Just recently, Porsche announced the potential development of an all-new mid-engined “super sports car” platform. According to the Stuttgart-based automaker, the model will be heavily based on the current 911’s architecture. An official preview of the planned super sports car is slated for October 15th. However, this isn’t the first time Porsche has teased us with a sports car.
In 2020, the brand released the “Porsche Unseen” archive. It carried 15 previously unpublished designs penned between 2005 and 2019, and five of those designs stand out as particularly notable thanks to their unique, modern interpretations of legendary Porsche race cars. Their intended use was to showcase what those old-school designs would look like as modern-day road cars. Let’s take a look.
2013 Porsche 917 Living Legend
Already, we’re depressed. Seeing a car as pretty as the 917 Living Legend and not being able to touch one is a sad prospect. Regardless, it was designed to be a modern take on the 917 KH model that raced and won the 1970 Le Mans. Driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood, the 917 KH managed to finish 343 laps of the Circuit de la Sarthe, totaling 2,863 miles of driving. Winning wasn’t an easy task, as the race was plagued by severe weather and extremely wet conditions.
As for the 917 Living Legend, Porsche utilized the 918 Spyder as the literal, technical inspiration. However, its body was wholly inspired by the old 917 KH, high fenders, low seating position, and all. The Living Legend wasn’t even a real body shell, but rather a 1:1 clay model that had been given the white-on-red livery you see above. Like everything else you’ll see on this list, it never made it to production.
2015 Porsche 906 Living Legend
The original Porsche 906 traces its roots back to 1966, when it was introduced personally by Ferdinand Piëch and Erwin Komenda, two of Porsche’s R&D higher-ups at the time. It was Porsche’s first street-legal race car, built to meet FIA Group 4 and Group 6-class homologation rules in place at the time. Roughly 65 examples were built, although some sources report a total of 68. It weighed just 1,280 pounds, made 220 horsepower from a 2.0-liter, air-cooled flat-six, and could reportedly reach a top speed of approximately 170 mph when geared properly.
The modern conceptualization took the old-school 906 and completely reimagined what it would look like as a futuristic car. Looking at it from the side, you’ll notice it looks like two halves of the car were pushed together. That may look like a styling choice at first, but it was supposedly made to channel air into what would be a mid-mounted engine sitting behind the driver. The 906 Living Legend was a 1:1 hard model, rather than a clay one, meaning the design had progressed a bit further than the 917 LL.
2017 Porsche 919 Street
Rather than peeling back decades of history, Porsche decided to base the 919 Street on its 919 Hybrid LMP1 race car, which won Le Mans three consecutive times between 2015 and 2017. The racer also managed to win the WEC LMP1 class from 2014 through 2017, emerging victorious in 17 races out of 34 total. Porsche reportedly envisioned the 919 Street as a special series for private, ultra-wealthy racing drivers.
While the pictures above may make the 919 Street appear as if it was a nearly-complete model, in reality, it never left the clay phase. It was a 1:1 model, and Porsche itself stated that its dimensions were identical to the real 919 racer. If you pay close attention, you can see its dorsal stabilizer perched atop the roof, just a small detail that shows how much care Porsche put into sculpting the clay model.
2019 Porsche Vision 918 RS
It seems Porsche loved the 918 Spyder so much that it decided to reimagine it with the Vision 918 RS. It was an exercise in seeing what a new-generation 918 would look like when exposed to modern aerodynamic tech and a more advanced chassis. Its existence also points to the possibility that Porsche didn’t feel finished with the 918 as a whole, and wanted to kick around the idea of bringing the halo car back a few years later.
When the 918 hit the market, it was Porsche’s first true hybrid-powered hypercar. It was immediately pitted against two other titans of the then-burgeoning segment, those being the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari. Of those three, the Porsche 918 was the least powerful with 887 horsepower, but it was the only one with an all-wheel drive system, making it quick off the line. The Vision 918 RS still fits in today, as continued development in hybrid tech persists, potentially leaving the door open for another Porsche 918-style halo car.
2019 Porsche Vision 920
Last on our list of would-be Porsche supercars is the Vision 920, arguably the most extreme example we’ve shown of Porsche playing with designs. Porsche’s own words described the Vision 920 as an extreme hypercar that combines both the visual language of its road-going models with the function of a real racing prototype. It sports extremely aero-inspired bodywork and a central cockpit, making it appear as nothing short of a Le Mans prototype. It was originally considered as either another super sports car, or a private racer for customer motorsport, much like the 919 Street.
Sitting up front is a pair of inboard front struts, much like you would see in a fully fledged racer. A roof-mounted air intake is positioned to ram air straight into the mid-mounted engine, keeping it cool. If you look closely, you can see a small Gran Turismo badge sitting just behind the car’s canopy, as it was originally slated to be included in the Gran Turismo 7 video game. However, Porsche eventually decided to ax the idea. The Vision 920 made it to the 1:1 hard model stage, still quite far from becoming a production car.
These five models show just how far down the rabbit hole Porsche can go when it has an idea. The upcoming announcement of a mid-engine super sports car, while we are hesitant to say it will turn into a production model, will likely still be worth watching regardless.
Base Trim Engine
4.6L V8 Plug-in Hybrid
Base Trim Transmission
7-Speed Automatic
Base Trim Drivetrain
All-Wheel Drive
Base Trim Horsepower
887 hp
Base Trim Torque
944 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm
Fuel Economy
20/24 MPG
Segment
Supercar
Sources: Porsche, GTPlanet.net.
