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Beemax 1977 Porsche 935 K2 DRM

Introduction

Beemax 1977 Kremer Porsche 935 K2 that was raced by Peter Gregg in the DRM series.

The Car

The Porsche 935 series was designed to be both the factory and the customer's replacements for the aging 934 series FIA Group 5 cars, as the rules were once again changed for the 1976 season. These were silluette cars with full tube chassis and higly modified, and flared bodies. Like the 934 series, they were the factories racing version of the 911/930 Turbo street cars. They were powered by a Porsche 3.3L single or twin-turbocharged flat-six engine ,which used a mechanical fuel injection system. The engines produced 845 hp & 857 lbs of torque!!

For the 1977 season Porsche sold the 935 to private teams who were also competing in the DRM World Challenge.

A few teams rather then use the standard Porsche 935 kits, developed their own cars, of which Kremer Racing was by far the best of them. Their K1 version was the equal to the Porsche factory cars in 1976, and in 1977 modified their customer's 935's to the K2 version which was the more then the equal to the factory cars. Finally in 1979 they introduced the 935 K3 (which Beemax is releasing come this fall).

I orginally wrote a pretty detailed kit Review which you can see HERE

As always I prefer to share my builds with all by doing a full Build Blog, which you can read through HERE

The Build

Engine/Transmission/Suspension
Work started with the engine/transmission/rear suspension. I started by removing all the called out parts, then cleaning them up as needed. Beemax only included the bottom halves of the engine/transmission/rear suspension, but it's more then enough to fool one's eye coupled with wiring the engine, detail painting, and weathering with Tamiya recessed Black panel line wash.

Beemax really did an excellent job in both design, and molding as all the parts fit perfectly, espeically the complex turbo charger and exhaust assembly. Only in a few very small spots was any filler needed, and that could have been corrected with better pre-planning and a little more test fitting.

Next up was the bottom assembly of the front suspension and more detail painting. The finished chassis/engine/trans/suspension really does look rather complete.

The Interior
My attention now focused on the interior. The chassis pan was primed, then painted, followed by all the detail painting. I opted to use the kit seatbelt and Harness decals which look ok as they would be enclosed within the cockpit, and not that visable. Like the rest of the kit decals, they were way to shiny, so a coat of Clear Matt was applied to solve that issue.

I then finished up the dash and wheel, as well as the roll cage assembly.

Wheels & Tires
The kit wheels are chrome plated but look perfect. Unfortunately, I opted for the true race version with the slotted wheel discs that funneled hot brake air out and away from the brakes, and almost completely cover all 4 wheels.

Body Prep, Painting, & Decaling
About the only issues I had with the kit is that the body had quite a bit of flash that needed to be taken care of. Then I primed it with Mr. Hobby 1500 light Gray Primer. Up next were the color coats.

I Gave the primer a light sanding with warm water & Tamiya #3,000 sponge. Then a quick wipe with a tack cloth. I Air Brushed the shell & rear wing with Gravity's #GC-138 Porsche Carrara White @ 16 psi. 4 light/even coats and it was back into the drying bin. The following day another session with Tamiya's #3,000 sponge and plenty of warm water.

I opted to use the kit decals rather then After Market ones, as their decals have always gotten excellent reviews. After several days and 18 hours of decaling, I completed this most complex paint scheme including the decaling over the front fender vents, then cutting them open and resetting those decals to each vane.

Clear Gloss Coat & Finish
After a few days for the decals to dry and cure, I clear glossed the decals and body with Mr.Hobby's C-46 Acrylic Lacquer Clear thinned with their #400 leveling Thinner. Gave that 3 full days to cure, then a very light wet sanding with #3,000 sponge, followed by Alpha's 6,000,8000, & 12,000 applied wet.

Now for the final steps; Gravity's 3 part polishing system followed by their (really expensive) Carnauba Wax, and the Porsche 935 K2 finally crossed the finish line.

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