Not too long ago, Porsche was planning to build a supercar that would fit nicely between the 911 (their most powerful car) and the old 918 Spyder. People heard rumors that it might have a flat 8 engine and be called 960 (probably to indicate it as the new version of an older model, the 959).
It turns out that these rumors were true! Recently, someone from Porsche confirmed that they had developed a prototype of this very car. It is going to have a mid-engine setup and be powered by a flat 8 engine.
Marcos Marques, who works for Porsche, said in an interview that the car had a 5.0-liter flat-8 engine with 750 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. It could run up to 9,000 rpm and was linked to a manual transmission. Although it isn’t as powerful as the 918 Spyder which has 887 hp and 940 lb-ft coming from a V-8 and three electric motors, he believes it provides a great driving experience.
Porsche made a prototype based on a Cayman, they did some tests while it was on the road, and then stopped the whole project. In an interview, Marques said Porsche decided it ‘wasn’t the right car for the moment’ and that stopping the project like this can happen during engineering.
Our company is all about engineering and finding new ways to solve problems. Even though we don’t know if these solutions will be useful right now, it’s a part of the engineering process.
Recently, Porsche has done something that is pretty cool- they revealed some pretty secret ideas for cars. One of them was a car that looks like a type of race car that won at Le Mans, and the other was called 904 Living Legend which is like a tribute to the old style 904 Carrera GTS from back in the 1960s. That one had an engine with eight cylinders too!
It looks like Porsche is planning on releasing a new car – sometime after 2025 – that will probably be electric!