Porsche’s New Nurburgring Record Means A Lot For Future Cars
It only makes sense that Porsche themselves would want to smash the record they set 35 years ago at the Nurburgring.
Porsche’s 919 Hybrid Evo has been going around, smashing lap records left and right. But aside from just holding a title, what does the whole exercise mean? Well, that comes down to the car, and a vision for the future.
In terms of what defines a Porsche, the 919 departs from the norm quite dramatically. Four cylinders arranged in a V configuration are boosted by a single turbo. That powers the rear axle, but up front the “MGU” motor generator unit provides temporary all-wheel drive as the electric motors are ask for further acceleration. Compared to a 911, there’s almost nothing in common. However, not all of those things lead to the incredible 5 minute 19 second lap time.
Porsche has regularly adapted racing technology to their road cars. In fact, their GT3 RS is a perfect example of this. But will we see a takeover of electricity in Porsche future for a flagship or halo car?
Formerly suffering from a stigma, hybrid power is now desirable in performance cars. Porsche’s most successful atempts at speed have deployed this technology, and now, hybrid tech is not only relevant to performance, it will soon become the new requirement. Introduction of the Taycan might be seen down the road as a more important footnote in Porsche’s heritage than we really see it right now.
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Perhaps instead of having the Taycan be the new flagship, Porsche might re-visit this technology with the 911, but perhaps different from the 911 GT3 R Hybrid from several years ago. Battery and hybrid technology has advanced significantly since that system was deployed, no longer requiring a high-speed spinning flywheel for generating electricity. Adding weight to the nose of a 911 might take away some of the typical feel and characteristic of a 911, but the advantages in economy, emissions and speed would be simply too great to ignore.
In a wild bout of thinking out loud, the offices of 6SpeedOnline thought of this technology in its most extreme, and we came up with something wild. Could Porsche’s fastest 911 of the future be a flat-four turbocharged AWD electric hybrid Nurburgring conqueror? Only time will tell.
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