When most people turn 75, simply being alive and well is enough of a gift. For Porsche's 75th birthday, however, the iconic sports car company has given itself one hell of a birthday present, a hypercar that the brand says will be the fastest production car ever around the Nurburgring. And yes, it'll be an EV.
The Mission X
Or it will be, at least, if Porsche decides to build it. This is the Mission X, just a concept for now, but a strong indicator of what Porsche's next moon-shot could look like.
Gallery: Porsche Mission X Concept
How big of a shot? Porsche says this thing will offer a remarkable power-to-weight ratio of at least one horsepower per 2.2 pounds of weight from a new, all-electric, 900-volt architecture. If we use Porsche's last hypercar as a benchmark, 2015's 918 Spyder and its 3,700-pound curb weight, that would mean somewhere in the area of 1,700 horsepower. That's nearly twice what the Spyder was putting down when it became the first production car to do a lap of the Nurburgring in under seven minutes.
Again, that's just a guess as we don't yet know the weight, but that kind of power level would make this easily the most powerful road-going Porsche ever, with considerably more power even than the track-only 919 Hybrid Evo made when Porsche uncorked the thing and took it on a world tour of obliterating lap records.
Le Mans Inspired
Porsche unveiled the Mission X concept on the 75th anniversary of the company, and on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There's a natural link here, with the Mission X's design said to be Le Mans-inspired as well, with doors that open upwards and forward, ala the classic 917. That's just one highlight of some radical styling, which includes a glass bubble covering the passenger compartment that's protected by a carbon fiber exoskeleton. The resulting shape is something reminiscent of Le Mans prototypes of yore but executed with a modern flourish.
Inside that dome is pretty remarkable, too, with contrasting-color seats for driver and passenger plus six-point harnesses for both. As a weird, semi-retro throwback to the 959, the passenger dash features a slot for either analog or digital stopwatches.
Despite what will presumably be an outrageous amount of power, the Mission X is relatively compact. It's 177 inches long in total and 78.7 inches wide, an impressive 6 inches shorter than the 918 Spyder and more than 2 inches wider. Despite that, its wheelbase is the same.
Though electric-powered like the Taycan, Porsche has set the battery pack behind the seats, a so-called "e-core" layout meant to create the same sort of handling dynamics as a mid-engined car.
But will they build it? We asked Porsche CEO Oliver Blume that question point blank, and his response was comfortably open. "During the next month, we will consider to build it," he said. It isn't decided yet, there's some concept of work to do, but good opportunities." It's worth noting that he said "next month" quite often, so it seems like the decision will at least be a quick one.
The Competition
We've seen already insane levels of power and performance from brands like Rimac and even in production sedans from Tesla and Lucid, so if Porsche is going to build this next-gen hypercar to impress it will need horsepower figures well into four digits. The thought of that kind of power combined with the engineering and racing expertise of a company like Porsche is worth getting excited about.
Assuming, again, that the company actually builds the thing.
