Martini Racing Art – Porsche 935
This artwork is my homage to the Group 5 Porsche 935. The first version of the 935 looked similar to the 911 Carrera RSR, with the first customers being Martini Racing and Kremer Racing. The Martini car was a full factory development, while Kremer made its own enhancements already before the first race. The rest is as they say ‘history’…
Martini Racing Porsche 935 Background
In the 1970s, Porsche had several things going for it in the motorsport arena. Porsche had built up a wealth of experience with turbocharging, and they had a secret weapon in the form of Ernst Fuhrmann – a CEO who believed in the benefits of motorsport. Then they had Norbert Singer, a motorsport engineer who had originally wanted to be an aeronautical engineer, but when a position at Porsche presented itself in March 1970, he took that instead.
At the start of the 1976 season, the Group 5 motor racing regulations referred to a ‘silhouette’ car, but any definition of what a ‘silhouette’ comprised, was not outlined in any great detail in the regulations. This term was deliberately loose in its meaning, so that the manufacturers competing in Group 5, could develop race cars that looked like a production car, but were clearly powerful, full-on racers. Porsche’s contender for Group 5 was the 935. To get there the model had to go through two complete evolutions of development before the third iteration, when the mighty 935/78 or ‘Moby Dick’ was born.
If you like Martini Racing Porsche 935, you may also like Gentleman Driver, On the way to victory and The Calm Before the storm. Martin has also shown at The Affordable Art Fair.
About the artist
Martin Allen is a London based artist. Martin came to oil painting through a circuitous route, having drawn for most of his life and being largely self-taught he was eventually re-introduced to oil painting as a preferred medium to create his varied and diverse work. The methods he uses to paint are classic ones, using layered paint applications rounded off by oil glazes. These create, add depth and harmonise colours. He has shown solo numerous times at Goodwood, The Affordable Art Fair and others, been a finalist at the ‘London art Biennale 2019’, alongside various commissions including work for the BP Shipping collection.
