Your average classic Porsche owner is a purist. But it must be tempting when someone builds a hybrid electric motor that sandwiches between the engine and transaxle, adding up to 150 horsepower and 150 lb-ft of instant torque to a range of Porsche engines, including air-cooled Porsche 911 models. The system is made by a company called Vonnen, and the product is suitably called Shadow Drive, as you would have to look carefully to see the unit once it’s in place. And, if you’re worried about weight, Vonnen knows its customers and has a full solution.
Hybrid Punch, Minimal Weight
Vonnen Shadow Drive For PorscheVonnen
“Our goal with the system was to basically make it disappear,” Chuck Moreland of Vonnen told The Drive. “We want the driving experience to be as if it didn’t change. And that sounds silly because, of course, we want it to be more powerful. But what we’ve achieved is a system that basically isn’t there. You don’t see it. It doesn’t change the driving experience. It just makes it more powerful. And it’s as if it were just a more powerful and torquey engine.”
Related
Porsche’s New High-Speed Hybrid Powertrain Will Do Something Others Can’t
Go faster more efficiently thanks to the latest from Stuttgart.
Vonnen boasts that the drive unit will fit inside a pizza box and the whole system weighs 170 pounds. That’s offset by the system removing the need for a flywheel, 12-volt battery, and swapping the fuel tank out for a smaller one. The end result is that the car loses a few gallons of fuel from a full tank, but has an improvement in economy. Vonnen says the system doesn’t significantly harm the range of the vehicle. But it does do something very significant for drivers. You can probably guess what that is.
Performance To Spare
Vonnen Shadow Drive For PorscheVonnen
The drive unit is pretty much invisible. It’s nestled next to the engine, largely covered by the transmission bellhousing. All its extra power goes right to the crankshaft, and it makes the journey without turbo lag or parasitic losses you’d get from a belt-driven supercharger. The requisite battery is just one kilowatt-hour, so everything is quite compact. The reason it’s all so small and doesn’t weigh much is because it’s designed for rapid bursts of power instead of improving fuel economy.
Related
Even Porsche’s New Electric Cayenne Can’t Live Without A V8 Soul
It’s potentially one of the most powerful electric SUVs you can buy
Vonnen’s Shadow Drive system adds 75 horsepower and 75 lb-ft of torque from the stage one kit, or 150 hp and 150 lb-ft of torque from the stage two kit. According to Vonnen, the kits are compatible with Porsches from the early 356 through to today’s 992 – meaning Boxsters can also take advantage of the upfit. It’s an incredibly clever solution, but not a cheap one. The Stage 1 kit costs $54,000 plus installation, while the Stage 2 kit is $69,000 before installation.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Vonnen Shadow Drive For PorscheVonnen
Now that hybrid technology has become a mature technology for cars, it has become simpler and less expensive. This gives the aftermarket an opportunity to come up with creative systems like this to add extra punch to classic and modern cars alike. While Toyota showed the world that hybrid drivetrains can reliably deliver excellent fuel economy, high-end sports car manufacturers, including Porsche, have shown that a hybrid setup can be incredibly effective from a pure performance perspective.
It’s about time hybridization started filtering into the aftermarket, but it’ll likely still be expensive and focused on brands with owners who have plenty of money to spend on their cars. Until more regular sports cars, like the Mazda MX-5 or Toyota GR86, start embracing lightweight hybrid systems, turbocharging will still be the best route to added power.
Source: Vonnen via The Drive
