When the Porsche 956 was developed in 1981, the intention was to run it in both the World Sportscar Championship and the North American IMSA GTP Championship. However, IMSA regulations banned the 956 on safety grounds because the driver's feet were positioned ahead of the front axle centre line. To resolve this, designer Norbert Singer extended the 956's wheelbase to move the front wheels ahead of the pedal box and integrated a steel roll cage into the aluminium monocoque chassis. The resulting car was designated the 962 for IMSA competition. The Group C version for the World Sportscar Championship, which retained the twin-turbo layout and water-cooled engines eventually adopted for the series, was designated the 962C.
The 962C eventually received 2.8L, 3.0L, and 3.2L water-cooled twin-turbo flat-six engines after the 2.6L unit from the 956 was replaced from 1986 onwards. Porsche produced 91 examples of the 962 family between 1984 and 1991, of which 16 were used by the factory team and 75 sold to customer teams. Some 956s were also rebuilt to 962 specification.
The 962C debuted in the World Sportscar Championship in 1985, though it initially finished behind an older 956. From 1986, under pressure from new factory programmes by Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, Porsche introduced a more powerful 3.0L engine that powered the car to consecutive wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1986 and 1987. On both occasions the winning crew comprised Derek Bell, Hans-Joachim Stuck, and Al Holbert — a pairing that became synonymous with the car's Le Mans dominance. The 1987 victory was Porsche's record seventh consecutive win at the race.
Derek Bell drove the 962 to 21 victories between 1985 and 1987. Hans-Joachim Stuck, who raced the car extensively in both IMSA and Group C, described it as "a dream to drive — so well balanced and with so much grip, you could push it to the limit with confidence."
The 962C won the World Sportscar Championship constructors' title in 1985 and 1986. Customer teams campaigning the car accumulated championship titles across multiple series: the IMSA GT Championship from 1985 to 1988, the Interserie from 1987 to 1992, all four years of the ADAC Supercup (1986 to 1989), and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship from 1985 to 1989. In total, the 962 family scored nineteen constructor's championships across various series and over 180 victories.
The final major outright victory in an original 962C came when Team Taisan won an All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship event at Fuji Speedway in August 1994 — a decade after the car's debut.
The 962C's sheer numbers and longevity encouraged private teams to develop their own variants. Kremer Racing built 11 chassis of their 962 CK6, replacing the original aluminium sheet tub with a carbon fibre monocoque. Brun Motorsport commissioned eight chassis designed by John Thompson, helping the team to second in the 1987 World Sportscar Championship. Richard Lloyd Racing's GTi Engineering, working with Peter Stevens and Nigel Stroud, produced five 962C GTi cars featuring revised aerodynamics and aluminium honeycomb construction. Joest Racing heavily modified a pair of 962s for the 1993 IMSA GTP Championship to compete against Jaguar, taking the car's final sprint race victory at Road America that season.
After the 962's competitive peak had passed, Jochen Dauer found a route back to Le Mans for 962-derived machinery by converting racing chassis into road-legal cars and re-entering them under a GT1 category loophole in the new ACO regulations for the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Dauer 962 Le Mans won the 1994 race overall, giving the 962 family a third Le Mans victory a full decade after its debut.
As the 962's competition life wound down, several tuners and privateer teams converted racing chassis for road use. Koenig Specials completed the first such conversion in 1991, expanding the engine to 3.4 litres and fitting entirely new bodywork. DP Motorsports built three DP62 conversions in 1992. Vern Schuppan produced the Schuppan 962CR for Japanese customers at a list price of 195 million yen, featuring new bodywork designed by Mike Simcoe of GM Holden. A single Derek Bell edition road car was also completed, powered by a 580 bhp engine from the 993 GT2.
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