Early 1980 the Porsche factory delivered a new chassis to Reinhold Joest, based on the design of the 936/77. They delivered original chassis parts, steering, brakes and the 2,1l twin valve engine coming from the 911/78 series. Joest build his ‘own’ 936 Porsche. He was not allowed to call it that way, because all parts were not officially sold to him as the management had not allowed it. So Joest called it : Porsche 908/80. In this way he claimed his new car being a redesigned 908/03 car that he owned.
Reinhold Joest contacted LeMans winner Jacky Ickx to race with him in the 24h Le Mans. A gearbox issue deprived them from winning. It was the year of Rondeau M379B of Jean Rondeau and Jean Pierre Jaussaud.
For the rest of the season, the car raced in the Interserie driven by Joest and Jochen Mass.
In 1981 the car was again active in the 24h Le Mans (#14, Joest- Whittington- Niedzwiedz, result: DNF), the 1000 km Nürburgring and the 6 hours Silverstone.
And again, Joest entered the car in the Interserie with Mass. The German went on to win the 9 hours Kyalami later in the year.
In 1982, the car was raced by Bob Wollek in the DRM and the Interserie. Wollek won three from the seven races in the DRM and the championship.
In 1983 the car was again active in the DRM with Leopold von Bayern and his sponsor Warsteiner.
In 1984 it did one race (and the last one)with Siegried Brunn in the interserie Nürburgring. Joest racing was then already active with the Porsche 956.
The car was sold to David Morse from California, who restored it into original Martini Racing colours as seen in the LM 1980 race.
In 2002 the 936 was bought by Swiss collector Jen-Marc Luco and back in Europe. He showed it in the LM Classic 2008 and 2010.
The car is now in the USA and owned by Charles Nearburg.
