1987 Porsche 962-106b


Vehicle Details

Year: 1987
Make: Porsche
Model: 962
Chassis #: 106b
Exterior Color: Nisseki Racing Livery
Interior Color: Black
Engine: 3.2 Liter Twin Turbo Flat 6 Cylinder
Transmission: 5 speed
 962 HISTORY

Porsche racing heritage took many of its race cars such as 904, 906, 908, 910 built and raced in the mid to late 1960s to many winner’s podium. The arrival of the mighty 917 in the early 70’s further reinforced Porsche racing superiority with dominating wins in many international racing circuits. In the mid 70’s, Porsche focused its sight on Group 3 and Group 4 racing with the introduction of the Carrera RS and RSR. These eventually evolved to the birth of turbo charged race cars in the form of 934 and 935 which totally dominated various racing series in the European and American racing circuits. The next generation saw the construction of new prototype race cars in the form of the 956 and 962. The following will provide a brief history of the birth and design of the 962 race cars which continued Porsche’s dominance in international racing.

The Porsche 962 (commonly known as 962C in international circuit) was a sports-prototype race car built by the factory to replace the 956. It was initially designed to compete in the IMSA series after the 956 was banned from racing due to safety concerns. It would later compete in the Group C in Europe and was successful through privateer owners and enjoyed a long lived career remaining competitive well into the mid 1990’s.

When the Porsche 956 was developed in late 1981, the intention of Porsche was to run the car in both the World Sportscar Championship and the North American IMSA GT Championship. However rule changes in IMSA GT saw the water-cooled engine of the 956 forbidden, as well as the chassis itself due to new safety regulations which required the whole driver to sit behind the front axle. The 956’s chassis had the driver’s legs positioned on top of the chassis, thus making the car ineligible.

The design and construction of the 962 was a direct result of the rule changes imposed by IMSA GT on the 956 at the end of the 1986 season. These changes addressed the safety concerns on the design and placement of the driver foot box just ahead of the front axle which exposed the driver’s leg in a car crash. In addition the 956 lacked a properly integrated roll cage into the chassis. These virtually resulted in the 956 being banned from racing in the U.S. and the IMSA series in the following year. These safety concerns and IMSA decision to ban water cooled engines of the 956 necessitated the consideration to build a new chassis design which gave birth to the 962.

Porsche chief racing engineer, Norbert Singer who was also responsible for the development and design of the 935 and the body work design of the 956 was put in charge of the 962 project. Singer set out to redesign the existing 956 chassis by extending the wheelbase and at the same time incorporate a steel roll cage into the new aluminum chassis. Changes in the power plant initially involved the use of a 2.8 liter single turbo flat six engine. This was deemed necessary since the U.S. IMSA series did not allow the use of twin turbocharger in the new 962. After a few years however the twin turbo charged engines were allowed in Group C series and saw displacement increased up to 3.2 liters. This newly designed 962 was widely accepted by its drivers and private team owners who successfully raced the 962 to over 180 victories, more than what its 956 brethren had previously accomplished.

Nisseki Trust Racing 962-106b

This 1987 962-106b in its original NTR (Nisseki Trust Racing) livery is currently undergoing restoration at our shop. It is one of two 962-106b currently in existence and was built to replace RLR 962 (Richard Lloyd Racing) a chassis built by stylist Peter Stevens and designed by Nigel Stroud which featured entirely revised aero and aluminum honeycomb rather than sheet tubs chassis that was offered by the factory. This chassis followed the factory design but had a new rear wing and front bodyworks. Designer Nigel Stroudincorporated many of the Jaguar Group C elements which featured fully detachable rear wing and towards the 1987 season came up with a smaller front headlites, relocated brake ducting and an overall smoother appearance.

This chassis was raced extensively in Europe under the RLR racing team and won the Norisring race as well as closed out the 1987 season with an outright win in Kyalami. It was later sold to Nisseki Trust team who campaigned in the Japan Sports Prototype Championship. Sometime between 1988 - 1991, it was crashed and a replacement car / monocoque chassis was put in service and continued to race in JSPC series where it performed well and closed out it racing career in Japan. This is the replacement chassis which we will refer to as NTR 962-106b, that is currently undergoing restoration.

NTR 962-106b was built using many left over parts from the original RLR 962 chassis. NTR 962 continued its racing career in Japan taking over where RLR 962 left off. It enjoyed a long lived racing career with numerous top finishes from 1989 to 1991.

NTR 962-106b was acquired in August of 2012 from the collection of a Japanese collector in Japan. It was a no sale after being offered at the Bonham Auction at the Quail Lodge during the Monterey Historics and then brought to Bonham’s Scottsdale auction where it failed to make the reserve. It was then sent back to Japan in the private collection of the Japanese collector where it remained until it was purchased by its current owner. In October 2012, the car arrived at our shop. After a thorough study and inspection including taking over 2000 detailed photographs of its construction, we proceeded to dismantle and disassemble 962-106b down to its bare chassis in preparation of a full cosmetic and mechanical restoration.

The full disassembly of its body, interior, chassis, suspension, brakes, engine, transmission, including the entire electrical wiring and control unit was completed in fall of 2013. The 4V water cooled 3.2 twin turbo motor was rebuilt by Andial. Porsche factory trained race technician and Retro-Sport owner Ben Kirchner and Josh Raimond collaborated together and designed a special wiring harness to replicate the same fittings and connectors as the factory wiring to get the engine ready for a dyno run. Ben then designed and constructed a portable custom built black box w utilizing all the necessary controls and functions to simulate the actual control panel of a 962 cockpit. All of the suspension and brake components were removed and sent out to be x-rayed and magnaflux to check for cracks or metal fatigue.

The photographs depicted here will document the condition and construction of 962-106b as we inspected it prior to its purchase in August of 2012. In addition to photographing the construction and assembly of 962-106b, we acquired original factory drawings and blueprints as well as reviewed and analyzed hundreds of 962 in books and other published magazines and material in order to accurately assembled the original design and construction of 962s.
We will continue to update this project with more photos throughout its restoration process. In addition, we will provide our comments and share our knowledge of the assembly and final completion of 962-106b.