1/8 Porsche 936-78

[ScratchBuilt]

Time to start a new build-thread! I’ve mentioned a few times in other posts that I’ve always thought the Porsche 936 doesn’t receive the plaudits it deserves, and it’s a project that I’ve wanted to find out more about. Certainly, in the last twenty-odd years there’s been plenty of books produced about the 917 (and a few new ones about the 956/962), but for the 936 there’s really only been the Jurgen Barth / Bernd Dobronz ‘Porsche 936’ that really gets into the detail of the story...in German.

Why the lack of love for the 936? I suspect it’s mainly just the time it happened – sportscar racing was arguably not it a strong state of health in the mid to late 70’s, and 1976 was the only year it raced as part of a full championship season; after that it was basically Le Mans as the priority. However, it was certainly a successful car: three official works chassis produced (plus an unofficial fourth), raced at Le Mans over a six-year period - 1976 to 1981 – resulting in three wins, two seconds and a third.

Of the three official factory cars, chassis numbers 001, 002 and 003, it is perhaps 001 that has the most history; it was the only works 936 to run at all five of the LM24’s contested by the factory. It first appeared at the Nurburgring in 1976 in the black Martini livery, before changing to the more familiar white for Le Mans. For 1977 the 936 was updated with revised bodywork and suspension geometry, and 001 recorded it’s famous 24-Heures win completing the last two laps on five cylinders. 1978 was a big update – revised bodywork again, but also the new version of the turbo flat-6 engine with water-cooled heads (similar to the one found in the Moby Dick). Chassis 001 would finish second at Le Mans in 1978, retired in 1979, and recorded a twelfth-place finish in 1981.

1/18 scale die-casts:



Until a few years ago, chassis 001 was still in the water-cooled 1978-81 configuration, but has been restored to 1977-spec. It’s my understanding that this is the only 936 in private ownership. It appears that 002 and 003 are still owned by Porsche – 002 is also in 1977-spec, and 003 is still in it’s winning ‘Jules’ livery from 1981. I will be basing my build on chassis 001, in 1978-spec – it’ll be a great companion for my 1/8 Moby Dick model, I think the long-tail bodywork looks fantastic, and you can’t go wrong with a Martini livery!

Chassis 002 in 77-spec on display at Le Mans 2014:



Chassis 003 in 81-spec on display at Le Mans 2023:



Chassis 001 (note aero wheel discs, positioning of driver names, and shape of nose-panel behind the radiator) in 77-spec, also on display at Le Mans 2023, with Moby Dick lurking behind:



I actually started this build in late 2018! The 935-78 was in the final stages, and I had decided that the next project would be a 956. However, the opportunity presented itself to get some first-hand reference material on the 936, and for a while I was considering trying to build the 956 and 936 side-by-side. Before starting the 956 properly I constructed the basic core of the 936 chassis frame:



As before, it’s a mix of 3.2mm and 4.0mm styrene and some aluminium tubing, with joints pinned and reinforced as much as possible. The main cockpit and footwell structure is very similar to the 917 and 908-03 layout – the 936 project used a lot of know-how from the older cars, and would draw many parts from the ‘archive’ – gearbox and uprights from the 917, for example. I used my trusty Lego to create jigs and fixtures to hold the tubes, keeping everything square and true.

When I started the 956 in January 2019 one of the first things to be built was the engine block, as I needed this early-on to work out a way of mounting the drivetrain solidly to the tub. If I was making one engine block it made sense to make a second, so this will now be used for the 936! I also made a second fibreglass fan-shroud a bit later, so this will also now see service:



Although the original 936 build was put on hold for a few years, I’ve continued to gather reference photos, etc, and was finally in position to make a (re)start in late summer. The 936 carries it’s fuel in two tanks, one at the back of the cockpit, the other in the right-hand sill, and I knew I could use these structures to add some strength to the tube-frame. So, my first job with the chassis was to add the outrigger frames and work out a plan for the fuel tanks:



The cockpit tank is relatively conventional, so this was the starting point. I added some extra box-section into the back of the frame to give the tank something to sit on:



The tank itself is a styrene outer skin over a fibreglass core, with box-section internal reinforcement:





The right-hand end of the tank incorporates a tunnel to allow the gearlinkage and cabling to pass through, so I’ve made this a separate section which will fit in once the main tank is in place. This piece has to fit around some of the chassis tubes too, so I’m having to think ahead!

The tank in the sill forms the inner panelling for the cockpit, and has some pressed detailing for stiffening. This is visible, so I made the panel as two layers of styrene (one with the X cut-outs, one plain) and a fibreglass backing:





I’m still working out how I’ll do the rest of the sill tank, so I’ll return to that later!

