Description:

Porsche 962C Kremer

From its foundation in the 1960s, Kremer Racing built up an enviable resume as a privateer team racing Porsches from customer cars to highly developed machines like the 935 K3 they used to win the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans.

For the 1982 World Sportscar Championship, they developed the CK5 based on the 936 variants they had been racing up to that point. A few years later, the CK6 would be born from the Porsche 962C. Using drawings provided by Porsche, Kremer developed a new chassis that closely followed Porsche’s highly successful design but used an aluminium honeycomb construction to improve rigidity and safety. The Kremer Racing Porsche 962 CK6 was the most successful of all the privately developed 962C derivatives.

The 962 is equipped with a 3.0-litre flat 6-cylinder engine fitted with a Bosch Motronic Fuel injection system and twin KKK turbochargers. It produces an estimated 750 horsepower which is sent to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual transaxle. There are four-wheel ventilated disc brakes and a fully independent suspension with coil-over shock absorbers.

One of the first CK6s built, this car, chassis CK6-88 was campaigned throughout 1988 in the FIA World Sports Prototype Championship, the FIA Coupe d’Europe Interserie, and the FIA World Challenge. Driven by Kris Nissen in the Interseries Coupe d’Europe, Nissen took the checkered flag for a win at the first race at the Hungaroring but finished in 9th place in the second race of the weekend. Three weeks later at the next round at Hockenheim, his results would improve with a clean sweep, winning both races outright, and a further win at Wunstorf in July completed Nissen and the car’s hattrick in the series that season.

At the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans, Jaguar and the XJR-9 took the chequered flag outright, but Porsche and the 962 with both factory entries and privateers took up eight of the other nine places within the top ten, ceding only 4th place to another XJR-9. This car, campaigned by Kremer in Kenwood livery with Kunimitsu Takahashi, Hideki Okada, and Bruno Giocomelli, took 9th overall.

As a season finale a World Challenge race was organised in which the top European Group C teams confronted IMSA-GTP's best in November 1988 at Tampa Bay, Florida. The Kremer team entered 962 'CK6-88' driven by none other than the Andrettis - Formula 1 World Champion and Indy-winning father Mario and multiple CART Champion son Michael - to finish 6th overall.

Retired from international competition, CK6-88 was sold by Kremer to American collector John Wrengler in 1990, remaining in his ownership until 2001, with occasional use in historic races keeping it fresh. The car made its way to the UK in 2009 and has appeared at various events over the years, including Le Mans Classic on several occasions, and the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Most famously, the car was driven by Derek Bell at both the Le Mans Classic in 2012 and Goodwood Member’s Meeting in 2015. Bell’s outing at Le Mans Classic in 2012 was the first time that’d he’d been behind the wheel of a 962 in twenty years.

The car was acquired by its current owner a few years ago and shortly after converted for use on the road. Leading restorers and preparers of race cars BBM Sport in Coventry helped carry out the conversion, fitting a handbrake, uprated cooling fans for the engine and a headset intercom for passenger and driver communication. A traction control system was also fitted to the car, pretty much a necessity with 750bhp going to the rear wheels in a car as light as an MX5!

The car was registered for use on the road in the UK in April 2022 and immediately put into action at the 79th Goodwood Member’s Meeting where it took part in a sensational on-track demonstration before pulling out of the circuit gates, signalling left and driving home! Use of the car continued when it was taken on an extensive road trip from the UK to Germany to watch the Nürburgring 24 Hours, natural detours included the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and a visit to its birthplace Kremer Racing in Cologne.

Highly eligible for a vast array of historic Group C racing events around the world and accompanied by an extensive history file as well as a comprehensive spares package, this road legal 962 would make a worthy addition to any collection. Contact us now for more information or to arrange a viewing.

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