Taycan Demos Its Racing Chops on the Mean Streets of Brooklyn

Specially built version of Porsche’s first-ever EV is a test bed for company’s Formula E chassis for the 2019-20 season.

Tesla has had quite the run as the only luxury EV maker around, laying the groundwork for everyone else to follow, and to best the pioneering automaker. Porsche is certainly ready to chip-away at the company’s dominance, and they’re doing it big with the upcoming Taycan and its entries in the 2019-20 Formula E season, the latter set to kick-off in late November.

What better way to stoke the fires of excitement over these two milestones in motoring by combining them into one car? That’s what Gear Patrol recently experienced on the Red Hook Formula E street circuit in the New York borough of Brooklyn, with 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and Porsche Formula E driver Neel Jani behind the wheel of a special Taycan.

The publication rode with Jani around the circuit in a Taycan whose interior was covered in miles of felt to hide the important bits — from the infotainment system to the seat belt latches — from prying spy cameras. They also noted that they had no idea which powertrain for Porsche’s latest and greatest — ranging from the base 80-kWh model to the insane Turbo S with enough torque to rip down a brownstone — they were about to feel.

The black Taycan with the American flag upon its roof is testing for two, per Gear Patrol. It had just arrived from hot-weather testing in Death Valley, California to help Porsche figure out what needs to be done for its Formula E cars in the next few months before the 2019-20 season kicks off with a double-header in Saudi Arabia. From pulling three digits on the straights to swinging its weight around the tight turns of Red Hook, there should be more than enough data to move everything along.

Meanwhile, we won’t have to wait too much longer for the production-ready Taycan to set the luxury EV world on fire. Per our friends at Motor Authority, the new Porsche will bow in September, likely at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Frankfurt, Germany. At the time of publication, 20,000 had already placed their reservations for the car, prompting the company to double the fun with an annual run of 40,000 units.

Photos: Gear Patrol

Cameron Aubernon

Cameron Aubernon's path to automotive journalism began in the early New '10s. Back then, a friend of hers thought she was an independent fashion blogger.

Aubernon wasn't, so she became one, covering fashion in her own way for the next few years.

From there, she's written for: Louisville.com/Louisville Magazine, Insider Louisville, The Voice-Tribune/The Voice, TOPS Louisville, Jeffersontown Magazine, Dispatches Europe, The Truth About Cars, Automotive News, Yahoo Autos, RideApart, Hagerty, and Street Trucks.

Aubernon also served as the editor-in-chief of a short-lived online society publication in Louisville, Kentucky, interned at the city's NPR affiliate, WFPL-FM, and was the de facto publicist-in-residence for a communal art space near the University of Louisville.

Aubernon is a member of the International Motor Press Association, and the Washington Automotive Press Association.

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