The front engine mounting in the 936 is a relatively simple V-shaped frame which picks up on the same mountings as the front frame on the 956. There will be a small bracket on the chassis at the bottom, and two horizontal pins further up. Given that I had the engine block already, it was a good time to make a start on the V-frame:



I’m leaving the lower mounting for a while, as I’m going to concentrate on the cockpit section for now. The exact height of the drivetrain within the chassis is currently ‘to be confirmed’!

That’s all for this initial post. I’ve got several more weeks of work to show before I get up to date – I’ve been doing a little more fibreglassing, some more chassis tubes added, and getting the pedals underway, for example. I’ve also got another repair-job to do on a ‘MMC Models’ Formula Ford model, so I’ll probably post a mini-thread on that at some point (similar to the Chevron B34).

As always, I’ll try to find some new ways of tackling familiar jobs. I don’t know if I can improve on the level of detailing used on the 935 and 956, but it will certainly be good to see those details on a tube-frame car like my early 917 and 908-03 models. I wouldn’t want to build another 917 or 908, but the 936 is different enough to keep me interested. The doors will still be a pain, though, but life can’t always be easy, can it?!

Hope you like it, and thanks for reading.

SB

[Deathtrap]

Ow yes!!! Another cool project.
I'll surely be following this one.

Thx for the short introduction of the car. I didn't know too much about it.
Good luck with the build.

[ScratchBuilt]

Hello again - another catch-up with recent progress.

I decided not to extend the chassis into the engine bay for now – there’s plenty to keep me busy in the cockpit, and it’ll all be much easier to do without worrying about another 12” of structure hanging off the back! So, the next job was to create the two long chassis tubes that define the upper edge of the cockpit running down to the nose. In profile they’re simply a straight tube with a curved end, but the curved end is actually kinked to one side to (eventually) make room for ducting. They’re made from 1/8” styrene tube, wire-reinforced, with the curved section built-up from smaller sections and some filler. I fitted the left-hand side first as I wanted better access to the other side for the pedal-box work:





By this point I’d also spent some time adding Greenstuff to most of the existing chassis tube joints. In true 1970’s Porsche fashion the ‘welds’ are not intended to be pristine – ‘functional’, rather than ‘things of beaury’!

The main structure of the pedal box is a channel section that mounts the two master cylinders, and the base for the brake pedal:



The clutch pedal has an extra support bracket but the throttle pedal appears to be cantilevered from the brake pedal mounting. I don’t remember the 917 or 908 doing this, but there may be a good reason for it. It won’t be a problem to add something if necessary, though. While working in this area I also added the support structure for the front air-jack (introduced to the 936 for 1978). I made this in fibreglass rather than styrene, hopefully to avoid any warping issues in later years.



The pedals themselves are very similar to the 917/908 style – the clutch pedal is almost certainly an off-the-shelf stock part (probably has a 908 part number). The brake and throttle were possibly adjusted slightly to suit the 936. Master cylinders are generic ‘Girling ‘type – in 1977 the fluid reservoirs were attached directly to the master cylinders, but for 1978 they were mounted remotely to a plate on the frame (hence the bulge and inspection panel in the rad exit duct panel mentioned in my first post).





Some other little details were added – pushrods and clevis’ for the brake pedal, a little bracket which will eventually be the throttle-stop, etc.

Next, some early fibreglassing. The right-hand side of the cockpit simply has the outer skin of the fuel tank as the interior panel, but on the left-hand side there is a fibreglass skin that wraps around the main tubes. It was easy enough to put a couple of radiussed edges onto a piece of scrap blue foam to create the mould. The seat is the same mould I’ve used (with various modifications) on all my 1/8 Porsche projects. After a few evenings laying-up, then some initial trimming, I had the starting points for both pieces:







The interior panel will eventually be trimmed back even more – the top panel in the left-hand sill is removable – but that’s for a later date. It’s possible I may have to modify or even re-make the seat depending on how the mountings work out, but I felt it was worth having it available now in order to progress.

So, by this point I’d got the front half of the chassis largely ‘there’ – still a lot of bracketry to add, but I didn’t want to jump ahead to that too soon.



As with all Porsche racers of this period there are fibreglass outer skins running down to the nose. On the 917’s I made these by gluing together individual panels - it worked, but the result was a little ‘geometrical’. On the 909-03 I made the panels directly on the chassis - messy, and I had to split the panels to make them work. For the 936 I wanted to make these panels in one piece and to have them the correct shape, I’d have to make moulds…

More next time!

SB

[Deathtrap]

I hope you don't mind me giving oohhhs and aahhhs, as this is jaw droppingly beautiful again.
And from reading the texts, you know the car, history and technique really well. I'm learning with each update. Thx!

[jaykay640]

Excellent as always! Looking forward to what's coming :-)

[ScratchBuilt]

Hello again,

Slowly catching up with myself!

