Porsche reveals 1,000PS Cayman GT4 ePerformance EV
After waiting patiently for Porsche to give us an official hint as to what the Mission R might become, we have it. This is the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance, a Cayman racer with 1,088PS (800kW) courtesy of the Mission R’s electric, all-wheel-drive powertrain.
First of all, an impressive fact: Porsche says the 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance can put in the same lap times as the 992-gen 911 GT3 Cup, and hit the same top speed. Impressive for a Cayman, don’t you think? Then again, we shouldn’t be surprised, because the tech underneath is mighty impressive.
The car is essentially a Cayman GT4 Clubsport, with a motor powering the front axle and another at the rear. That bonkers 1,088PS power figure is in qualifying mode, while in race mode there’s 612PS (450kW) on tap, and it’ll last for 30 minutes flat-out, or the duration of a Carrera Cup race, Porsche says.
The motors and battery are oil-cooled, which, Porsche details, prevents the system degrading over the course of a race – you get no drop off in power over time, even when you’re driving at racing speeds. The battery uses a 900-volt charging architecture, so a five to 80 per cent juice-up takes only 15 minutes.
Design wise, the GT4 ePerformance is 14cm wider than a regular GT4 Clubsport, while Porsche says that 6,000 parts have been designed from scratch. The body is made from natural fibre composites, “with the production intended to generate fewer emissions than the production of comparable synthetic materials”. The wheels and tyres are wider than standard, with 18-inch rims, while “renewable materials make up a particularly high proportion of the tyres” from Michelin.
Where can you get your first glance of the Cayman GT4 ePerformance? Well, at the 2022 Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, that’s where. The car will spend the weekend blasting up the Hill before heading to Porsche’s Leipzig test track in August, then on to other European circuits before going to the USA in 2023 and Asia in 2024, transported from place to place by ship, truck or train – no planes – as part of Porsche’s ‘#race2zero’ programme.
“With the Mission R, we’ve shown how Porsche envisages sustainable customer motor racing in the future,” says GT racing project manager Matthias Scholz. “The 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance now demonstrates that this vision works impressively on the racetrack.
“We’re very excited about the response because a one-make cup with electric racing cars would be an important addition to our existing customer racing programme.”
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