Longer, lower and wider than the outgoing 935, Porsche dropped the Moby Dick’s ride-height 75mm by removing the undertray at sill height and replacing it with a new glassfibre floor. The suspension was heavily revised, the track was widened at the front and the uprated ventilated brakes now came equipped with four-piston callipers and 332mm discs. Meanwhile, although the wheelbase remained unchanged, massive front and rear bodywork extensions resulted in a drastic visual alteration. These new body parts were permitted because the rules stated that only what was between the front and rear bulkheads had to retain the production car silhouette, therefore allowing Porsche to adopt entirely new front and rear ends. Basically, to take maximum advantage of the fairly ambiguous rules, the 'Moby Dick' was a full spaceframe racing car onto which the production 930 cabin was riveted, new subframes being designed to carry the bodywork and suspension etc. Just the original doors and roof remained from the standard 930, overall weight dropping from 1977's works 935 by 10kg. Then came the small matter of arguably the most radical engine Porsche had ever fitted to a 911-derived racecar. Designated Typ 935/71, it was another twin turbocharged unit but importantly now featured water-cooled four valve cylinder heads as seen on the 936 sports prototype. Displacement rose from 2857cc on the 935 '77 to 3211cc thanks to a bore and stroke of 95.7 x 74.4mm respectively (up from 92 x 70.4mm).

Clearly the ‘Moby Dick’s most characteristic feature was its extreme new bodywork that paid scant reference to a standard 911 road car. Fabricated from a mixture of super lightweight fibreglass and carbonfibre, Porsche drastically increased the length of the front and rear overhangs, then fitted an equally outrageous spoiler at the back. Because the fenders had been considerably widened, Porsche attempted to homologate the ‘Moby Dick’ with fully faired in doors that smoothed the side profile. However, these were deemed illegal by the FIA scrutineers and had to be replaced by a rather bizarre looking arrangement that saw only the front third of the door faired in. To further smooth airflow over the car, a new rear windscreen fairing was also adopted. Three ‘Moby Dick’s were built for the works team in 1978 (all of which were right-hand drive) but only one ever raced, this being painted in the familiar colours of the Martini & Rossi drinks company. Weighing in at 960kg, 65kg of lead ballast was then placed in the passenger footwell to get to the 1025kg class minimum. With 750bhp on tap, performance was incredible, 0-60mph taking just 2.6 seconds. Top speed was an epic 227mph. Works 935’s contested only a handful of events in 1978, the factory preferring instead to let their customer teams fight over the World Manufacturers Championship. In preparation for Le Mans, chassis 006 was taken to the Silverstone 6 Hour race in May where Mass and Ickx led from start to finish, Mass setting a new lap record and eventually crossing the line seven laps ahead of the second placed car.

Le Mans was a little disappointing by comparison, a persistent misfire and troublesome oil leak limiting Rolf Stommelen and Manfred Schurti’s progress to eighth overall and third in the Group 5 class. 006 was wheeled out just twice more, for the Vallelunga 6 Hours and 200-mile DRM race at the Norisring, both of which were in September. Despite leading on both occasions, a second victory for the ‘Moby Dick’ never materialised and at the end of the month, it was retired from active duty after only four outings. At the same time, Porsche announced they were quitting sportscar racing as a works outfit to focus on other projects.