A LITTLE TOO PERFECT? 1977 `Peter Gregg' Porsche 934.5.(Escape Roads)

Byline: PATRICK C. PATERNIE

The Porsche 934.5 was-in effect-a hybrid. Essentially, it was an FIA Group 4 Porsche 934 with wider rear wheels and a 935 rear wing. The car was built to the 1977 IMSA rule that allowed Porsche racers to upgrade RSRs with a single turbocharger to battle the 600-hp DeKon Monzas.

Under that wing was a 590-hp, 3.0-liter flat-six with a KKK turbo hanging off its rear end. Porsche built 10 cars (chassis numbers 930 770 0951 to 0960). Brumos owner Peter Gregg grabbed the first two, sold No. 0951 to Jim Busby and had his crew chief, Jack Atkinson, prep No. 0952 for the April IMSA opener at Road Atlanta. Atkinson relocated the radiators for the intercooler to the rear and incorporated the front air dam and rear fenders from a 935, creating-in effect-a "934.8,'' which IMSA rounded to 935 and banned before the race.

Gregg retaliated by jumping to IMSA's archrival, the SCCA's Trans-Am series, where he won six of the eight races and the championship. But eight months later, the SCCA acceded to 934 racer Ludwig Heimrath's protest and deemed Heimrath champ.

Orange County Porsche dismantler Dave Aase acquired No. 0952 in 1987 to display in his showroom. That's where current owner Bob Weber was astonished to see it in 1993.

"I was a kid at the fence in 1977 at Elkhart Lake, watching this monster belching fire and tearing around with a whoosh,'' he recalled. "It made me want to own a Porsche turbo ...