Development
At the time of the development of the KM-011, Konrad Motorsport was competing with Porsche 962s in the World Sportscar Championship. Konrad was a long time Porsche campaigner, but knew that for 1992 his 962 would no longer be legal to run in the series, and Porsche had no planned replacement. Thus Konrad would need to either buy a customer chassis or build his own car, as well as find a new engine supplier to meet the new 3.5 Liter formula. To meet the engine requirement, Konrad turned to Lamborghini and their owner at the time, Chrysler, planning to use the Formula One engine that the company currently supplied to Ligier and Modena. At the time, both Formula One and World Sportscar Championship engine requirements were the same, allowing for teams to build engines for both series. Thus in order to allow Lamborghini to expand into sportscars involvement following the failure of the Countach QVX, they agreed to supply their 3512 V12.
For the chassis, team founder Franz Konrad hired Geoff Kingston, who would set about designing the car that would become known as the KM-011. The design of the car was rather simple, borrowing established design features from such cars as Konrad's own 962. Among the main attributes was a larger, more squared off front end and a large roof-mounted hood scoop to better feed the engine, similar in style to other newer 3.5 liter Group C cars.
The car would run on Yokohama tires and be primarily sponsored by Wärtsilä Diesel Group, as well as carrying some sponsorship for Chrysler in some rounds.
Racing history
For the 1991 season, Konrad initially ran their 962, scoring a handful of points in the first four races of the season. At round five, at the team's home event of the Nürburgring, Konrad debuted the KM-011 in the hands of drivers Franz Konrad and Stefan Johansson. Unfortunately the car failed to qualify for the event and Konrad instead turned to his older 962, taking a points-scoring finish. At the next round at Magny-Cours, the car was successful in qualifying, allowing Konrad to abandon their 962, but unfortunately the KM-011 failed to finish after 18 laps due to a failed starter motor.
Wishing to finish the season, Franz Konrad gathered the budget to fly the KM-011 and Konrad Motorsport team to the final two rounds of the season in Mexico City and Autopolis, Japan. In Mexico the KM-011 lasted 36 laps before its gearbox gave out. This was followed by suspension failure at Autopolis after a mere 24 laps. With this, the KM-011 failed to score any points in the World Sportscar Championship season, the 962 being the only car to score.
However, during the break from Mexico City to Autopolis, Konrad had the KM-011 flown back to Europe to participate in the final Interserie round at Zeltweg. In the first heat, Franz Konrad drove the KM-011 on his own to a 7th-place finish. The second heat saw the KM-011 suffer problems and fail to finish three laps from the finish. The combined results therefore gave the KM-011 a 16th-place finish, classified as a finisher.
The KM-011 would make one final appearance at the first Interserie round at the Nürburgring in 1992 still driven by Franz Konrad. The car would take 3rd place in the first heat, followed by a 4th place in the second. This combined result earned Konrad an overall 4th-place finish in the race. Unfortunately funding for the project would soon end. Although Konrad promised to be on the grid for the 1992 World Sportscar Championship season, the car never showed.
This would be the only car that Konrad would build themselves. They would return to running customer cars, mostly Porsches, following the retirement of the KM-011.
Stefan Bellof was a German racing driver. Bellof was the winner of the Drivers' Championship in the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for the factory Rothmans Porsche team. His lap record on the Nordschleife configuration at the Nürburgring, set while qualifying for the 1000 km race in 1983, stood for 35 years, when it was beaten by Timo Bernhard in 2018. He also competed with the Tyrrell Formula One team during 1984 and 1985. Bellof was killed in an accident during the 1985 1000 km of Spa, a round of the World Endurance Championship.
The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984. In 1983, driven by Stefan Bellof, this car established a record that would stand for 35 years, lapping the famed 20.832 km (12.93 mi) Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:11.13 during qualifying for the 1000 km Sports Car race. The record was finally surpassed by Timo Bernhard in a derestricted Porsche 919 Evo on 29 June 2018.
The Porsche 962 is a sports prototype racing car designed and built by Porsche. Created to replace the Porsche 956, 962 was introduced at the end of 1984 and replaced the 956 in the IMSA's GTP class in 1985 due to regulation changes obsoleting the 956. It was also introduced in the World Sportscar Championship's Group C category in 1984. Over its decade-long career, the car in its Group C form won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, with a derivative of the car, the Dauer 962 Le Mans, winning a further title in 1994. In total, the 962 scored nineteen total constructor's championships across various series. The 962's successor was the Porsche WSC-95, introduced for the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans, but did not receive factory backing or support.
Courage Compétition was a racing team and chassis constructor company now owned by Oreca, based in Le Mans, France near the Circuit de la Sarthe. It was founded by Yves Courage, a French race driver who ran hillclimbs before founding the company. Following the purchase of Courage by Oreca in 2007, Yves Courage has refounded the company as Courage Technology in 2010, attempting to develop electric racing cars.
Franz Konrad is a former race driver and founder of Konrad Motorsport in 1976.
Konrad Motorsport is an auto racing team initially from Austria, but now based in Germany. Founded by Austrian racer Franz Konrad in 1976, the team has mostly run Porsches, although they have also run Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Saleens over their existence.