So, how to go about making moulds for the forward side-panels? I started by cutting two foam blocks to suitable size, then shaping the sides to match the lines of the lower chassis tubes:



I then cut the top surface of each block to match the line of the upper chassis tubes, and marked off measurements to allow me to shave the vertical face to create the transition from the bottom edge to the top edge:





In addition to making these two moulds, I made a simple pattern for the floor panel that will fit around the pedal area – basically a flat panel, but with a tapering ‘tunnel section’ that will cover the clutch cable. All three were laid-up towards the end of November. Trimming the floor panel to fit was not a five-minute job! I wanted to get it tight around the various pedal brackets, and between the chassis tubes, so there was plenty of trim, fit, check, remove, trim again, fit, etc, going on. I’m happy with the result so far, but there is still a little more trimming to be done:



First job with trimming the side panels was to notch them to fit around the support tubes along the back edge. Much of this area will eventually be cut away completely, but I’m trying to leave the panels largely intact for as long as possible. They’re matching the shape of the chassis tubes really well, so at this stage I don’t think I’ll have to make Mk2 versions. The next challenge will be making the various suspension pick-up brackets which fit onto the outside of the frame, and cutting the fibreglass panels to fit around them. That’s a job for the coming weeks.







Another mid-November job was to make the battery and mounting tray. I had a couple of days off and wanted one of those ‘one day projects’ to do, so this was ideal. The battery is mounted down in the footwell to the left of the pedals, and sits in the rectangular frame. What’s a little odd is that the mounting frame isn’t secured directly to the lower chassis tubes, but instead is lifted up at the back and tilted down towards the front. This may be to allow some pipework or cabling to pass underneath – I’m sure there will be a good reason...



Finally for this update, I made a start on the two rearward seat mounting supports. These will eventually be attached to the front face of the fuel tank, but I’ll need to finalise the seat position, etc, first. There’ll also be a couple of curved rails attached to the floor tubes.



That’s everything almost up-to-date. In the last couple of weeks I've added the steering rack mounting plates and made the rack itself; I've also laid up some fibreglass sheet for the floor, and a curved section which will become the instrument panel. The lower seat rails have been made and fitted too, so it's highly likely that during the Christmas break I'll be making some gauges, switches, steering column support brackets and possibly the steering wheel. All will be revealed when I do my final post of the year on New Year's Eve!

More next time,

SB

[Deathtrap]

That is indeed a nice tight fit. Simply lovely!

[ScratchBuilt]

Hello again,

The 936’s steering rack is another carry-over part from the 917, and is much simpler than the one used on the 956. It fits into the chassis brackets via a couple of split-blocks, so I’ve got scope to adjust the final position to suit the suspension (which won’t be made for a little while yet). The rack case is aluminium tube with a slightly larger collar on each end to butt against the split-blocks. The pinion housing tube is reinforced with a little greenstuff and also has a small bit of styrene detailing for the adjuster plunger locknut:



The rack mounting brackets were added to the tube-frame and reinforced with more greenstuff and a couple of extra short diagonals. On the underside of the right-hand bracket I added a tiny drilled block – this will be the front anchor-point for the two throttle cables:







At this stage it made sense to continue with the rest of the steering parts, so the next job was the rubber coupling at the base of the column (again, another familiar 908/917 part) and the column itself. The steering wheel was constructed the same way as with the 956 – three rings cut from 1mm styrene sheet, with notches cut in the centre ring to locate the T-shaped spoke plate. Lots of shaping with fine abrasive paper on the lathe to get the outer rim rounded-off before fitting the spokes. The boss on the back gives a solid mounting onto the end of the column:





The final steering-related job (for now) was to add the upper mounting plates in the cockpit – angled towards the driver, each one is a slightly different shape, and it was tricky getting everything at the correct angle. I’ll add some filler or greenstuff around the edges later. The upper support for the column fits between these brackets and can be adjusted for height. Eventually it will also mount the control box and wiring for the indicator stalk / headlamp flasher.



Continuing the theme of driver controls, the next job was to make the gear lever and mounting, and the reverse-gear lockout lever:



The length of the lockout lever is to be finalised before gluing in place, and I also need to make the front joint for the end of the shift linkage. Both jobs for another day.

The seat mountings on the 936 are a pair of rear supports which will eventually fit to the main cockpit fuel tank structure, and two tubular frames that attach to the chassis floor. I showed the rear supports last time, here’s the lower frames:





I’ve also added some bushes to the chassis for the seatbelt lap-straps, and plenty of greenstuff around all the joints. There’s a boss on the upper rail for the reverse lock-out lever, and the mounting cradle for the gear lever, too. In time there will be a cross-tube bonded to the back of the seat which will fit into the notches on the rear supports; it’s not clear from any of my photos whether the lower frames are simply there to stop the seat moving side-to-side, or if the seat actually has some extra bracketry on the sides to ‘clip’ onto them. I’ll have to dig through the 917 and 908 photos to see if there’s any clues. Either way, the lower frames are enough to put the seat in the correct position for now, as the rear supports won’t be glued in place for some time.

