You Could Buy This Tiny Version Of Le Mans-Winning Porsche

This feels timely with the 24 Hours of Le Mans having just been and gone. Back in 1981, a Porsche 936 won the famous around-the-clock endurance race in its final year of competition, marking the model’s third win (albeit through various iterations).

Unless you were Jacky Ickx or Derek Bell, though, any hopes of ever getting behind the wheel of an ‘81 936 yourself would’ve been a pipe dream in the ‘80s. This was still in a time when explaining a virtual escape through an Assetto Corsa mod would’ve absolutely blown the mind of anyone around, too, leading to strong accusations of you being a witch, or perhaps Doctor Who.

That was the case at least until 1986, when Porsche produced an official run of 936s… sort of. That brings us to this, the Porsche 936 Junior.

This was around a half-scale interpretation of the ‘81 LM winning car, sold through Porsche dealers (even with an official parts number, WAP 170 000) at a price of 9,650 Deutsche Mark. Accounting for inflation, that’d be about £12,500 now – not all that far off a Dacia Spring.

It wasn’t some plastic body over an electric go-kart chassis as you’d probably see with some of these types of cars today, either. It had a 206cc single-cylinder engine, said to produce about 5bhp and with a two-speed gearbox. Top speed was said to be 35mph.

More impressive still, it featured disc brakes, a limited-slip differential (seriously), coilover suspension and an adjustable rear wing – handy for high-downforce sections of your cul-de-sac. Oh, and in case you fancied competing in your own homebrew version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the lights worked too.

This example, one of fewer than 100 thought to have been made, has never been restored, although it will be serviced ahead of its sale. It’s also said to include the original Porsche-supplied manual and spare parts catalogue… though we assume those won’t be all too easy to find in the aftersales network today.

RM Sotheby’s will be auctioning it off during Monterey Car Week in August, and it’s expected to sell for up to $25,000 (approx. £18,500). Better start saving your pocket money, kids.