Which car was the first to win Le Mans with a turbocharged engine?

The Porsche 936 was the first car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a turbocharged engine.

Porsche achieved the breakthrough in 1976, when Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep drove a works Porsche 936 to overall victory. Its 2.1-litre, turbocharged flat-six produced roughly 540 horsepower and helped the open Group 6 prototype defeat the Renault Alpine challenge by 11 laps.

The 1976 race was an important turning point: turbocharged cars appeared in significant numbers, including Porsche’s 936 and 935 and Renault Alpine’s A442. The 936 won overall, while the Porsche 935 finished fourth and won its Group 5 class. That distinction explains why the 935 is not the answer to this question.

Porsche later developed the 936 into further Le Mans winners, including the 936/77 in 1977 and the 936/81 in 1981. Its success also helped establish turbocharging as a dominant technology in endurance racing before Porsche’s later Group C 956 era.