Jens Nykjær is one of the colorfull caracters of the Danish racing scene from the mid-1970s. Initially racing Volkswagen beetles in Special Saloon Car, latterly with a Porsche engine, succes eluded him because of reliability issues. A normally aspirated group 5 Porsche 935-look-alike was build for 1980, but for 1981 it was back to Special Saloon Cars and this time with a tube frame Beetle. A combined SSC/Group 5 title was his after a hard season racing against Jørgen Poulsen and his Porsche 935-look-alike. A new Nordic Super Saloon Car title was up for grabs in 1982 and a new tube frame 1303 was build, this time featuring a 700 bhp Porsche Turbo engine. Capable of 280 kmh/175 mph at the Anderstorp straight, the bodywork was dangerously close to break apart, so a new car was needed for 1983. This time he allied himself with the Kremer brothers of Köln giving him free access to drawings, enabeling Nykjær to build a Porsche 935K3 copy. The car was ready midway through 1983 and would be his race car to the end of 1984. For 1985 the group C project happened, wrongly reported here in Denmark as based on a Gebhardt chassis, but thanks to Janos Wimpffen and others that mistake has been rectified in my head.
What happened at the end of '85 I don't know, because over the next few years he raced only sporadickly in borrowed or rented cars. In late 1989 and into 1990 he made some low key appearences in a group A Volvo 240 Turbo and then almost another decade went by with little to report. Around 1997 a very low line Porsche 935 appeared resembling something like a Kremer 935K4 started to be raced, resulting in his second Danish Special Saloon Car title in 1998. Around 2000 the car was badly damaged by fire during a sales demonstration of the car. Since then he has devoted his time to the career of Michel Nykjær – one of his two sons. Having won two European and a Danish touring car titles hes already way more succesfull than his father, but that's another story.
From those who have seen him drive, Jens Nykjær is described as a hard charger, not minding a few bumps and bruises along the way. Quite capable of building his cars from the ground up, that sounds plausible. He's also a man with little patience for time waisters, painting a faint portrait of a very focused and single minded approach to motor racing.
The Nykjaer-BMW group C2 car was sold to Finnish Super Saloon racer Onni Kreivi for 1986. It was reported that Kreivi simply replaced the prototype bodywork with that of a Sauber BMW M1 group 5 look-alike, but Nykjær had a look at the car at the time only recognising some of the rear braking system as his C2 car, so that story was probably wrong. I spoke with Mr. Nykjær probably around 2005 and at the time the Nykjaer-BMW was being restored by its Swedish owner, but where it is now, I don't know.
Pictures from racingsportscars archive:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/make/photo/Nykjaer.html
Here is a picture of his 1982 VW 1303-Porsche turbo monster at Kinnekulle Ring, Sweden:
http://www.teambild.se/arkiv/details...1600ff9b8fc5b6
Jesper