Porsche 936
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The Porsche 936 was introduced in 1976 by Porsche as a delayed successor to the Porsche 917 which was retired by the factory after 1971.
It was built to compete in the FIA Group 6 sports car world championship as well as at Le Mans, which it both won (as did the Porsche 935 in its world championship), hence its last digit of the number, the 3 in the middle represented turbocharged (as in the 930). The open top, two seater spyder was powered by an air-cooled, two-valve 540 hp single-turbocharger flat-6 engine with 2140 cm³, or the equivalent of 3000 cm³ including the 1.4 handicap factor. The spaceframe chassis was a leftover from the 917, with many of the parts also came from the car.
The large air box above the engine that was later in the season fitted onto the car, basically useless for the air intake of a turbocharged engine, was mainly used for the intercooler.
From 1976 to 1981, the factory entered Porsche 936 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times with Jacky Ickx ('76, '77, '81), and came second twice ('78 and '80). In 1980, it was called Porsche 908/80 though, as it was entered privately by Joest Racing. The company did not intend to sell the 936 to compete against their customers which already had bought many 935 (which scored the Le Mans win in 1979), but Joest managed to get a spare chassis and some unofficial factory support anyway.
The successor Porsche 956 was introduced in 1982 after the new 2650 cm³ engine was tested in the 1981 winning car which was sponsored by Jules, unlike Martini as in 1971 to 1978. At the inaugural year of the Group C, which the 956 competed in, as privateer teams Kremer and Joest Racing had to wait until the mid season of 1983 for their 956, they built a new bodyshape that incorporated a roof on their 936. It was only taken out of competition once they took delivery of their 956.
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