For the 1976 World Manufacturers Championship, Porsche initially relied on a solitary works 935, chassis 002 racing alone for the first five rounds and Le Mans, chassis 001 not coming into play until the threat from BMW began to materialise. This tussle of German industrial might unexpectedly went right down to the wire after early predictions that Porsche would dominate, BMW's awesome CSL's having been piloted by some of Europe's premier drivers. Porsche were up for the fight though and in the Martini & Rossi-liveried 935's, they undoubtedly had the faster car. Their drivers too were of the highest calibre, Jochen Mass and Jacky Ickx having been backed up by Rolf Stommelen and Manfred Schurti for selected rounds.

Debuting at Mugello for the 6 Hour race, Ickx and Mass won what turned out to be a Porsche whitewash with the German cars filling the top seven places. They then made it back-to-back Group 5 wins at round two, the Vallelunga 6 Hours, but their initial dominance had been ruffling feathers in rival camps. At Silverstone, 002 ran with a conventional 911 front end instead of the Flat Nose after Mass found it generated too much downforce. But much promise in qualifying came to nought in the race. Clutch problems on the very first lap sidelined the car for more than two hours and although 002 eventually recovered to place tenth, Porsche went back to Germany having failed to add to their points tally. More bad news followed afterwards when the governing body demanded that, because the 935's air-to-air intercooler did not fit within the engine profile of the street 930, Porsche would have to adopt air-to-water intercoolers from the 934. These were located within the rear fender flares and required boxier vent openings in the wheelarch extensions. Furthermore, the FIA dictated a new space cam be developed for the fuel injection pump, this and the intercooling issue contributing to a less flexible and initially reliable motor thereafter. It seemed that while Porsche’s wily interpretation of race regulations had often been a key component in the Stuttgart manufacturers mightily impressive competition history, in this case it could lose them the 1976 World Championship.

Round 4 was held around the epic 14-mile Nurburgring circuit in Germany's Eiffel mountain region, neither BMW or Porsche wanting to lose out in what was a home race for both. However, a distributor failure forced Stommelen and Schurti out after a troubled run and allowed the Schnitzer BMW's to recover yet more ground. Le Mans subsequently proved a welcome respite for the Porsche squad after a sequence of bad results in the WMC, the factory entering 002 for Stommelen and Schurti whilst Ickx and Mass were in the 936 prototype. Being a non-championship event, 002 ran with the original air-to-air intercooler, smaller spoilers, supplementary lighting and special gearing. In this configuration, 002 was hitting 209mph down the Mulsanne Straight, 0-60 and 0-100mph having been possible in 3.2 and 6.1 seconds respectively. Victory in Group 5 and fourth overall was a pleasent diversion from the firms troubles in the WMC, but at Zeltweg two weeks later, Porsche were on the receiving end of another defeat. A broken throttle shaft forced Ickx and Schurti out, handing BMW their third win in three races and overturning what had been a 2-0 deficit to 3-2 in the Munich firms favour.

With the very real possibility of Porsche losing the championship, two 935's were shipped across the Atlantic for the Watkins Glen 6 Hours. Stommelen and Schurti took an unexpected victory in 001, Ickx and Mass rounding out the podium in third and ensuring the championship would be decided at Dijon's 6 Hour finale. Two 935's were once again entered, the chequered flag falling to Ickx and Mass while Stommelen and Schurti were third - Porsche had secured the championship by the string of their teeth. There was one more outing for a works 935 when 002 was taken to Daytona in February 1977, Ickx and Mass leading until they lost an hour through damage caused by a blow out. After repairs, they dragged 002 back into second, but when another tyre failure caused them to crash, they were forced out for good. This somewhat ignominious end to the single turbo cars factory career would not be respective of how customer 935's would fare over the next few years though, racing successfully at international level until the mid 1980's, they notched up innumerable wins.