Summary: Total number of cars / bodies produced?
The following is our best summary of how many cars/bodies that were produced over the decade or so that Dauer Racing GmbH was in business:
– The wind tunnel car (1 ? )
– The prototype car (1)
– The GT race cars (3)
– The GT road car (1)
– The Sultan of Brunei cars (5)
– The “bumble bee” car (1)
It is important to point out that over the course of creating the Dauer 962 LM, they did not actually create any completely new cars – they were all reconstructed / reimagined out of existing race cars or existing spare race car chassis. Thus, the exact number of cars produced is technically zero –
unless one counts the bodies that were manufactured. With that notion, there were a total of 11 produced over the years, or a total of 12 if one includes the wind tunnel body, whose existence and providence as a real body is unknown these days. This arrangement of creating new reimagined cars from older ones is a concept that is similar to the modern-day Singer – they are constructed on the chassis and frames of older Porsche 964 cars from the early nineties.
The Prototype Car Restoration Project
Having explained the history of Dauer and the Dauer 962 Le Mans, it becomes easier to explain the project that we just acquired. In a nutshell,
we acquired the prototype car that was most likely the one shown at the Frankfurt IAA auto show, and displayed in nearly all of the early press photos. This is the car that was transported to Singapore and Dubai, and also presumably the one that set the world speed record for the fastest production car. We do not know what chassis was used with this body during this time period, but it may perhaps be 962-169, the one that was used as the test car at Le Mans. We believe that the car was disassembled and reassembled many times during its tenure with Dauer, as it appeared with various updates and a variety of changing interior colors. Originally decorated with yellow leather, the folks at Dauer decided that a bright green interior would look good. We’re not sure what they were thinking. We have this entire green interior sitting on the shelf.
So what are the plans for the car? We intend to put it back together with a nod towards updating it – a la “Singer style”. What does that mean exactly? We will be installing a
genuine Porsche GT-1 engine (yes, that’s correct) along with a genuine Porsche GT-1 transmission with a sequential shifter (that means that you push up to shift up one gear or push down to shift down one gear). Dauer’s later-style updates with the “semi-automatic” transmission were not very well received and considered a bit wonky. Likewise, the hydraulic lift systems installed on some of the later cars were less than reliable.
We intend to keep the car as close to the original “962 style” as possible, with the obvious nod to the updated and much improved drivetrain. As an added bonus, we are using the later-style GT-1 engine and drivetrain – the same one included in the 1998 GT-1 street car. This advanced drivetrain was only available from the factory and not installed on customer cars.
We’re installing all of the original GT-1 rear suspension as well.
Where did this fabulous drivetrain come from? I came directly from Porsche around the year 2000 when the factory was collaborating with Champion Motorsports on their GT-1 powered Lola B2K/10 race car (which we also have). The Champion team enjoyed unparalleled support from Weissach, and even had the car transported to Germany to have Norbert Singer and Porsche Motorsports tune, refine and test it on the track. For those of you who have been at the Pelican / Dempsey motorsports showroom over the past years, you may have seen the engine –
it was used as a coffee table in our car showroom! Now, it’s going to go back on the road in this Dauer 962 LM.
We’ve been working on planning out this project for about three years now. At first it didn’t seem like time, or parts, or schedules would work for us tackling it, but in the end I threw in the towel and said “what the heck, you only live once”. The time and effort in completing a project like this are immense, but we’ve assembled a team that will assist us along the way. Our usual “coachbuilder”
Trevor Crisp from Katana, LTD will be leading the project from his not-too-secret workshop outside of London. For those of you not familiar with Trevor’s craft, here’s a blurb:
Katana Ltd – Having already restored to concours condition, three of Wayne’s 962s (with another due to be completed Q2 2021), Katana LTD has earned its reputation of having “restorations by appointment and application only.” Having previously restored seven of the remaining factory Rothmans 956 and 962s we are regarded as being the world authority on these remarkable cars. No shortcuts taken – all the titanium in the right spots. You can follow updates on our current projects via our Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/katana_ltd/
In addition, we will be working closely with
Steve Austin of Austech Design. Steve is the architect of this entire Dauer project, and single-handedly rescued this car and all of the parts, drawings, molds, widgets and knowledge from the ashes of the unfortunate Dauer bankruptcy. Austech Design is an expert in the manufacture and replacement of obscure parts that are no longer produced and whose drawings and blueprints have disappeared (sounds useful for this project, huh?). Austech has reproduced the infamous Porsche 962 clutch housing which is unobtanium and incredibly difficult to reproduce accurately with all of the original casting marks and finishes. Here’s Steve’s blurb:
Austech Design specialises in providing bespoke engineering solutions for the motorsport and automotive enthusiast with the ability to undertake an ‘end to end’ process – taking a concept and turning it into something real. We use industry leading design and manufacturing technologies such as 3D CAD, Computer Tomography scanning, Finite Element Analysis, CNC machining to create a real, usable part out of literally nothing. www.austechdesign.com
As usual, we’ll be working with the folks at Pelican (the company I founded and sold a few years ago) to keep everyone updated on this exciting project. I think some media outlets might be interested in following along too – this thing is too cool. I’ve spearheaded some unusual projects in the recent past (Probe 16, MIT Solar car, just for example), but I think this one will be the cake topper for sure!
Thanks as always for listening, hope this is at least slightly entertaining.
-Wayne
P.S some pics of our car project, plate N CM 962:
Dauer 962 Le Mans 962 Prototype as seen in 1993
Dauer 962 Le Mans 962 Prototype as seen in 2020
Dauer 962 Le Mans 962 Prototype as seen in 1993
1998 Porsche GT-1 drivetrain as installed in our Lola B2K/10
Dauer 962 Le Mans 962 Prototype as seen in 2020
Dauer 962 Le Mans 962 Prototype in testing
Our spare GT-1 gearbox – sequential shifter!
Dauer 962 Le Mans 962 Prototype as seen in 2020
Our spare GT-1 engine we’ll be installing into the Dauer 962 Le Mans Prototype