986gt2

What does everyone think of the next super car?

WenigerAberBeser

It’s an EV so IDGAF

djcxxx

Porsche’s track record with hyper cars has not been good with regard to profitability. The 959 may have been a technical tour de force but it was a financial pit for many well documented reasons. The CGT was also a fabulous car and the last of the truly analog hyper cars, but Porsche stopped production at around 1200 rather than the planned 1500. Two CGTs sat for months in my local dealer’s showroom. The 918 required the costly VIP program to fulfill the 918 examples to be sold. Mission X may or may not come to fruition given the economic and political uncertainties over the next four years. Porsche has given itself a wide margin of time to test the waters.

Randy M

Meh, battery car...

tims16m

If you had the foresight to buy anyone of those cars and held it for a bit, you would have been very happy with its value. Not saying its equivalent to a good financial investment, but it sure would be fun to drive and walk out the other side with a nice gain.

Do you think the 918 VIP program was a huge cost to Porsche? I didn't think it cost them anything. They didn't discount any of the vehicles related to the program. It may have actually helped them sell more vehicles. I think it established some brand loyalty to the high profile clients, marketing wise not a bad move. Would you rather have the next latest and greatest Porsche or go stand in line for the other brand? You could say it upset some clients but there are other VIP clients that go above and beyond the 918 VIP program. The question which never comes up, do you think that Porsche would not have sold out the 918 model without the VIP issue?

Yes, Porsche had the stigma of the CGT sitting in the showrooms unsold. Couple things about the CGT to put in context. In the middle of the production cycle for the CGT, there was a change in the DOT regulations for an Airbag requirement in (?)2006. Porsche chose to expedite construction of the units it had left to produce rather than reengineering the airbag issue. This resulted in an over supply of cars which got pushed to dealers. This oversupply happening as we are going into the huge financial crisis of 2007. Bad timing! If not for those issues I think the CGT would have sold out much quicker. The CGT has always been ranked by journalists as one of the top 10 best Sportscars of All time. One thing different in the sales approach between the CGT and the 918. The 918 was built on an order basis, so you may never find a 918 built to order exactly the same and it was a sold unit before production started. The CGT could be ordered but many of them were built without a sales and many had the same specifications to be on inventory. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on the history.

Sorry this is what happens when your just waiting for the weekend to start! Have a great Lemans weekend, Let's get a win Porsche!

Wilder

My gut reaction is that this is indicative of Porsche's direction and I don't like it. Every other Porsche super car has a connection to the brand's heritage, in philosophy as it relates to putting form before function and in practice as it relates to design elements. You know they are a Porsche at first glance. I don't see that with Mission X. Change the emblem and you couldn't argue it's a Porsche. The doors, the steering wheel, the seats all seem frivolous. I understand electrifying entry level cars like the 718 and the Macan but I don't get why the super car should be, especially when the company has remained uncommitted to electrification and it placing major bets on synthetic fuels. I felt sad watching the launch. I've been watching the CEO talk like a marketing guy more than an engineer (and I'm a marketing guy and most definitely not an engineer) for some time and this is just another indicator that Porsche is now just a public company extracting as much value out of the brand as they can and well on their way to ruining a good thing. I get the very uneducated feeling that Andreas Preuninger is the only one carrying the Porsche torch.

MaxLTV

I like it, or at least the details that have been shared.

It being electric is a big change but what is it really changing? No engine noise - it's a big one for road driving and is the only thing giving me second thoughts on this car. On track, I use hearing protection/radio anyway. Otherwise - instant throttle response and linear torque - hell yes! No expensive rebuilds or maintenance - awesome! No complexity of hybrid or all the issues with blending electrical and mechanical forces - I'll take it. Ability to drive in the HOV lane so that I can get out to the open roads in remote areas faster - YES!

Should they have made it a hybrid? A reasonable argument, but hybrids feel like a temporary stop-gap chapter that's about to pass its peak very soon - just like those first engined fire trucks where the engine with driven wheels where a separate module at the front, in case there is a need to swap it out for horses. It's a complexity that becomes unnecessary once the innovation becomes good enough to not need the backup of old tech. Adding the engine just for the sound would have been a departure from Porsche's "function over form" philosophy - if you do not need an engine for performance but add it anyway just as a rattle to make noise, with all the weight and complexity, that would be pure form over function poser stuff.

