Perhaps it was a coincidence that Porsche unveiled its Mission X concept electric vehicle a mere week after Tesla’s Model S Plaid with Track Package took the electric Nurburgring crown from the Taycan. The first bullet point in the Mission X press release was:
“Be the fastest road-legal vehicle around the Nürburgring Nordschleife”
Or perhaps not. But now we’re getting a better look at the concept and can make our own assumptions on whether or not this thing, or some variant of it, will make it to production.
Today’s information session was for a few journalists and was light on details, even in the design area, which was the focus of the Teams discussion.
But we did glean some interesting tidbits and, more importantly, got a much better look at the Mission X vehicle, which I captured from the Teams call below. Here are some of the tidbits.
The Yoke controller, which Porsche brought over from its racing teams, looks like a Nintendo controller. They couldn’t tell us if the vehicle was steer-by-wire, though the interior designer alluded to functionality like steer-by-wire but with additional safety pieces in place.
They wouldn’t give us a coefficient of drag (CoD) or even an estimated range, but they did say its downward force was significant and more than the 911 GT3 RS. I imagine the CoD is quite low and below .2, but there are enough design *spoilers*, like the three-dimensional Porsche logo on the back, to throw it off record levels of drag reduction.
The passenger seat and driver’s seat are different colors and can be molded into the driver’s exact dimensions through a scan and 3D printing process. The passenger has an analog/digital display for logging laps. The color differences are to signify that the driver is the person of note in the vehicle.
It has a cheetah mascot that adds to the “Porsche Zoo,” as one spokesman put the propensity for these concepts to get mascots. Other mascots have included the Vision 357 concept, which featured a dinosaur representing its soon-to-be-extinct fossil fuel nature, and Mission R, which had a boar mascot for its wildness. Porsche also slightly changed its iconic shield logo again, highlighting its Stuttgart birthplace.
The Mission X looks like a mid-engine, but this is actually where batteries are stored. Since the butt of the driver and passenger are pretty much on the ground, Porsche can’t use a typical skateboard type of battery/drivetrain design. Instead, it stacks the batteries behind the passenger compartment and close to the center of the overall vehicle, which helps with fore/aft balance.
There’s a “Daytona window” above the front window so the driver can see the stands. It almost acts like a moonroof since the driver faces forward and doesn’t look up. Between these windows is a ride-angle rear-view mirror for seeing the racers behind the driver.
"Tesla’s Model S Plaid with Track Package took the electric Nurburgring crown from the Taycan. The first bullet point in the Mission X press release was:
“Be the fastest road-legal vehicle around the Nürburgring Nordschleife”"
They are setting the sights much higher than the Model S Plaid record, which is a record for production EVs. They are saying "fastest road-legal", so not just electric cars and not just production cars, road-legal vehicles
The cockpit has no cupholders but an impressive array of analog buttons and switches complemented by two big screens.
Overall, the real car is best seen in a live walk-around video shared with reporters, screenshots from which can be seen below.
The Porsche Mission X is a stunning application of electric vehicle capabilities in a hypercar layout. However, the proof is in the results, and we’re years away from knowing those. Will this thing not only beat Tesla but its stated goal of being the fastest vehicle ever, ICE or EV? That’s the real proof. And also, will it be made available in limited numbers to a few billionaires globally and take some Bugattis and Koenigseggs off the road? Time will tell.
Maybe the biggest question is, “Will this beat the Tesla Roadster 2.0 to market?” That might be the real race.
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