Porsche’s one-off Flachbau RS combines 935-inspired design, Sonderwunsch craftsmanship and extensive engineering development for Monterey Car Week 2026.
Porsche used Monterey Car Week 2026 to put one of its most individual modern 911 projects in front of the collector-car world: the Flachbau RS. The road-legal factory one-off was created through Porsche’s Sonderwunsch programme and combines the basis of a 911 GT2 RS with a body inspired by one of the company’s most recognisable racing shapes.
A modern Flachbau for Monterey
The Flachbau RS takes its visual direction from the Porsche 935/78, the long-tailed racing car commonly known as “Moby Dick”, while avoiding a simple recreation of the past. Porsche reshaped the front wings into a lower slantnose profile, developed a tiered LED headlight arrangement and added a large rear wing influenced by the 911 GT3 R rennsport.
Grand Prix White provides the main colour, with matt black and exposed-carbon details creating the contrast. A U-shaped graphic across the front echoes a feature associated with the historic 935/78, while the resulting appearance deliberately connects late-1970s endurance-racing imagery with a contemporary, road-legal 911.
Sonderwunsch as serious engineering
The Flachbau RS developed into a programme that took almost three years and involved more than Porsche’s personalisation specialists. Porsche says experts from Sonderwunsch, Style Porsche, Weissach engineering, Porsche Motorsport and Manthey worked on the project, showing how far a factory one-off can move beyond cosmetic specification.
Weight reduction formed part of that programme, with Porsche reporting a further 31.6 kilograms removed from an already highly focused GT2 RS. The revised body and aerodynamic package were also subjected to engineering validation, making the project a combination of bespoke design, performance development and factory provenance rather than simply a visual special edition.
Tested beyond the concours lawn
The Flachbau RS was not treated as a static showpiece. Porsche subjected the design to aerodynamic validation, wind-tunnel development and road testing, while the programme included more than 50 laps of the Nürburgring Nordschleife as engineers assessed the altered body and aerodynamic package.
That level of development matters in the collector-car market because it gives the one-off a technical story to match its rarity. Porsche’s approach ties the exclusivity of a commissioned car to the engineering standards expected of the wider marque, creating something intended to function as a complete road-legal sports car rather than as an exhibition object.
Why Monterey was the natural stage
Monterey Car Week has become as much a showcase for modern rarity and bespoke commissioning as it is a celebration of historic machinery. Presenting the Flachbau RS there placed Porsche’s factory personalisation programme directly in front of collectors who increasingly value provenance, engineering depth and genuine one-off specification.
Porsche also used Monterey to present a North America-exclusive manual 911 Carrera S and several bespoke cars connected with Disney and Pixar collaborations. Even in that varied company, the Flachbau RS was the clearest expression of the idea that a contemporary luxury performance car can be commissioned with the individuality traditionally associated with rare coachbuilt machinery.