The Jaguar XJR-14 is a sports-prototype racing car introduced for the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season. It was designed by Ross Brawn and John Piper, and was built and run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), on behalf of Jaguar Cars.
The 1992 Sportscar World Championship season was the 40th and final season of FIA World Sportscar Championship motor racing. It featured the 1992 FIA Sportscar World Championship, which was contested over a six race series which ran from 26 April to 18 October 1992. The championship was open to Group C Sportscars.
The Aston Martin DBR1 was a sports racing car built by Aston Martin starting in 1956, intended for the World Sportscar Championship as well as non-championship sportscar races at the time. It is most famous as the victor of the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans, Aston Martin's only outright victory at the endurance classic. It is one of only three cars in the 1950s to win both the World Sports Car Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours in the same year. In addition the six World Sports Car Championship victories was a record for any car in the 1950s and remained a record in the championship until surpassed by the Ferrari 250TR. The three consecutive triumphs in 1959 at the Nürburgring, Le Mans and the Tourist Trophy equalled the record set by the Ferrari 250TR with its three consecutive victories at the start of the 1958 season.
The Sauber SHS C6 was a Group C prototype racing car built by Swiss manufacturer Sauber and engineering firm Seger & Hoffman, intended for competition in the World Endurance Championship and Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft series. Seger & Hoffman left the project later in 1982, leaving the car completely under Sauber's control.
The Brun C91 was a sports prototype built for Group C racing in the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season. It was built by Walter Brun's Brun Motorsport of Switzerland, by a team which included Steve Ridgers, John Iley and Hayden Burvill. It is the only car that Brun has built to date.
The BRM P351 was originally a Group C sports-prototype built for the 1992 World Sportscar Championship season in an attempt to resurrect the British Racing Motors marque. The car later reappeared in a heavily modified form in 1997 as a Le Mans Prototype known as the BRM P301 before retiring completely in 1998.
The Kremer K8 Spyder, along with its predecessor, the K7 (1992–1993), were open-cockpit prototypes built by Kremer Racing for use in multiple sportscar series, such as the IMSA GT Championship, Interserie, and International Sports Racing Series. The cars shared many components from the retired Porsche 962 and would eventually go on to win the 24 Hours of Daytona and several championships.
Brun Motorsport GmbH was a Swiss auto racing team founded by driver Walter Brun in 1983. They competed as a Porsche privateer team in sports car racing for their entire existence, running in a multitude of international championships. They notably won the World Sportscar Championship in 1986 and later became a full-fledged chassis constructor. Brun was also briefly part of the EuroBrun Formula One team from 1988 to 1990. The team was eventually dissolved in 1992.
Dauer Sportwagen GmbH was a German automotive company founded by former racing driver Jochen Dauer in Nuremberg. Initially founded as Jochen Dauer Racing in 1987, the racing team had several years of participation in the German Supercup and European Interserie championships, as well as occasional runs in the World Sports-Prototype Championship and Camel GT Championships with the Porsche 962. Following the demise of sports prototype racing in the early 1990s, Dauer Racing GmbH was created to begin limited production of road cars, including a road-legal version of the 962, known as the Dauer 962 Le Mans, which later went on to win the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans. Once changing to Dauer Sportwagen, the company sold a continuation of the Bugatti EB110. The company went bankrupt in 2008 and parts for the EB110 were transferred to Toscana-Motors GmbH.
Axcil Ramar Jefferies is a professional racing driver and senior race instructor at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. He currently holds the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record in the GT3-class with a time of 7:50.370 which he set in a Konrad Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3.
The Ford C100 is a sports racing car, initially built and run as a Group 6 car, but later as a Group C car. The C100 was built by Ford in 1981, and initially featured a 4-litre Cosworth DFL V8 engine, which was replaced by a 3.3-litre version of the same engine in 1983, after the car had passed to private hands. Five cars are known to have been built. Although the cars were often very quick in qualifying, reliability problems plagued them, and restricted their successes to two Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft victories in 1982, and a single Thundersports victory in 1983.
The Lamborghini Countach QVX, occasionally referred to as the Lamborghini QVX, was a short-lived Group C sports racing car built in 1985. It was not built or designed by the Lamborghini factory, but instead used a Spice Engineering-built chassis and an engine derived from the Lamborghini Countach's V12. Lamborghini's British importer commissioned the car. Financial issues restricted it to one race, despite numerous entries in 1986 and a handful in 1987, but its one race showed the car had potential.
Willibert "Willi" Kauhsen is a German former racing driver and racing team owner from Eschweiler in Aachen, Germany.
Obermaier-Racing GmbH was a German auto racing team and tuning garage founded by Hans Obermaier and Jürgen Lässig. Specializing in Porsches for much of their history, the team competed at the top level of the World Sportscar Championship from 1983 until 1990 before finding success in the various incarnations of the Porsche Carrera Cup. The team was later known as Oberbayern Motorsport before their auto racing activities ceased in 2000.
Franz Konrad 
Stefan Johansson