Tuesday 27th September 2016

919 Hybrid drives through London!

It's certainly one way to get people excited about a new Panamera Hybrid...

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Hopefully it looked as bizarre to other road users as it did from the pavement. Even with knowledge of what was going to happen it looked completely absurd. This morning, with a little bit of help from Her Majesty's Metropolitan Police, Mark Webber drove a Porsche 919 through central London. A Le Mans-winning sports prototype mingling with the early commuters on a Tuesday morning; it really was as audacious and fantastic as that sounds.

The pictures should give you some idea of what an incredible sight it was, the 919 seemingly about as high as most car's door handles and what felt like 10 times louder. With the sun attempting to rise and Big Ben in the background from our viewpoint, it made for quite some spectacle. An early alarm call hasn't been this worth it since Le Mans!

But this wasn't simply a 'because we could' exercise from Porsche. Shadowing the 919 - not that anyone seemed to notice - was the new Panamera 4 Hybrid, the logic of course being that the lessons taken from the track can be incorporated into the latest roadgoing hybrid.

Tenuous though the link will always seem, the latest petrol-electric Panamera does produce some compelling numbers. The twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 is supplemented by a 136hp electric motor for a total of 462hp, plus 516lb ft also. Porsche claims 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds, 171mph and 56g/km. Interestingly the pure electric range is 31 miles (50km) at a speed of up to 86mph (140kph). The combined power output is available at all times too, as opposed to previous Panamera Hybrids where the throttle had to be depressed 80 per cent.

Now this wouldn't be a modern Porsche without a multitude of driving modes; this Panamera brings new hybrid options in addition to the usual Sport and Sport Plus. The car starts out in E-Power, running on pure electric, but there is also the choice of Hybrid Auto (for the most efficient balance of power sources), E-Hold (which will maintain the current level of charge for if the journey ends in a low-emission zone) and E-Charge (where the engine is used to charge the battery).

If you're using a plug to charge the battery, Porsche claims a full replenishment will take 5.8 hours via a 230v, 10A connection. With an optional - you knew that word was coming eventually, right? - onboard charger and a 230v, 32A connection, that time drops to 3.6 hours.

All not as exciting as seeing a Le Mans car on the capital's streets, granted. But then you're rather more likely to see a Panamera around London again than a 919! The Hybrid is available to order now, priced at £79,715.

[Evilex]

Why use the Panamera as the base model?
Surely the Macan and Cayenne are the big sellers outside of the sports car segment.

It seems like they've put their best E-tech into the vehicle that people are least likely to buy!

Well, after the 918, that is...

[Evilex]

Fetchez la vache said:

Evilex said:

Why use the Panamera as the base model?
Surely the Macan and Cayenne are the big sellers outside of the sports car segment.

It seems like they've put their best E-tech into the vehicle that people are least likely to buy!

Well, after the 918, that is...

China?

So why drive it around London?
Wouldn't Beijing have been better?

[Evilex]

Pan Pan Pan said:

I don't think that the term `rubbish' could be truly applied to `any' Porsche vehicle, They don't `do' rubbish, its quite simply not in the nature or ethos of the company This is not say they always get things 100% right, but they don't start out trying do anything less than 100%.

I would agree that that was once the case.
Not so sure it is now, though it's hard to see where the rot set in. Some might say as early as the 914. Perhaps the 924. Certainly by the Cayenne, though.
See the comment earlier about "kept women", school runs and nail bars; That's why I suggested that they should get the E-tech.
They'd do two days in electric mode on one charge... school, nails, school, home. Repeat. Charge it.
When I was a kid, I used to dream of owning a 930...

Edited by Evilex on Wednesday 28th September 06:13