just mechanical preparation and assembly, but they also developed their own bodywork which really set them apart from the rest of the field. www.porscheroadandrace.com 1981 Porsche Kremer 935 K4 – chassis #K4-01 While these newly constructed vehicles were still generally referred to as Porsche 935s, in reality, they were entirely new designs that advanced the 935 concept to a new level of speed and sophistication. The history books will show that #41 Kremer 935 K3 went on to win the 1979 Le Mans 24 Hours, the most sought after endurance racing crown any team could hope to win, and the last production based car ever to win overall at Le Mans. That victory resulted in a flood of orders for the K3 bodywork which Kremer sold to numerous other privateer teams, earning the Cologne racing team a tidy sum. www.porscheroadandrace.com Le Mans 24 Hours, 9/10 June 1979: The #41 Numero Reserve Kremer Porsche 935 K3 driven by brothers Bill and Don Whittington, and Klaus Ludwig won the 24-hour race by seven laps As a result of the 935’s continued national and international successes in the hands of its privateer teams, Porsche resumed research and development of the 935 at the end of 1980, so that its loyal customers could continue to rely on a supply of factory parts. The question on everyone’s lips though was, what was Kremer going to follow the K3 with for the next season? Perhaps it was no surprise that the next iteration of this iconic racer was the 935 K4, but this was quite a different beast altogether from the K3. www.porscheroadandrace.com 1981 Porsche Kremer 935 K4 – chassis #K4-01 It is fair to say that the K4 was Kremer’s ultimate 911 racer, the product of Kremer’s constant development of the model from the team’s first foray into international racing with Erwin Kremer’s 911 T in 1968. Enter the Kremer 935 K4 Only two K4s were made by Kremer, K4-01 and K4-02. Work began on K4-01 back in October 1980 with the aim of providing greater torsional stiffness, improved rear suspension, reduced weight to allow optimal weight distribution, an improved CD and a lower overall height. Brake ventilation was improved through larger air ducts, and airflow through the intercooler was increased. The K4 three-piece body was fabricated by Ekkehard Zimmermann’s company, DP Motorsport, near Cologne. It was Zimmermann’s company that www.porscheroadandrace.com had designed and fabricated the bodywork for all of Kremer’s K-cars, from the K1 right up to the K4. 1981 Porsche Kremer 935 K4 – that all-important chassis plate (#K4-01) on the 935 K4 In an effort to reduce the weight to below the minimum allowed, the K4 was also specifically modified to fit the driver in question thereby eliminating the need for pedal, seat and steering adjustment mechanisms. The factory provided a 935 engine with reworked conrods, pistons and combustion chambers, lubrication system, cooling fan, fuel injectors and turbocharger. This guaranteed an engine output of between 750-800 bhp at 1.5 bar. Although Kremer kept the first K4 to race themselves in ’81, the car was marketed at $174,000 for a complete race-ready package. www.porscheroadandrace.com 200 Miles of Nürnberg, DRM Norisring, 28 June 1981: Bob Wollek drove the #52 Jägermeister Kremer Porsche 935 K4 #K4/01 in this popular race, finishing in sixth place overall (he started from second place on the grid) Very little resemblance to the original 935 of 1976 remained, as the K4 was a full tube frame race car. The K4 retained the standard roof panel of the 911 and the front windscreen, otherwise it was a purpose-built racer from the ground up. The first car, 935 K4-01, was track ready in June 1981, and Bob Wollek was contracted to drive it in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) that season. Wollek competed in the DRM in K4-01 sporting Jägermeister livery and failed to finish only once in nine races, scoring two firsts and four second place finishes in ’81. www.porscheroadandrace.com 200 Miles of Nürnberg, DRM Norisring, 28 June 1981: Bob Wollek drove the #52 Jägermeister Kremer Porsche 935 K4 #K4/01 in this popular race, finishing in sixth place overall (he started from second place on the grid) John Fitzpatrick Racing team formed in 1981 John Fitzpatrick, who had been driving for Dick Barbour in the IMSA series during ’80, decided to start his own team when Barbour pulled out of racing at the end of that season. “At the time, we lived in San Diego, California. The phone went in the middle of the night and it was Peter Gregg, this was in the winter, and he asked me if I would drive with him the following year. This would have been the end of 1980, because I had already made my mind up to run my own team the next season. He asked if I would come and drive for him the following year as he had got Porsche sponsorship. And I said to him ‘no’ that I was going www.porscheroadandrace.com to run my own team, but thanks anyway. And he went out and shot himself the next day,” John Fitzpatrick admitted sadly. Needless to say, Peter Gregg’s death profoundly affected many people, not least of all John Fitzpatrick, following this telephone call the previous day. John Fitzpatrick was on hand at the 2016 Silverstone Auctions, signing copies of his (then) recently released autobiography, Fitz – My Life At The Wheel Nevertheless, Fitzpatrick went ahead and formed John Fitzpatrick Racing (JFR) starting at the beginning of the 1981 season. He bought a 935 from Kremer with which to do the ’81 season, actually it was a 935 K3/80 that Fitz had driven previously, the latter parting with US$200,000 for the car. Fitz raced this car in the USA wearing the Sachs sponsorship in 1981 which he had taken over from Dick Barbour after Barbour ceased racing at the end of ’80. But at the end of 1981, as Fitz was looking for a car and a sponsor for the ’82 season, he was approached by Jerry Dominelli, a Californian investment banker, who proposed a www.porscheroadandrace.com sponsorship deal with Fitzpatrick for the next season. Building and prepping the K4 for IMSA With his plans in place, John Fitzpatrick took on Jerry Dominelli as an equal half owner of the JFR team. Dominelli was adamant that Fitzpatrick was only to drive a Porsche, but if he wanted to be competitive, he needed to get hold of one of Porsche’s new Group C racers. However, Porsche would not sell the new 956 to privateer teams in 1982, the first year of the Group C series, as these were to be raced by the factory only that year. And so, it was agreed that Fitzpatrick would purchase the 935 K4 from Kremer that Wollek had driven. John Fitzpatrick stands with the Kremer 935 K4-01 at his workshop in San Diego, shortly after the arrival of the car in the USA, still wearing the Jägermeister livery as driven by Bob Wollek www.porscheroadandrace.com Fitzpatrick agreed a price with Kremer Racing of $250,000 for the K4 at the end of 1981 and had it delivered to his workshop in San Diego. At that stage the K4 was still wearing its Jägermeister livery which was how Bob Wollek had raced it in ’81 for Kremer. The K4 was completely stripped in Fitzpatrick’s San Diego workshop John Fitzpatrick explained, “We set about sort of IMSA-ising the car in a way because there were just certain things that you could do in IMSA that you couldn’t do in Europe. We stripped the whole car down and rebuilt it from start to finish. We fitted two intercoolers, one for each bank of cylinders instead of one big intercooler, and we took the air for that from the top of the front fenders where there is a lot of air pressure, which is something that Kremer hadn’t done.