{"id":2130,"date":"2026-08-14T19:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tt-blogs.dealerfire.com\/champion-porsche\/?p=2130"},"modified":"2026-08-14T19:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:47:22","slug":"in-the-footsteps-of-moby-dick-porsche-builds-a-one-off-flachbau-rs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.champion-porsche.com\/blog\/in-the-footsteps-of-moby-dick-porsche-builds-a-one-off-flachbau-rs\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Footsteps of Moby Dick: Porsche Builds a One-Off Flachbau RS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In the Footsteps of Moby Dick: Porsche Builds a One-Off Flachbau RS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One customer. Nearly three years of development. A single car that exists nowhere else in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Porsche’s Sonderwunsch (“special wishes”) department has completed one of its most ambitious commissions yet: a factory one-off 911 GT2 RS transformed into a modern slantnose \u2014 a “Flachbau RS” \u2014 built in collaboration with N\u00fcrburgring specialists Manthey. Finished in Grand Prix White with reshaped wheel arches and a U-shaped contrasting graphic across the bonnet, the car is a direct homage to the 935\/78 Le Mans racer nicknamed “Moby Dick,” one of the most famous shapes in Porsche’s motorsport history.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThree generations of slantnose Porsche: the 935\/78 “Moby Dick,” the 2019 935 tribute, and the new one-off Flachbau RS. Photo: Porsche AG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
“Converting the car to a slantnose model proved to be very challenging, even though we left the drive unchanged, in agreement with the customer.”<\/p>Alexander Fabig, Vice President Individualization and Classic, Porsche AG<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The base car was a like-new 2018 911 GT2 RS (Type 991.2) with the Weissach Package. A multidisciplinary team spanning the Sonderwunsch department, Style Porsche, and development engineers from Weissach, Porsche Motorsport, and Manthey spent nearly three years reinterpreting the 935’s iconic silhouette \u2014 without compromising the car’s safety, technology, or road legality. Porsche even filed “Flachbau” and “Flachbau RS” as protected designations with the European Patent Office back in May 2025, months before the car was revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Exactly Is a “Flachbau”?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Flachbau \u2014 German for “flat build” \u2014 refers to a slantnose body style Porsche offered on the 911 Turbo (Type 930) throughout the 1980s, with redesigned front wings and pop-up headlights inspired by the 935 race car. Between 1982 and 1989, Porsche built 948 examples, making Flachbau models among the rarest 911 variants ever produced. This new car revives that legacy as a bespoke, one-of-one commission rather than a limited production run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weight savings:<\/strong> 31.6 kg (69.7 lbs.) lighter than the donor GT2 RS<\/li>
New silhouette:<\/strong> flatter wheel arches and a completely reworked lighting system<\/li>
New rear wing<\/strong> with S-shaped mounts, manually adjustable across three downforce settings<\/li>
Development time:<\/strong> nearly three years across Sonderwunsch, Style Porsche, Weissach, Porsche Motorsport, and Manthey<\/li>
Validation:<\/strong> full lighting and wind-tunnel testing, plus real-world durability runs<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nPhoto: Porsche AG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Design Leadership: Grant Larson Returns to the 935<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The project was designed by Grant Larson, now retired from Porsche, who also penned the modern 935 tribute unveiled for the brand’s 70th anniversary in 2018. Larson calls the Flachbau RS “a modern, fitting reinterpretation of the iconic 935 Moby Dick design,” pointing to the flatter front wings and the staggered arrangement of narrow LED units in place of the standard round headlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The color scheme was built to balance tradition with reinterpretation. Grand Prix White \u2014 a color introduced for the 911 in 1974 \u2014 pairs with matte black sections and exposed carbon fiber. Porsche custom-developed the exact white tone by referencing a historic 911 from its own collection to match the shade precisely. The U-shaped contrast element at the front nods directly to the Martini-liveried 935\/78, while the bonnet and roof stripes are deliberately inverted compared to a standard GT2 RS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Flachbau Body<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The front wings sit lower than on a standard GT2 RS and feature slatted air outlets that vent the wheel arches and reduce internal air pressure \u2014 a change significant enough that Porsche had to redesign the fuel filler flap and its mechanism to fit. The front bumper was completely reworked, and subtle black flaps developed with Manthey emphasize the car’s aerodynamic intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new lighting system replaces the standard round headlights with three tiered LED elements for high beam, low beam, and daytime running lights. Each unit is remarkably slim \u2014 the high-beam and low-beam elements measure just under four centimeters, and the daytime running lights are less than two centimeters tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aerodynamics were treated with the same rigor as the styling. A front splitter works with the Manthey Kit’s underbody structure and rear diffuser, while carbon-fiber aerodiscs on the rear wheels reduce drag. The new rear wing, inspired by the 911 GT3 R rennsport (Type 992) but mounted roughly five centimeters higher, locks manually into three positions. In “High Downforce” mode at 340 km\/h, the Flachbau