Back in 1976, the Porsche 935 racecar was created atop the bones of a Type 930 911 Turbo, and in 935/75 form, the wild aerodynamics earned it the name Moby Dick. The iconic silhouette was so popular that Porsche later offered a Flachbau, or Slant Nose, version of the 911 Turbo with redesigned front fenders and pop-up lights. Several reincarnations have since come from within the Porsche enthusiast community, with Singer, Rezvani Retro, and Gunther Werks all trying to capture the magic of the original. Even Porsche recreated the look in 2018 with a 77-unit special edition, and in 2026, the German automaker is doing it all over again. This time, the resulting ‘Flachbau RS’ is even more extreme, and just one production car is being made, despite the extensive reengineering of the 991.2 GT2 RS requiring three prototypes to be built and tested, some of which were even tested on the Nürburgring.
Porsche Flachbau RS: One Customer’s Old-School Vision
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The Sonderwunsch department will happily refinish special Porsche models, sometimes redoing so much that the end result is a practically brand-new luxury art piece, but for the Flachbau RS, the commissioning owner wanted as pared-back a performance car as possible. Starting with a like-new 2018 GT2 RS with the optional Weissach Package, there wasn’t much to improve upon, but over the course of nearly three years, experts and engineers from all over the Porsche empire chipped in, including Manthey Racing. This client didn’t care about retaining any luxury elements and specifically asked to have comfort features removed to save weight, going so far as to have the Porsche Communication Management infotainment system deleted, along with the sound system, sound-deadening materials, and floor covers.
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A new wiring harness with now-obsolete wires removed is clad only in protective sheaths, and while the red Alcantara and black leather theme remains with carbon fiber accents, this feels like the early RS models used to – free of distraction, uninsulated, and raw. Nowadays, infotainment and climate settings are so deeply integrated into a car’s architecture that such extreme weight-saving measures are practically impossible, and it’s refreshing to see a wealthy Porsche enthusiast going back to the basics. The end product is nearly 70 pounds lighter, meaning it tips the scales at roughly 3,100 lbs, including fluids. Even the warning triangle and towing eye have been relocated to a removable box so the owner can subtract every possible gram before hitting the track, without compromising the underlying car’s road-legal status.
Flachbau RS Combines Retro Styling And Contemporary Expertise
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The man who designed the 935 reinterpretation to mark the 70th anniversary of the 935 racecar, Grant Larson, has retired from Porsche, but he came back to help design this Flachbau RS, which has been painted in a specially developed retro Grand Prix White finish, contrasted by matte black accents and exposed carbon fiber that pay tribute to the legendary Martini Racing livery of the 935/78. Compared to the GT2 RS upon which the Flachbau is based, the louvered front enders sit lower, which required modifying the fuel filler cap and its mechanism. In place of pop-up headlights, three separate LED elements for high beams, low beams, and daytime running lights have been craftily integrated, measuring just under 1.5 inches for each headlight unit and under 0.78 inches for each DRL. The impression with the lights on initially calls to mind the 718 Cayman range, but look closer, and the resemblance to the 935 becomes clearer, growing more elegant the longer you stare. Aerodiscs on the wheels add to the vintage motorsport look, but there’s more modern cleverness here too.
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The new three-stage rear wing with its patented and adjustable S-shaped mounts provides even more downforce than a Manthey-tuned GT2 RS, producing roughly 1,221 lbs on the rear axle at 211 mph. Extensive computational fluid dynamics testing preceded production of tooling, followed by numerous real-world evaluations across three test vehicles, including more than 50 laps on the Nordschleife alone (with Porsche test driver Lars Kern contributing to development) and some 93,200 miles of testing in total.
Autoblog’s Take
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The engineering nerdery evident in this outstanding one-off is a drink of water in a Sahara of overly opulent hypercars, and it’s encouraging to know that, if your pockets are deep enough, Porsche will work as hard on creating a special one-of-one creation as it does on every production car. It’s also nice to know there are rich people out there who are so obsessed with Porsche and so interested in ultimate track performance that they commission a road-legal one-off without adding luxury touches or asking for more power from the 691-horsepower 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six the GT2 RS came with.
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