The Old Warhorse – Porsche 935 009 00030

This is a story of the incredible career of Porsche 935 009 00030, one of the most amazing race cars ever, or as someone once said, the car of a thousand faces. Also known as the ‘Old Warhorse’, Porsche 935 009 00030 is one of the most storied cars ever to race. It has a long and distinguished history, racing in IMSA and World Championship events from 1979-1987. It has won some very big races both overall and class, and has an amazing finishing record in the races it was entered in. It probably has well over 125,000 racing and practice miles on it. It recently sold at auction in 2016, for over $4.4 million dollars!

1978

The story actually begins with this car’s older sibling, in 1978. At Le Mans in 1978, the Dick Barbour Racing team entered two 935 Porsches in the IMSA class. 930 890 0033 for Bob Akin, Bob Garretson and Steve Earle. Also entered was 930 890 0024 which was a brand-new car for Dick Barbour, Brian Redman and John Paul Sr. While Dick’s car went on to finish fifth overall and win the IMSA class, Bob Garretson had a massive crash in the night at the kink on the Mulsanne straight. The car left the circuit and went end over end, and landed on its wheels by the side of the road. Bob luckily walked away, but does not remember too much of what happened. All he remembers is that the door was jammed shut and he crawled out through the windshield (or where the windshield used to be). The car was a complete wreck. About all we could salvage from the wreckage were a few of the dashboard gauges, and some of the engine and gearbox parts.