One under restoration

Richard Lloyd’s GTi Engineering squad was the first Porsche privateer to plough its own furrow with the 956 and build a monocoque in aluminium honeycomb. It continued development with the first of its 962Cs to come on stream in 1987, a car that is now part of the Duncan Hamilton ROFGO collection after undergoing a period restoration at Katana.

Chassis 962C-106B is now back in all its 1987 glory after a chequered career following its sale by the renamed Richard Lloyd Racing squad. It was raced in the All-Japan Sports-Prototype Championship by the Trust team from 1988. Crashed in testing ahead of the 1991 season, it was rebuilt around a new tub from RLR, while keeping the same chassis plate, and the original turned into a show car.

When the show car came to Katana, it was ascertained that the chassis was the one with the 1987 provenance. This included a victory for Mauro Baldi and Jonathan Palmer ahead of the factory cars at the Norisring sprint in the World Sports-Prototype Championship and another in a non-points event at Kyalami. In a hastily-arranged deal with Porsche, the car was decked out in Rothmans colours and works driver Jochen Mass loaned to the team.

The car has now been returned to ‘87-spec by Katana: “When it came to us, it wasn’t correct at all, but we were able to take some parts from the sister car and find an original ‘87 RLR tail section in California,” says Katana’s Trevor Crisp.

Katana Ltd. Warwick, Warwickshire.
katanaltd.com