Porsche Mission R – 13 fast facts

Porsche has delivered one of the hammer blows of the 2021 IAA Munich motorshow with a scalpel-sharp competition concept which offers glimpses of the German manufacturer’s road and race car intent over the coming years.

The full extent of the styling and technological influence will only emerge over the next few months, but we were given an exclusive look below the Mission R’s satin skin and a private tour at its debut.

Porsche GT racing vehicles project manager Matthias Scholz was our host, and revealed a few intriguing details you might not find in the official information or photography.

7

Fast car, close team

Developing the Mission R from inception to show-ready took just 10 months and required an unprecedented union of Porsche teams.

“It was the very first time two extreme departments – the stylists and the Porsche motorsports – are working so close together on one project,” said Scholz.

“We started on the project in November and we had to bring out the car today.”

Racer or road car?

This concept is fully functioning and track ready. So much so, development driver Timo Bernhard actually whipped the car in testing without any bodywork attached to protect its secrecy.

“It’s possible to drive the car and we are holding a driving event in November to show the car on the track. Is it a street car or a race car? In fact, it’s both.

“This is a vision of how a GT race car in the future could be, and for sure you see elements of how maybe a sports car could be as well.”

7

Flat out in reverse

If the Mission R evolves into a production road car it will be the first time a Porsche model started life as a racer and was later repurposed as a road machine.

And a road-going version of the Mission R is not out of the question, with an unknown chunk of the concept confirmed to transition into a production model of some sort.

Platform choose

At its core, the Mission R has a familiar platform, but a production model will use an all-new base that is neither J1 (Taycan) nor PPE (Audi A6 E-Tron) but a third electrified architecture from Porsche and Audi.

“The very first step of the platform is the steel body of the Cayman GT4, but then we changed the front and the rear as well to bring in the motors and the drive shafts,” said Scholz.

If we were betting people, our money would be on the next-generation Cayman and Boxster platform hiding under an evolution of the Mission R concept.

7

Moral fibre

While the Mission R uses extensive carbon-fibre components, the concept also features a significant amount of construction using ‘natural fibre composite’.

While the relatively new material is about 10 per cent heavier than the best carbon composite, it is far more sustainable and has a lower environmental impact.

It’s easy to identify the new material thanks to its lighter grey colour, compared with the black weave of carbon strands.

Green flag?

Porsche is considering a new all-electric one-make series, but only if its customer racing clients are keen. Before the green flag is given, many details need to be finalised or improved – including the current eye-watering price.

“The price would be around a million to do it completely on this level,” said Scholz. “We are planning a workshop together with customers in a couple of weeks and invite them to develop an idea of how customer racing could be with this car.

“We don’t want to copy a current Carrera Cup race, so this could be one part of a future series. It’s not just a car – it’s a lot of things, and [we need to look at] how our one-make series could be in the future with different surfaces like gravel, ice, race track or hill-climb.”

7

Sim city

The Mission R has been imagined to involve and captivate E-sports enthusiasts as well as motorsport fans.

“The race seat is in its own monocoque for safety reasons but it also makes a simulator,” said Scholz. “They have the same seat, the same steering wheel.”

That means owners could practice in a simulator at home which perfectly matches the fit and feel of their car for unrivalled familiarity on race day, as well as offering well-heeled sim-racers the ultimate home rig.

Clear safety advantage

Scholz admitted the concept’s expansive polycarbonate roof will not see a production race version, but it does include some proper competition features nonetheless.

As per modern GT car standards, the clear roof panel includes an emergency escape hatch for a rapid exit in the event of a big stack.

7

Fin detail

The massive rear diffuser is not just for show, but did in fact start out as more of an aesthetic folly. After aerodynamic testing found the fins to be largely ineffective, engineers remade the natural fibre part with large bends – resulting in a significant reduction in rear lift.

Cage fighter

While almost all other race cars need a roll cage retrofitting before competition use, the Mission R has an integrated safety cage as part of its design. The exoskeleton is strong enough to withstand the forces of a crash, but also forms the roof and pillar structures.

As a result, the car stands at just 1.2m tall but there’s still enough room inside to avoid bumping the driver’s crash helmet on the strong carbon bars.

7

Silent running

Like the Mission E project which blindsided everyone at the 2015 Frankfurt show, there wasn’t even a rumour the Mission R was in the pipeline. The design team was kept deliberately small for ease of secrecy and its members were forbidden from talking about details with any Porsche employees not directly involved.

Fresh faced

Porsche’s development team identified that private racers don’t necessarily have a full racing entourage to follow them to each event and many of the less glamorous duties would be handled by the driver.

That’s why the Mission R has its own ventilated helmet drying stand located in the passenger side of the car.

Stunt double

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only a limited number of guests were allowed to attend the reveal of the car in person, but Porsche had about double the number of people to accommodate. To solve the problem, two locations were used for the reveal and a duplicate full-scale model was simultaneously presented at the second venue.

The one you see here though is the real deal.