Sure, there is room for a "pure" nostalgia car, but that would be a different product line, not the halo showcase of the latest and greatest engineering Porsche is capable of. I think Porsche should make something with old-school mechanics, maybe all the way down to no ABS, no brake boost and probably even no power steering but with the newest materials. That could be so much fun.

Two things about this car do make me sad: 1) it's another reminder of how traditional vectors of progress - faster, more responsive, more predictable, higher grip - are becoming irrelevant, and we have to search for some esoteric or plainly imaginary dimensions of "better", reminding me of audiophile world; 2) the next step is self-driving...

mooty

porsche built great cars
porsche still builds great cars
porsche no longer builds prosches

BusDriver

This Porsche looks to the future, as did the 959 and 918 in their times. It takes vision and courage to make this car, especially when no one else dares. Ferrari and McLaren are still trying to do 10pct better than the 918 with their next hyper-cars.

Drifting

I think I’d take a hybrid Ferrari /mclaren hypercar over an electric porsche.

(and I’m planning on getting an electric 718 for a DD in the next couple years)

unotaz

RIMAC builds Porsches now

Jrtaylor9

The die hard porsche enthusiasts tend to lament Porsche evolving at every stage (me included). They probably lose some old dogs along the way (me included) and pick up some new die hard fans at the same time (me 10yr ago).

Jrtaylor9

I just like that there’s new stuff to talk about on the Supercar thread

Wilder

Agreed. And sometimes we come around. Also, sometimes brands go too far and lose themselves.

C.J. Ichiban

Brands lose themselves all the time.

This is directly related to the turnover ratios in design team, sales team, product team and focus evolution into profit over quality of product. We have all seen it happen at McLaren, Ferrari, MB, Audi, Lambo, BMW, Aston, etc and also in F1, IMSA, etc. It happened at Porsche 2x already since the 90's. The 996 was bad aesthetics and low quality. The initial panamera was rough to look at.

Lambo is hitting massive homeruns right now.
MB is not. Their focus is on all the wrong metrics and they're losing focus on core clients.


BMW is hitting homers right now.

Ferrari is blowing it in F1, but road cars are crushing it, and WEC / enduro crushing it.

I think in bigger brands you even have smaller wins and losses. the new cayenne is a win, very excited to drive it. the 992 has been a huge success for porsche and the quality control of Taycan is trending way better.

Audi's EV stuff is improving a ton but BMW is way ahead of both Audi and Porsche. Audi has lost the plot on their 'sport' subbrand and it seems like they are only chasing EV unit sales now, nearly zero production of enthusiast cars. In 4-5 years the brand will be unrecognizable if they allow the current execs to keep this up.

BMW somehow making amazing EV and M cars at the same time.

It worries me greatly that Porsche is so focused on Formula E. It's faux sustainability. I worry about the stock price being a focus. They're still the best at so many things but the question is - does the EV Macan budget or EV 718 budget subtract from QC on 992?

There is a lag in the effect but I can tell you that some brands are in massive upswing, some in downswing, and others stalling and about to change direction.

Personally I'd rather see an alternative fuel car vs EV as range topper. I'd rather spend $20/ gallon to drive an SP3 Daytona type V12 car vs an EV supercar. whether the performance envelope of this car remains salient in 4 years is the key. I still think the Pininfarina is the best looking EV sportscar/ hypercar thing. This looks really interesting, like a futuristic McLaren F1. This doesn't look like a Porsche at all.

the 959 was a Porsche. the CGT was a Porsche and the 918 as well. this looks futuristic but I hope this is not like McLaren going from P1 (Frank stephenson) to Senna (Robert Melville).

at some price point you just say F it, and get a series of vintage or contemporary race cars. Or a King Air.

IE if this is 2.5M USD- I'll probably end up getting another CGT for road use, a Porsche/ Ferrari race car and call it a weekend.