Porsche Mission R electric racer breaks cover

The Porsche Mission R concept car has made its world debut at the Munich motor show in Germany, previewing the Stuttgart sports car brand’s “vision of an all-electric customer sports racing car”.

At the same time, Porsche insiders say the Mission R will form the basis of a future production model – and that’s almost certain to be the new Porsche Cayman due in 2023.

Porsche said back in March that it was considering an all-electric powertrain for the next-generation Boxster roadster and its coupe twin, the Cayman, the current 982 version of which debuted in 2016.

Porsche has long produced customer race car versions of not only the Cayman GT4 but, more famously, the 911 GT3. In fact Porsche Motorsport has delivered more than 4400 GT3 Cup cars since 1990 and the newest version based on the 992-series 911 will debut next year in Australia’s 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup – one of 30 one-make cup series around the world.

With a gob-smacking total output of 800kW (1088ps) in ‘qualifying mode’, Porsche says the all-wheel drive Mission R can hit 100km/h in less than 2.5 seconds on its way to a top speed of more than 300km/h.

And on the racetrack, it claims the electric racer can post even faster lap times than the current Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Of course, Porsche hasn’t confirmed this hard-core battery-powered race car previews its third-generation Cayman, only that the Mission R is its “vision of what customer motorsports will look like in the future” and “provides an indication of what the future of one-make series with all-electric cars could look like”.

“In addition to our involvement in the Formula E World Championship, we are now taking the next big step forward in electric mobility,” said Porsche chairman Oliver Blume.

“The concept study is our vision of all-electric customer motorsports. The Mission R embodies everything that makes Porsche strong: performance, design and sustainability.”

Porsche is keen to stress the environmental friendliness of the Mission R via its use of sustainable materials such as natural fibre-reinforced plastics, as first seen in the Cayman GT4 Clubsport.

It also points out that, at 4326mm long overall, its vision for an EV customer racer “is slightly shorter than the current 718 Cayman series, but it is noticeably wider at 1990mm and with an external height of 1190mm is also significantly lower”.

Cayman-previewing or not, the two-motor all-wheel drive Mission R – which follows the Taycan-previewing 2015 Mission E and 2018 Mission E Cross Turismo concepts – packs some incredible new EV technology.

At its heart are two new electric motors – outputting 320kW at the front and 480kW at the rear – generating a constant 500kW in ‘race mode’, says Porsche.

Battery chemistry has not been revealed, but capacity is between only 80kWh and 85kWh. Porsche says the newly designed electric motors and battery cells are all equipped with direct oil cooling, eliminating battery power output reduction due to thermal conditions, known as de-rating.

Porsche further claims an innovative new energy recuperation system also makes sprint racing possible with no loss of output and that, thanks to advanced 900-volt electrical technology, the battery can be charged (with up to 340kW) from 5-80 per cent of capacity in just 15 minutes.

Speaking to carsales prior to the Mission R’s reveal under embargo, Porsche’s director of GT racing cars Matthias Scholz said the new high-performance battery cells, which Porsche plans to bring to production, will allow the concept car’s two-motor all-wheel drive to produce 450kW of power for up to 40 minutes depending on the racetrack.

“Formula E is already the top level of EV racing. This is to show what customer racing of the future could look like in an all-electric vehicle,” he said.

Scholz would not reveal the weight of the battery pack, which is mounted low behind the front seat, but said total vehicle weight was in line with the old 991-series 911 GT2 RS at under 1500kg.

He said that while battery capacity was limited in race mode to optimise endurance, “we can easily make it more powerful [in Quali mode], but we’re focused on sprint racing as we are with our Cup cars”.

Scholz said the Mission R was designed for one-make racing, but that it could compete in anything from circuit races to hillclimbs like Pikes Peak, but that “won’t be before 2025; probably 2026”.

He revealed that although the fully driveable concept car unveiled in Germany today was limited to 100km/h, prototypes developed with the help of Le Mans champion Timo Bernhardt had tested at the Nurburgring, but he declined to offer any lap times.

But Scholz made it clear there will be a production future for the Mission R.

“We are continually evolving our design, so this tests the future direction of our GT cars. The aero was developed with Porsche Motorsport and will come to road cars,” he said.

“Motorsport is the proving ground for future production car innovations.”

He added that the Mission R is initially intended for one-make racing, but would contest other motorsport series for which homologation rules require entries to be based on road-going versions.

The Mission R brings several design innovations including a carbon-fibre rollcage and glass panels that form the roof ‘exoskeleton’, saving up to 50mm of vehicle height, a removable driver’s cell including the seat and pedals, grouping of all vehicle controls on the steering wheel, multiple camera views inside the cabin, 3D-printed seat foam and screens displaying images from rear and side mounted cameras.

While the single-seat interior was designed to be clean, minimal and high-tech, the exterior is also a radical departure from the current Cayman.

“Sixty per cent of all Porsches ever made are still on the road,” said Ingo Bauer-Scheinhütte, manager of advanced exterior design at Porsche.

“So it’s futuristic but we didn’t want to be too adventurous. It’s recognisable as a Porsche, but clearly high-tech, functional.”

The Mission R’s aero package generates more downforce than the GT3 R, thanks to a further development of Porsche Active Aerodynamics (PAA) with Drag Reduction System (DRS) for the nose section, which comprises three louvres in each of the two side air intakes, and an adjustable two-section rear wing.

Much of the interior and body are constructed from natural fibre reinforced plastic (NFRP) containing flax fibres obtained from farming, including the front spoiler lip, front diffuser and side skirts, plus the interior door panels, the rear bulkhead and the seat.

The steering column-mounted monitor shows the images from the side mirror cameras and the central rear-view mirror camera, while a touch display to the right can monitor information such as the driver's biometric data.