My final fibre-glassing job of 2025 was to lay-up another piece of flat sheet – this will become the main floor-tray – and to make a curved section which will be used to create the instrument panel. I did think I might spend some time on the instruments during the break, but I’ve found other things to keep me occupied – another job for next year, then...

The last bit of new work for this update was making the two remote master-cylinder reservoirs, their caps, bottom fittings and mounting bracket:



As usual, I’ll finish this last update of the year with some shots of all the parts made so far:





...and that’s it for 2025. I've now caught-up with the backlog of parts and photos since starting the project in late summer. I still have a few days before returning to work, so I'm planning to get the main roll-hoop underway and maybe do a few more jobs around the back of the cockpit.

If I’m honest, it’s been an odd year for me, modelling-wise – the 956 seemed to want to fight me at every step once the end was in sight, then I was determined to complete the 1:43 Chevron model before starting anything else, and finally it was time to re-start the 936 project (having made the basics of the chassis in late 2018). It’s all felt quite disjointed on occasion – and sometimes frustrating - but there haven’t been any times when I’ve not wanted to continue with the builds. Hopefully 2026 will be a little more straightforward.

As always, thank you for reading my updates through the year, and I hope it continues to be of interest.

All the best for 2026,

SB

[ScratchBuilt]

Hello again,

After spending much of November and December working on detail parts and ‘small stuff’, early 2026 was going to be all about extending the chassis structure – upwards and outwards!

My plan for January was to plan and make the main rear roll-over hoop structure – this had to be in place before starting work on the rear half of the chassis. It also has to be pretty robust, as it will take some of the loads from the engine bay framework. So, as before, I started with some plastic-coated wire rod to create the inner core, then sections of 1/8” styrene, then ali tubing, and more sections of 7/32” styrene tube to create the outer surface. The forward stays are pinned at both ends, and have the same ali tube core with styrene outer; the diagonal is pinned at the top:





The 936 has a full-height rear bulkhead panel which fits around the roll-hoop and transitions into the main bodywork and the door openings. Rather than trying to add foam and cardboard to the chassis in order to create a mould for fibreglassing, I decided it would be safer to re-create the key chassis hard-points using the blue foam. As I hadn’t attached the roll-hoop to the chassis at this point, I could use this to make sure the mould was accurate:





Having made the main internal surface, I added more foam pieces either side to create the curves where the bulkhead will meet the outer bodyshell. Filler was applied and smoothed where necessary, and I cut the two channels either side which will allow me to extend the panel beyond the level of the top of the sills (so it can be trimmed to suit later):



In all, it took a week of work to make this mould, then another five nights to apply the fibreglass. After it received the final layer I left it on the mould for a couple of days, then removed it and started trimming…





It fits! I’ll be leaving most of the trimming until I’ve made some progress with the main body (which won’t be for a while), but I’ve done enough to get it in position. This also allowed me to add the small S-shaped tube directly behind the driver, which will support the seatbelt mounting. With this added, I could do the final fit of the roll-hoop to the chassis:



By the start of February I was ready to extend the chassis into the engine bay. As usual, Lego was used to create jigs and supports, and to help keep everything square and true. The lower frame is hidden in this next photo, but in time this will have an extension added which will provide the pick-ups for the lower parallel suspension links, and support the gearbox:



All the styrene tube here is 3.9mm (5/32”). Every tube has a length of ali tube inside, pinned at both ends and CA’d together. There’s more diagonals and bits of detailing to be added in the engine bay, but once these three layers of tubes are in place that’s the key structure. Here’s the upper layer in progress:



In time there’ll be two connections between the two sides of this rear hoop – one removable crosstube, and a fixed framework that will extend from the back of the hoop. In addition, there’s a lot of platework to be grafted into this areas to reinforce the tubing, and to provide the upper damper mounts and gearbox mounts. At the front of the engine bay there’ll be fabricated pick-ups for the upper and lower radius rods, all of which will tie-in with the new tubes attaching to the back of the cockpit section. When it’s all in place there’ll be plenty of greenstuff added to fill the gaps and create the usual welding detail





At this stage the similarities with the older 908 and 917 chassis are increasingly obvious. It’s worth noting that at this point the chassis frame measures about 380mm long – there’s still the tail-support frame to be added, and that will put another 190mm onto the length…!

Sorry it’s taken a little while to get this update posted. I was ready to post a shorter version at the start of this month, but once I started with the engine bay tubing I knew I wanted to add this progress into the update. I’ll be continuing in this area for a little while, so hopefully the next post will be in a couple of weeks.

All the best,

SB