RE: New '918 Coupe' To Be Badged Porsche 961?
Wednesday 4th May 2011
New '918 Coupe' To Be Badged Porsche 961?
£200K Porsche range-topper slated to get old racer's numbers
The original Porsche 961 was a 1980s racer based on the fabulous 959, but German magazine Autobild reckons the number is coming back on a new V8 'halo' series production model.
Details are sketchy and haven't been confirmed by Porsche, but the story goes that the new 961 will be a V8 powered coupe with styling derived from the 918 Spyder/RSR project. The 918 itself has been confirmed for strictly limited production already, but its carbon monocoque is presumably too esoteric for cost-effective volume build - it's costing the few lucky punters who'll get their hands on it around half a million quid.
The magazine says the new car will make around 500hp in standard guise, with some sort of hybrid option that boosts power to 600bhp. Other than a predicted price in the Euros 200k range, an internal project codename of 9X1, and a projected 2013 on-sale date, there's not much else to the story yet.
Discussion
croakey said:
looks good, but a modern take on the 959 (styling wise especially) would be just about perfect in my books
To my mind the current 997 Turbo has just managed to enter 959 territory, in specification as much as anything.However, you would've thought given the passage of 20-odd years the modern equivalent of the 959 would be absolutely earth-shattering. Pity nothing like Group B still exists to drive development like that.
Twincam16 said:
croakey said:
looks good, but a modern take on the 959 (styling wise especially) would be just about perfect in my books
To my mind the current 997 Turbo has just managed to enter 959 territory, in specification as much as anything.However, you would've thought given the passage of 20-odd years the modern equivalent of the 959 would be absolutely earth-shattering. Pity nothing like Group B still exists to drive development like that.
Twincam16 said:
To my mind the current 997 Turbo has just managed to enter 959 territory, in specification as much as anything.
However, you would've thought given the passage of 20-odd years the modern equivalent of the 959 would be absolutely earth-shattering. Pity nothing like Group B still exists to drive development like that.
This. The most recent 997 Turbo's are absolute rockets and can decimate most anything that rolls up next to them. I can't really see how Porsche can honestly top what's been rolling out of the factory in terms of raw power and speed. Sure, the 918 and this supposed 961 will be tire burners as well, but the Turbo along with the GT2 have easily filled the void that was left behind with the passing of the 959.However, you would've thought given the passage of 20-odd years the modern equivalent of the 959 would be absolutely earth-shattering. Pity nothing like Group B still exists to drive development like that.
jake15919 said:
ellisd82 said:
Best looking Porsche! even though it doesn't look like a Porsche...
Erm...no.Calling the new car 914 would have been appropriate if the name hadn't already been wasted.
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