The Porsche 908/80

Driven by Jöst & Ickx as privateers

This Reinhold Jöst 908” made no sense officially it was in fact a disguised Porsche 936, which apparently wasn’t allowed to be called a 936 as Porsche weren’t racing 936’s at the 1980 Le Mans. It seems this car was actually the fourth Porsche 936 factory chassis built as a spare car for the three official factory cars. It was never raced in Le Mans. Porsche participated at Le Mans with Porsches 936 in 1976 (victory for Ickx), 1977 (victory for Ickx), 1978 (second place for Ickx), 1979 (DNF) and 1981 (victory for Ickx). In 1980 Porsche didn’t race any factory prototypes at Le Mans. But Reinhold Jöst was aware of the spare chassis and got the chance to purchase it, after which he decided to participate at the Le Mans 24 hours as a privateer. Jöst succeeded in hiring Jacky Ickx as his team member. Since the Porsche factory didn’t want any Porsche 936’s on the entry list they decided to call it “Porsche 908/80”.

But to be clear: it had nothing to do with the old Porsche 908 from the ‘60’s……