Extreme, Even By 911 Standards (Part 1)

Beneath the slats, wings and scoops beats a rear-mounted flat six, but there the relationship ends. This is the Kremer K3 that scored an historic victory at Le Mans in 1979 - an extraordinary story witnessed by Delwyn M.

FROM 1976 until its last top level racing victory in 1984, the flame-belching Porsche 935 dominated the Group 5 category for which it was created, was the weapon of choice for private teams in Europe and the USA, and was regularly in contention with Group 6 cars for overall victory. This 911 based projectile won Porsche the FIA World Championship for Makes in 1976, '77, '78 and '79 but its absolute highpoint came with the car in these pictures, and its dramatic win at Le Mans in 1979.

1979 KREMER PORSCHE 935K3

The 1979 Le Mans 24 Hours unfolded with all the drama of a Hollywood movie, not least because in the final hours the 935 that was being co-driven by superstar Paul Newman was gradually overhauling the stricken K3 piloted by the Whittington brothers, a duo as unknown to European race fans as Newman was familiar. Each car was also co-driven by a German pro, Rolf Stommelen in the Newman car and Klaus Ludwig in the K3.

Don and Bill Whittington were born in Lubbock (hometown of Buddy Holly), Texas, in 1946 and 1949. Their father, Dick, moved the family to Florida in the early 1950s, where the third of the racing brothers, Dale, was born in 1959. You could say that speed was in the boys' blood, as Dick had raced Midgets and sprint cars, but it is quite astonishing to think that, only 18 months before their Le Mans victory, Don and Bill had never competed in a motor race. They were accustomed to travelling fast though, as both flew highly modified WW2 fighter planes and were consistently among the top runners in the Reno Air Races.

The transition to car racing happened after a visit to Daytona in 1977. The brothers were smitten, booked lessons at a racing school and bought a Porsche Carrera RSR. In March '78 they entered it (modified to 934 specs) in their first race: the Sebring 6 Hours. The pair amazed the skeptics by running in the top five for half the race before a crash forced a retirement. Proving that their pace was no flash in the pan they came second in their next race, and two weeks later (with two Porsches to their name) the brothers were racing at Road Atlanta and liked the circuit so much, they bought it!

The Le Mans 24 Hours had always been the one European race that consistently attracted wealthy American privateers and it was almost inevitable that the Whittingtons would want to compete there. As only 'the best' was good enough for them, and the Porsche factory had stopped developing the 935, they turned to another set of famous racing brothers, the Kremers of Cologne, apparently concluding a deal to buy the Kremer entered K3 in the final minutes before the race.

Nothing can be taken for granted at Le Mans. Just after midnight, tire failures, mechanical mishaps and accidents had conspired either to eliminate or relegate the favorite Group 6 entries (Essex-sponsored Porsche 936s and the Cosworth powered Mirage Fords) out of contention and the Whittingtons' K3 assumed the lead a position they would retain, though not without nail-biting tribulations, until the finish.

I was there. Some of the heaviest rain ever experienced at Le Mans set in during that night, the sky remaining so dark and the rain so heavy that the transition from dawn to day was barely discernible. The K3 circulated steadily in the atrocious weather, and then at 10.35am came an announcement over the public address system: 'Don Whittington has stopped on the Hunaudieres.' The weary Barbour/Newman/Stommelen team leapt with exultation: could Butch Cassidy really win Le Mans?

The Barbour-entered car was 14 laps/125 miles down on the K3 when word filtered back that Whittington was working on the car out on the track, trying to fit a new fuel injection drive belt. So the car was not yet out! The minutes ticked by and, as thousands held their breath, the Barbour Porsche gradually un-lapped itself until, with nine of the 14 recovered and a fairytale win within grasp, it came in for a routine pit-stop. Fate's fickle finger pointed and a last-minute decision to change the front tires resulted in a jammed nut. It had happened before, so the crew chief ordered a pre-prepared upright to be fitted, but the job ate up 23 precious minutes. Six laps.

After more than an hour working on the K3 a soaked Don Whittington rolled into the pits to hand over to Bill. Meanwhile, a storming Stommelen clawed back three laps but it wasn't enough and at 2.00pm (the race had been brought forward two hours because of the French elections) the Whittington/Ludwig Kremer K3 crossed the start /finish line to claim an historic Le Mans victory the first for a Group 5 car, and the first for a production-based car since the early 1950s.

Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 1974

Production-based it may have been but the K3 had evolved a long way from its road going roots. In 1974 Porsche announced the 911 Turbo (930 in Porsche-speak) and the sensational racing RSR Turbo, capitalizing on 917/30 Can-Am technology. The RSR Turbo-Carrera placed second at Le Mans that year.