RS generates exactly 554 kilograms of rear axle downforce \u2014 two to three percent more than a standard GT2 RS running the Manthey Kit. The wing’s adjustment mechanism and position markings are patent-protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe new rear wing’s S-shaped mounts and three-position adjustment are patent-protected. Photo: Porsche AG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Stripped for the Track: Inside the Flachbau RS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of the seats, the cabin still wears its original red Alcantara, black leather, and exposed carbon fiber. Everything behind the seats, though, was stripped following race car principles. The Porsche Communication Management system is gone, replaced by a leather-trimmed storage compartment. The audio system, sound deadening, and most floor coverings were removed entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spartan metal surfaces finished in Grand Prix White, carbon trim on select areas like the armrest extensions<\/li>
Wiring harness deliberately left exposed, covered only by protective sheathing, with unnecessary wiring removed to save weight<\/li>
Carbon-fiber bucket seats embroidered “Flachbau RS” on the headrests, with a stylized N\u00fcrburgring-Nordschleife outline stitched behind<\/li>
Gold “Sonderwunsch” badge on the passenger-side dash, with an engraved plate reading “Factory One-Off 2026 | Flachbau RS”<\/li>
Road-legal essentials like the warning triangle and towing eye now live in a removable “emergency box,” which comes out entirely for track days<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Tested Like a Race Car<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Before any metal was cut, the design went through simplified crash simulations, airbag deployment testing, and Computational Fluid Dynamics work to validate the new rear wing loads. Once physical prototypes existed, the wing itself was subjected to extreme vibration on a hydropulse test rig and static load testing with sandbags.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDevelopment testing at Weissach. Photo: Porsche AG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Three test vehicles went through lighting and wind-tunnel validation plus real-world durability testing \u2014 numerous runs at the Mendig airfield, 50 laps of the N\u00fcrburgring-Nordschleife alone, and endurance testing at Weissach that combined to simulate rear wing loads equivalent to roughly 150,000 kilometers of customer use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Flachbau RS remains extremely stable and precise even at very high speeds.”<\/p>Lars Kern, Porsche test driver<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
A video of a camouflaged test car lapping the Nordschleife racked up more than 100,000 social media views within hours of posting \u2014 a sign of just how much appetite there is for a modern slantnose 911, even one that will only ever exist as a single car.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPhoto: Porsche AG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Why “Moby Dick” Still Matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Porsche 935 dominated racing from 1976 onward, built on the Type 930 911 Turbo. It claimed four consecutive World Championships for Makes, multiple wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Daytona, and both class and overall victories at Le Mans \u2014 a level of success few production-based race cars have ever matched. The elongated bodywork of the 935\/78 earned it the nickname “Moby Dick,” and Porsche revisited that shape once before, with a 77-unit, 700-PS clubsport run unveiled at the 2018 Rennsport Reunion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one-off goes further: it’s not a replica or a limited series, but a single, road-legal car built to one customer’s specification, using the actual language of a 935 on a modern GT2 RS platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Built Alongside Manthey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Manthey has been one of Porsche’s leading GT racing partners for 30 years. Based in Meuspath, near the N\u00fcrburgring, and led by brothers Martin and Nicolas Raeder, the 350-person team’s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes seven overall N\u00fcrburgring 24 Hours victories, six Le Mans 24 Hours class wins, eight FIA World Endurance Championship titles, and the 2023 and 2025 DTM teams’ and drivers’ championships. Their fingerprints are all over this car’s aerodynamics, from the underbody structure to the black aero flaps up front.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPhoto: Porsche AG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
What This Means for Champion Porsche Clients<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You won’t find the Flachbau RS on an order form \u2014 it was built for one customer, and it will stay a one-off. But it’s a vivid reminder of what Porsche’s Sonderwunsch program actually is: a direct line between a client’s vision and Porsche’s own engineers, designers, and motorsport partners. Sonderwunsch commissions range from bespoke color and trim work to full transformations like this one, and every project starts the same way \u2014 with a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you own a Porsche you’d like to personalize, or you’re curious what a Sonderwunsch commission could look like on your own car, Champion Porsche’s product specialists can help you start that process with the factory. It’s the same connection to Porsche’s engineering culture that shapes every 911 on our showroom floor \u2014 just taken to its fullest expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Contact Champion Porsche<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Champion Porsche<\/strong> 500 West Copans Road, Pompano Beach, FL 33064 (954) 946-4020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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