Moby Dick Returns! Porsche 911 GT2 Flachbau RS Echoes the Legendary 935 Look

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.

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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.

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The Flachbau RS

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).

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Manthey Aero Improvements

By melding and reinterpreting elements of the Manthey Performance Kit, like the giant three-position adjustable rear wing and Gurney-lip spoiler, splitter, dive planes, etc., the team claims to have achieved 2 percent better downforce (1,221 pounds) with less drag than the stock GT2 RS Manthey setup in the high-downforce position (it’s 3 percent better in the low-downforce position, and both position markings are patented). The wheel arches are flatter and rear-wheel aero discs also reduce drag. Note, the lettering on the rear wing side plates includes the internal project code (OE 3) plus SV which the owner requested, superimposed on the Nordschleife circuit.

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Style & Design

The entire design was overseen by Grant Larson, who also designed the reinterpretation of the 935 shown at the 2018 Rennsport Reunion VI, marking the 70th anniversary of the racing legend. The exterior retains a black and white motif—with the Grand Prix White having been replicated from a historic 911 in the Porsche AG collection. It’s offset with black and exposed carbon graphics that echo the shape of the OG Moby Dick’s Martini livery.

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Gonna Be Loud Inside

Weight reduction was also part of the brief, so most of what little carpet and sound deadening exists on a GT2 RS with Weissach package was ditched, along with the infotainment screen, audio system, and all related electronics. These efforts result in a net savings of about 70 pounds.

What’s Its Nürburgring Time?

The world may never know. While the cost of the project remains undisclosed, it’s said to have been in the lower-seven figures (rumors had it as high as eight figures). That cost reportedly included digital validation and crash testing, prototype testing of three camouflaged test cars at Mendig airfield (the Weissach endurance test facility), and at least 50 hot laps of the Nordschleife that were extensively covered on social media. Alas, putting the kind of ’Ring laps on the owner’s final car that would have been required to dial in a best-lap time would have rendered it “a very used car.”

Can You Buy a Flachbau?

Yes. Just as Ojjeh’s commission begat others, the current client was never promised exclusivity, but Sonderwunsch will not replicate the exact color, trim, and design details of this car. Unless a slant-nose GT racer starts racking up wins like the 935 did, the look is unlikely to ever make limited production as with those 930s and 964s.